Needle telegraph

A needle telegraph is an electrical telegraph that uses indicating needles moved electromagnetically as its means of displaying messages. It is one of the two main types of electromagnetic telegraph, the other being the armature system,^[1] as exemplified by the telegraph of Samuel Morse in the United States. Needle telegraphs were widely used in Europe and the British Empire during the nineteenth century.

Needle telegraphs were suggested shortly after Hans Christian Ørsted discovered that electric currents could deflect compass needles in 1820. Pavel Schilling developed a telegraph using needles suspended by threads. This was intended for installation in Russia for government use, but Schilling died in 1837 before it could be implemented. Carl Friedrich Gauss and Wilhelm Eduard Weber built a telegraph that was used for scientific study and communication between university sites. Carl August von Steinheil adapted Gauss and Weber's rather cumbersome apparatus for use on various German railways.

In England, William Fothergill Cooke started building telegraphs, initially based on Schilling's design. With Charles Wheatstone, Cooke produced a much improved design. This was taken up by several railway companies. Cooke's Electric Telegraph Company, formed in 1846, provided the first public telegraph service. The needle telegraphs of the Electric Telegraph Company and their rivals were the standard form of telegraphy for the better part of the nineteenth century in the United Kingdom. They continued in use even after the Morse telegraph became the official standard in the UK in 1870. Some were still in use well in to the twentieth century.