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The Electric Motor, the Telegraph, and Joseph Henry's Theory of Technological Progress

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The Electric Motor, the Telegraph, and Joseph Henry's Theory of Technological Progress PROCEEDINGSIEEE, OF THE VOL. 64, NO. 9, SEPTEMBER1273 1976 At the time of this experiment, Franklin’s period of concen- tal contributions had ended. trated electrical work had already come to a close. Already On the other hand, electricity did not desert him. When he closely involved in a number of civic activities, he was elected went on his extended diplomatic missions to England and then a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly in 175 1. This might France,he could walk into scientific circles as arespected be considered the formal beginning of his extremely active peer, who had helped unlock fundamental natural mysteries. political and diplomatic career. And he could walk among more ordinary folk as a hero who However, he did not desert electricity completely. He con- had tamed lightning.Clearly, such a reputation couy be of tinued an active correspondence on the subject, served on a assistance in his diplomatic maneuverings. And thus it would RoyalSociety lightning-rod committee, encouraged Joseph not be too far fetched to say that Franklin’s electrical investi- Priestley and others in theirinvestigations, and even performed gations played a more than casual role in the successful com- occasional experiments himself. But the era of his fundamen- pletion of the American Revolution. The Electric Motor, the Telegraph, and Joseph Henry‘s Theory of Technological Progress ARTHUR P. MOLELLA Abstmer-Joseph Henry (1797-1878), Awricr’s fmost electrid of basic principles, but in no case a finished piece of hardware. phw of the early nineteenth centmy, stood at the center of the However intended, the prototypes still captured the attention dealoping sdence md techndogy of the newly discovered electric of inventors and mechanics whose electrical devices have be- wrrent. ‘Ibe electromrgnetic te4-h and the bottery-powed mobr weretwokdbgtechndogialeffortsoftheperiod Altho~~&Henry comepart of thehistory of the technology. Obscuring ch<wenotto~mtherturlirrveatiwproass,hedoae~fdlowed Henry’s contribution were long-standing prioritydisputes the devebpment of both dsrricea While he rUny supported the work involving both inventions,particularly the telegraph. More- on the -h, eqwidly S.F.B. Mom’s experiments, he stood op over, Henry was an outspoken skeptic of the prospects of one posed to the battery-powered motor on the pounds of impracticality. of these technologies. Until the end of his career, he went He strted hviews forcefully to the numouo inventors who sought on his expert advice on electdcity. This paper explores the mns for record against the development of the battery-powered motor Henry’s contnsting opinions of the telegnph and the motor. Under as apractical source of power. Hewas considerablymore lying these opinions was a set of rsspmptbns about the progregl of sanguine aboutthe telegraph.Toward these twoconcurrent techwlogyanditsproperrdrtionstosdentiticlmowied~mdlhecur areas of electrical technology, Henry took sharply contrasting rent needs of society. views. Thepurpose of this paper is not to settleonce and I for all Henry’s disputed contribution to the development of these two inventions. Rather his contrasting opinions toward LTHOUGH DEDICATED to basic scientific investigation them provide an opportunity for considering his general atti- of electromagnetism, Joseph Henryhad distinct roles tudestoward electricaltechnology. Although differing, his A in two leading areas of early nineteenth-century electri- conceptions of themotor and telegraphflowed from a co- cal technology:the attempts to developa battery-powered herentset of convictions about the progress of technology, motor and the electromagnetic telegraph. As America’s fore- itsrelations to science, and finally itsconnections with most electrical physicist of that period, his involvement is not society. Each of these aspects of Henry’s viewswill be con- surprising. But his roles remain clouded, primarily for reasons sidered here. Since Henry both reflectedand influenced the stemming from his self-conscious identification as a scientist beliefs of his day, since beliefs often affect actions, and since and not as an electrical inventor or the early equivalent of an men of practice looked to Henry for advice or submitted their electrical engineer. Forboth the motor and the telegraph, devices to his judgment, these ideas takeon historical Henry built “philosophical” prototypes for the demonstration importance. Manuscript received January 2, 1976. This work wassupported by I1 the National Endowment for the Humanities The author is with theSmithsonian Institution, Washington, DC It would be very surprising if Henry were unconcerned with 