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Edward Orange Wildman Whitehouse (1 October 1816 – 26 January 1890) was an English surgeon, better known for his ultimately unsuccessful endeavours as chief electrician of the transatlantic telegraph cable for the Atlantic Telegraph Company. ==Life== Born in Liverpool to a merchant, he qualified as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1840 and established a successful practice in Brighton.〔Hunt (2004)〕 He attended Trinity Grammar School, Kew in 1824. In the 1850s, he conducted experiments that, he held, showed that feared problems with practical data rates on underwater cables would not prohibit a commercial service. Though his claims were disputed by William Thomson (later known as Lord Kelvin), he was an able propagandist for the undertakers of a proposed transatlantic cable.〔 Cyrus West Field recruited Whitehouse as chief electrician to the Atlantic Telegraph Company; Thomson subsequently became scientific advisor, convinced that Whitehouse's theories were wrong but believing him to have the practical skill to make the scheme work.〔 When the cable finally opened for business, it was beset with the problems that Thomson had foreseen. Whitehouse's inadequate apparatus had to be replaced by Thomson's more sensitive mirror galvanometer but Whitehouse then ruined the cable by delivering massive shocks of 2,000 volts in an attempt to rectify the problems. Whitehouse continually maintained that the cable and his equipment were a success. Though he put up a desperate public defence of his conduct and was more than ready to apportion blame among all other parties, an 1861 enquiry concluded that he should bear the majority of the responsibility.〔 It has been argued that the manufacture, storage and handling of the 1858 cable would have led to premature failure in any case.〔http://atlantic-cable.com/Books/Whitehouse/DDC/index.htm History of the Transatlantic Cable – Dr. E.O.W. Whitehouse and the 1858 trans-Atlantic cable, retrieved 2010-04-10〕 Whitehouse was a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons; Licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries; Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society; Associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers; Founding Member of the Society of Telegraphic Engineers (later the IEE, now the IET); and a Member of the Royal Institution, the Royal Meteorological Society, the Physical Society, and the British Association for the Advancement of Science. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Wildman Whitehouse」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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