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intelligence, which have been tried and exhibited from time to time, during many years, by various philosophers. Struck with the vast importance of an instantaneous mode of communication, to the railways then extending themselves over Great Britain, as well as to government and general purposes, and impressed with a strong conviction that so great an object might be practically attained by means of electricity, Mr. Cooke immediately directed his attention to the adaptation of electricity to a practical system of Telegraphing; and, giving up the profession in which he was engaged, he, from that hour, devoted himself exclusively to the realization of that object. He came to England in April, 1836, to perfect his plans and instruments. In February, 1837, while engaged in completing a set of instruments for an intended experimental application of his Telegraph to a tunnel on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, he became acquainted, through the introduction of Dr. Roget, with Professor Wheatstone, who had for several years given much attention to the subject of transmitting intelligence by electricity, and had made several discoveries of the highest importance connected with this subject. Among these were his well-known
