The King's invention used to catch a killer

This began with one of the earliest forms of information technology – the electric telegraph, invented by Professor Charles Wheatstone, who taught and researched at King's from 1834 - 1875.

Above: Portrait of Charles Wheatstone.

However, his device came to unforeseen use early in it's life - catching a murderer in the act.

Murder most foul

Wheatstone’s electric telegraph consisted of a receiver with five needles which could be moved by electromagnetic coils to point to the letters of the alphabet on a diamond-shaped board in order to pick up messages. It was originally designed to improve safety on the railways but it caught the Victorian public's imagination.

On 1 January 1845, Sarah Hart was discovered dead in her cottage, poisoned by hydrogen cyanide. Witnesses noted that they'd seen a man exit the house shortly before her death, and police followed the trail to Slough station, realising he'd caught a train.

By chance, the station had newly installed a telegraph machine, which the officers were able to use to send the description of the man ahead to Paddington station, where a plain-clothed officer tailed him until the arrest the following morning.

The man turned out to be John Tawell, a man with a murky criminal history that sensationalised Victorian audiences. 

As the first time an arrest occurred as a result of telecommunications technology, the telegraph gained huge publicity. The case highlighted the benefits of rapid communications, and helped to ensure the telegraph's subsequent commercial success

Ground-breaking research

In 1857 Wheatstone introduced the first paper tapes as a medium for storing and transmitting data, using two rows of holes to represent dots and dashes. 

Wheatstone’s invention was only the beginning of King’s proud history of ground-breaking research in telecommunications, with James Clerk Maxwell, Sir Owen Richardson and Sir Edward Appleton also making their mark.

In 1926 Appleton made a major contribution to round-the-world broadcasting through his discovery of the Appleton layer of the atmosphere, 150 miles above ground, which reflects short waves around the earth. In the 1930s he also helped to develop radar: Britain’s secret weapon in World War II. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1947.

Today, King’s academics are at the forefront of cutting-edge research into 5G technology, demonstrating it's potential uses in disaster areas for providing equipment, medicine, water and blood in difficult to reach places.