Background
Hughes was born in London, England, in 1831. He was of Welsh stock, the son of David Hughes. When he was seven years old his parents came to the United States and settled in Virginia.
Hughes was born in London, England, in 1831. He was of Welsh stock, the son of David Hughes. When he was seven years old his parents came to the United States and settled in Virginia.
In Virginia he received his primary education, but in his teens he entered a school in Bardstown, Ky. , where he specialized in music.
After his graduation at the age of nineteen he taught music and natural philosophy. Soon tuning forks and synchronism led him into telegraphic experimentation which, in turn, suggested ideas on telegraphic printing. By 1853 he had become so engrossed in these researches that he gave up his teaching and settled in Bowling Green, Ky. , where he could continue his experiments without interruption. For bread and butter he gave private music lessons.
Two years later, still at work with his problem, he was discovered by D. H. Craig, general agent of the Associated Press and manager of the Commercial Printing Telegraph Company owned by the Associated Press. Although the Commercial Company already controlled the printing telegraph patents of Royal Earl House, inventor of the first practical printing telegraph, Craig was quick to realize the superiority of Hughes's ideas and induced him to go to New York. There on November 1, 1855, Hughes sold his uncompleted device to the Company for $100, 000 furnished by Peter Cooper. The following year he perfected his instrument and was granted patent no. 14, 917, on May 20, 1856.
Meanwhile the American Telegraph Company was organized by Cyrus Field and Peter Cooper, who purchased the Commercial Company. Hughes was taken into the new organization and his instruments subsequently were placed on its lines. Thus the two practical printing telegraph systems (House and Hughes) came under the control of one concern. Both had many imperfections, but through the able work of George M. Phelps the best features of each were joined into an instrument used in the United States for many years.
To introduce his system abroad, Hughes went to England in 1857. Being unsuccessful there after three years' effort, he proceeded to France in 1860 and succeeded in having the system adopted by the French government after a year's trial. In quick order between 1862 and 1869 all the major European countries adopted the Hughes printing telegraph and conferred honors upon the inventor. During these years and for some time thereafter, Hughes resided in Paris, but in 1877 he settled in London and thenceforth devoted most of his time to further experimental work in electricity and magnetism, publishing some of his findings in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, and in the Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences, Paris.
Abroad, Hughes is considered the inventor of the microphone (1878), and the induction balance (1879). Between 1879 and 1885 he conducted many experiments in aerial telegraphy, but he made no public announcements; nevertheless, from his letters and from intimate knowledge of his work many authorities consider him to have been far ahead of his time even in this field. He died in London and was buried there.
Hughes was successively a fellow and vice-president of the Royal Society; and president of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, London.
Hughes married Anna Chadbourne of London who survived him.