John Watkins Brett (1805–1863) was an English

telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...

engineer.

Life

Brett was the son of a

cabinetmaker A cabinet is a case or cupboard with shelves and/or drawers for storing or displaying items. Some cabinets are stand alone while others are built in to a wall or are attached to it like a medicine cabinet. Cabinets are typically made of wood (so ...

, William Brett of

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

, and was born in that city in 1805. Brett is known as the founder of submarine telegraphy. He formed the

Submarine Telegraph Company The Submarine Telegraph Company was a British company which laid and operated submarine telegraph cables. Jacob and John Watkins Brett formed the English Channel Submarine Telegraph Company to lay the first cable across the English Channel. An un ...

in conjunction with his younger brother, Jacob Brett. After some years spent in perfecting his plans he sought and obtained permission from

Louis-Philippe Louis Philippe (6 October 1773 – 26 August 1850) was King of the French from 1830 to 1848, and the penultimate monarch of France. As Louis Philippe, Duke of Chartres, he distinguished himself commanding troops during the Revolutionary War ...

in 1847 to establish telegraphic communication between France and England, but the project was deemed too hazardous for general support. However, he was successful in connecting the two nations briefly by undersea cable in 1850. A more durable cable was laid in 1851, and the construction of numerous other submarine lines followed. Brett founded the English and Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company in 1850 which laid the first submarine telegraph cable to Ireland. He was involved in the

transatlantic telegraph cable Transatlantic telegraph cables were undersea cables running under the Atlantic Ocean for telegraph communications. Telegraphy is now an obsolete form of communication, and the cables have long since been decommissioned, but telephone and data a ...

project and was confident that England and America would be linked, but he did not live to see it accomplished. Brett died on 3 December 1863 at the age of 58, and was buried in the family vault in the churchyard of

Westbury-on-Trym Westbury on Trym is a suburb and council ward in the north of the City of Bristol, near the suburbs of Stoke Bishop, Westbury Park, Henleaze, Southmead and Henbury, in the southwest of England. With a village atmosphere, the place is partly na ...

, near Bristol.

Works

Brett published a work of 104 pages, ''On the Origin and Progress of the Oceanic Telegraph, with a few brief facts and opinions of the press'' (London, 1858), and contributed several papers on the same subject to the

Institution of Civil Engineers The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is an independent professional association for civil engineers and a charitable body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters are located in the UK, wh ...

, of which he was a member. A list of these contributions can be found in the index of the 'Proceedings' of the society.

References

External links

* The Moving Fire, a biography of John Watkins Brett https://www.scribd.com/doc/97550953/Moving-Fire-PDF {{DEFAULTSORT:Brett, John Watkins 1805 births 1863 deaths British electrical engineers 19th-century British engineers Telegraph engineers and inventors Engineers from Bristol