20560. the new technology centeredon the electrical current and 1274 SEPTEMBER IEEE,PROCEEDINGS OF THE 1976 electromagnetism, the chief electrical discoveries of the early ably, sometimes painfully,moralistic. Above all, theera of nineteenthcentury. Electrical science andelectrical tech- electrical euphoria demanded clear attentionto moralcon- nology blossomed together in this period, with continual cross- siderations. The high expectationsleft societyparticularly fertilization between them. In the literature of the day, there vulnerable to charlatans,commercial schemers, and well- was no clear-cut separationbetween scientific and applied meaning, but naive enthusiasts promising everything from the topics. Each scientific discovery aroused immediate expecta- new power.Henry called for calm and areasoned attention tions of utility, and, in turn, inventive activity channeled and to whatscience deemed possible. Theseconsiderations are heightened interest in related areas of the science. Excitement what led Henry to assume different stances toward the motor accompanied every discovery in electromagnetism, theoretical and telegraph technologies now under consideration. or practical. The technologicalfascination presents no mys- Nowhere was Henry’s scientific caution more evident than tery. The electric current with its attendant magnetic forces in his opinion of electricity as a moving power. His concerns was one of the most impressive new powers ever to come in in this area first surfaced in an 1831 article, “On a Recipro- viewof science. Its energies lay inthe immediate grasp of catingMotion Produced by Magnetic Attractionand Repul- man. It was also a more consistentand tractable force than sion,”6 describing a simple electromagnetic motor based on the powerful but often uncontrollable static charges studied a rocking energized iron bar. The device was presented as no by eighteenth-century electricians. more than a philosophical toy demonstrating a way of rapidly In the 1830’s, the decade of Henry’s most active research, reversing the poles of an electromagnetby a simple com- interest in electromagnetictechnology had, as one scholar mutator. At the time Henryoffered the prospect of utility, has put it, reached a level of euphoria in bothEurope and conjecturing that “in the progress of discovery and invention, America.’ Investigation was especially intenseand special- it is not impossible that the same principle . may hereafter ized journals devoted to the new phenomena proliferated with be applied to some useful purpose.” He lateradded minor no sharp distinctions between the useful and the theoretical. improvements to what has been described as “the first clear- The kind of experimental research pursued by Henry was most cut instance of a motor capable of further mechanical develop- relevant to the technological expectations. As much as any ment.” As Henryknew, the possibility of an electric motor other scientist of these early decades, he brought out the vast held afascination for a number of contemporary scientists, capabilities of the new forms of electricity and magnetism. including William Sturgeon, William Ritchie,and M. H. von His electromagnets were by far the strongest in existence. His Jacobi, all of whom experimented with early devices.’ impressively large induction coils drew the strongest sparks. But within a few years Henry had clearly changed his mind His high voltage “intensity” circuits carried electricityun- and was seriously doubting the practicality of further applica- precedented distances. It tookno special perception to see tion with available battery sources. Laboratory work had that Henry had much to offer technology. This Henry recog- already familiarized him with the unreliability and expense of nized as well as anybody. galvanic batteries.These deficiencies were accentuated in Amid the contemporary euphoria for electricity, Henry de- comparisonwith competingpower technologies. Improve- fined a particular role for himself as well as a course for the ments in the steamengine and the advent of railroad construc- new electricaltechnology. Although always fascinatedwith tion and steamlocomotives no doubt dramatized for Henry technology in any form, he saw himself as a discoverer not an and his contemporariesthe immense advantage of steam applier of knowledge. Early in his career he had made a deci- power.Calculations were soon made alongthese lines. The sion not to indulge in practical invention, much less in the zinc needed for a given amount of galvanic power was found commercial exploitation of his discoveries.2 Such was his to be much more expensive than the coal and water needed image of the committed scientific discoverer, for which there for the equivalent in steam. This judgment convinced Henry were ample contemporary modal^.^ Coupled with thiscon- to forego further improvement of his own device. As early as
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