Wow! Big thanks! What an interesting guy, this T.W.C. Edwards. After reading your post, I went out in search of more information on the Auticatelephor. Edwards and his mysterious (and never realized?) invention are mentioned in a few publications. It seems that the Auticatelephor was a kind of (but not exactly) pneumatic telegraph, promising to send and receive massages at long distances instantaneously. Basically, our dude was trying to create the internet (submersible cables crossing lands)! I guess our mysterious friend would love to create a Greek and Latin discussion forum (“a source of rational recreation and amusement to noblemen or gentlemen”)…
On A History of Wireless Telegraphy: including some bare-wire proposals for subaqueous telegraphs (by J.J. Fahie, 1901, in https://www.worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/History/A-History-of-Wireless-Telegraphy-Fahie-1901-HOB.pdf), we can read on pages 9–10:
“We have received several papers descriptive of a new and curious engine, with the above name, invented by Mr T. W. C. Edwards, Lecturer on Experimental Philosophy and Chemistry, and designed for the instantaneous conveyance of intelligence to any distance. After noticing some of the greatest inventions of preceding times, Mr Edwards undertakes to demonstrate clearly and briefly, in the work which he has now in the press,(1) the practicability and facility of transmitting from London, > instantaneously> , to an agent at Edinburgh, Dublin, Paris, Vienna, St Petersburg, Constantinople, the Cape of Good Hope, Madras, Calcutta, &c., any question or message whatever, and of receiving back again at London, within the short space of one minute, an acknowledgment of the arrival of such question or message at the place intended, and a distinct answer to it in a few minutes. In principle this engine is altogether different from every kind of telegraph or semaphore, and requires neither intermediate station nor repetition. In its action it is totally unconnected with electricity, magnetism, galvanism, or any other subtle species of matter; and although the communication from place to place is instantaneous, and capable of ringing a bell, firing a gun, or hoisting a flag if required, yet this is not effected by the transit of anything whatever to and fro; nor in the operation is aught either audible or visible, except to the persons communicating. It may be proper, however, to state that a channel or way must previously be prepared, by sinking a series of rods of a peculiar description in the ground, or dropping them in the sea ; but these, after the first cost, will remain good for ages to come, if substantial when laid down.”(2)
From the concluding words of this paragraph it would seem that the Auticatelephor was simply an application to telegraphy of pneumatic or hydraulic pressure in pipes cautiously styled “rods of a peculiar description.” On this supposition the last sentence may be paraphrased thus: “It may be proper, however, to state that a channel or way must previously be prepared, by laying down a continuous series of hollow rods or tubes under the ground or along the sea-bottom.” If our supposition be correct, and if Edwards contemplated the use of compressed air, his proposal was certainly novel; but if he designed the use of compressed water, the idea was by no means new. Without going back to the old Roman plan of Æneas Tacticus, we have its revival by Brent and others towards the close of the last century, and the still more practical arrangements of Joseph Bramah in 1796, of Vallance in 1825, and of Jobard in 1827.
(1) In 1883 we searched for this book in vain. Under the name T. W. C. Edwards we found in the British Museum Catalogue no less than twenty entries of translations from Greek authors, and of Greek and Latin grammars, &c.; but nothing to show that the writer was either a natural philosopher or a chemist.
(2) See also the “Mechanics’ Magazine”, vol. xiii., First Series, p. 182.
It seems that this invention caused some stir among fellow inventors (page 8).
I’ve found two (perhaps complete) transcriptions of his “Prospectus of a new and curious Work, entitled a Developement of the Principle and Structure of the Auticatelephor; an Engine for the Instantaneous Conveyance of Intelligence to any Distance. By the Inventer, T. W. C. Edwards, M.A., Lecturer on Experimental Philosophy and Chemistry”, a summary presentation of his invention for publicity in papers, I believe:
INSTANTANEOUS CONVEYANCE OF INTELLIGENCE.
