HUGHES
,
DAVID EDWARD
(
1831
-
1900
),
physicist and inventor
;
b.
16 May 1831
in
London
(some authorities contend that he was b. in
Green y Ddwyryd
, near
Corwen
), son of
David
Hughes
, originally of
Bala
, afterwards of
London
. Migrating with the family to
Virginia
when seven years old, he was educated at
S. Joseph's College
,
Bardstown
,
Kentucky
. At 19 years of age he was appointed
professor of music at the college
, and the next year was given also the
chair of natural philosophy
. At twenty-one he
invented a printing telegraph
of his own which had features of great ingenuity. In
1854
he resigned his teaching appointments to devote himself entirely to his invention which he completed and patented in
1855
. The following year it was adopted by the
American Telegraph Company
. The instrument was not favourably received when he brought it to
England
in
1857
, so he proceeded to
France
, when it was purchased in
1860
by the
Government
and installed on their lines. Within a few years it was in use all over
Europe
. The instrument brought him fame and laid the foundation of his wealth. He settled in
London
in
1875
but he never abandoned his
American
citizenship. In
1878
he
brought out the microphone
; this simple instrument caused a remarkable sensation at the time. With the aid of a few rusty nails he could make the tread of a house-fly audible to a large audience. He worked on many other subjects with successful results, and was elected
F.R.S.
in
1880
.
For many years towards the end of his life
Hughes
experimented with inductive circuits
, and (without knowing it) generated electromagnetic waves which he was able to detect with his ‘coherer’ at distances of at least 200 yards from the source.
Hughes
was essentially an
experimenter
. He produced sensitive instruments from the most crude objects such as common nails, pill-boxes, and sealing-wax. It was said of him that ‘he thought with his hands.’ He d.
22 Jan. 1900
in
London
. His brother,
Joseph Tudor
Hughes
, is separately noticed.
Bibliography:
-
The Transactions of the Honourable Society
of Cymmrodorion
,
1932-3, 94
;
-
S. Evershed
in
Journal of the Institution of Electrical
Engineers
, 1872 ff
,
1931
, 1245;
-
Nature
,
1900
, 325.
Author:
Edwin Augustine Owen, D.Sc., (1887-1973), Bangor
