Natural Philosophy Collection

Print of James Bowman Lindsay

I doubt whether many Dundonians are familiar with the commemorative granite obelisk erected in their city to James Bowman Lindsay, a teacher there in the first half of the nineteenth century who could have been famous for his work on electric lighting, electric telegraphy or philology. His creative and visionary efforts were sparks before their time, tinder to damp kindling. In 1835 he succeeded in obtaining a constant electric light (more than 40 years before the Edison and Swan patents) by which he wrote a letter to the Dundee Advertiser in October of that year, accurately outlining some of the impact on society that would be brought about by electric lighting, electric power and electric telegraphy. Penury and an obsession for compiling his "Pentecostaglossal Dictionary" seem to have diverted his attention from developing the light any further. His Dictionary, on which he worked devotedly for well over a quarter of a century, gave synonyms in 50 languages found across the globe. The unfinished manuscript was given to Dundee Free Library sometime after his death in 1862. In 1845 he made feasible suggestions that a transatlantic telegraph could be constructed using a single copper wire with 'earth' return path through the ocean (some 10 years before serious thought was given to an intercontinental telegraph cable). In succeeding years he attempted to develop a wireless telegraphy, using the conductivity of river or sea water to transmit the messages. In 1859 he lectured to the British Association at Aberdeen "On Telegraphing Without Wires", which drew commendations from Faraday himself and other leading scientists at the meeting. The lecture was followed by a successful demonstration of telegraphy without wires across the River Dee. The demonstration that wires may be dispensed with could have been seminal, but unfortunately his method did not lie on the evolutionary path to Marconi's wireless telegraphy (conceived in the 1890s) and James Bowman Lindsay's name slid from public view as developments took a different turn.

John S. Reid