University of Heidelberg, saw an experimental telegraph of
Professor Moncke, which turned all his thoughts to the subject. On
returning to London he made the acquaintance of Professor
Wheatstone, of King's College, who was also experimenting in this
direction, and in 1836 they took out a patent for a needle
telegraph. It was tried successfully between the Euston terminus
and the Camden Town station of the London and North-Western
Railway on the evening of July 25th, 1837, in presence of Mr.
Robert Stephenson, and other eminent engineers. Wheatstone,
sitting in a small room near the booking-office at Euston, sent
the first message to Cooke at Camden Town, who at once replied.
"Never," said Wheatstone, "did I feel such a tumultuous sensation
before, as when, all alone in the still room, I heard the needles
click, and as I spelled the words I felt all the magnitude of the
invention pronounced to be practicable without cavil or dispute."

The importance of the telegraph in working railways was manifest,
and yet the directors of the company were so purblind as to order
the removal of the apparatus, and it was not until two years later
that the Great Western Railway Company adopted it on their line
from Paddington to West Drayton, and subsequently to Slough. This
was the first telegraph for public use, not merely in England, but
the world. The charge for a message was only a shilling,
nevertheless few persons availed themselves of the new invention,
and it was not until its fame was spread abroad by the clever
capture of a murderer named Tawell that it began to prosper.
Tawell had killed a woman at Slough, and on leaving his victim
took the train for Paddington. The police, apprised of the murder,
telegraphed a description of him to London. The original "five
needle instrument," now in the museum of the Post Office, had a