THE following is the “Prospectus of a new and curious Work, entitled a Developement of the Principle and Structure of the Auticatelephor; an Engine for the Instantaneous Conveyance of Intelligence to any Distance. -By the Inventer, T. W. C. Edwards, M.A., Lecturer on Experimental Philosophy and Chemistry.”
“When it is considered,” says Mr. Edwards, "that sound travels only 1,142 feet in a second, or about thirteen miles in a minute; and that the greatest velocity of a cannon-ball has never exceeded 4,000 feet per second; and that light, the fleetest of all things known, requires nearly seven minutes and a half to speed its way from the sun to the earth: few persons will believe it possible for man to have discovered a means of holding, at the distance of hundreds or even thousands of miles, and across the sea, converse with a friend, in the most perfect manner, and on any subject whatever, instantaneously, either by day or night.
"But, before the discovery of the properties of the load-stone, who could have believed that a needle should one day be the seaman’s unerring guide, in all sorts of weather, and even the darkest night, to regions the most remote; and over seas that scarcely own a shore? Or who, before the invention of gunpowder, would have ever believed it possible for man to throw a sixty-four pound shot, or a shell weighing two hundred weight, to the distance of a mile and upwards in a few seconds? Who, before the expansive force of steam was proved, could have believed that the vapour of water should ever give a rapid and continued motion to machinery which the combined strength of more than 100 horses could not stir? Or who, even half a century ago, would have deemed it possible for a human being to have ascended 10,000 feet into the air, and after soaring for an hour above the clouds, to have alighted, in perfect safety, fifty miles from the place of his ascent? Yet all these things have been done, and we no longer wonder at the effect. The public ought not, therefore, to look with too much severity upon a project, though apparently impracticable; but should rather encourage a spirit of laudable research.
"The inventer of the Auticatelephor undertakes to demonstrate clearly and briefly in the work which he has now in the press, the practicability and facility of transmitting from London, instantaneously, to an agent at Edinburgh, Dublin, Paris, Vienna, St. Petersburg, Constantinople, the Cape of Good Hope, Madras, Calcutta, &c. any question or message whatever; and of receiving back again at London, within the short space of one minute, an acknowledgment of the arrival of such question or message at the place intended; and a distinct answer to it in a few minutes.
"In principle this engine is altogether different from every kind of telegraph or semaphor, and requires neither intermediate station nor repetition. In its action it is totally unconnected with electricity, magnetism, galvanism, or any other subtle species of matter; and, although the communication from place to place is instantaneous, and capable of ringing a bell, firing a gun, or hoisting a flag, if required, yet this is not effected by the transit of any thing whatever to or fro—nor in the operation, is aught either audible or visible except to the persons communicating. It may be proper, however, to state, that a channel or way must previously be prepared, by sinking a series of rods of a peculiar description in the ground, or dropping them in the sea; but these, after the first cost, will remain good for ages to come, if substantial when laid down.
"It is right to apprize the public, that the inventer has explained (in confidence) the secret of his invention to several very scientific men, and as competent as any to judge of its merits: among others, the Vice-President of the Royal Society; the Professor of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy in the University of London; and the President of the Mechanics’ Institution. He had previously made an offer on the subject to His Majesty’s vernment, but without acceptance. His wish is, therefore, to place on record the era of the first application of a well-known principle, to a new and truly curious purpose, in a full developement of the means and method of communicating, instantaneously, with a friend at any distance whatever, from a few yards to 10,000 miles or upwards.
“On a small scale, the Auticatelephor cannot fail to be a source of rational recreation and amusement to noblemen or gentlemen, living at short distances from one another, and disposed to converse together through the medium of a truly elegant and novel invention.”
It is a pity so notable a discovery should remain secret for want of adequate patronage, and we hope this notice may have some effect in increasing the list of subscribers. Mr. Edwards’s address is “Homerton, Middlesex.”*
*Editor of the Mechanics’ Magazine.