Electric Telegraph Company (1846)
In August 1846 the Electric Telegraph Company was formed solely in conjunction with Cooke and John Lewis Ricardo, the other key principal, with the company paying Wheatstone £120,000 for Cooke and Wheatstone's earlier patents.
Cooke later tried to obtain an extension of the original patents, but the judicial committee of the Privy Council decided that Cooke and Wheatstone had been sufficiently remunerated. The Albert gold medal of the Society of Arts was awarded on equal terms to Cooke and Wheatstone in 1867; and two years later Cooke was knighted by Queen Victoria, Wheatstone having had the same honor conferred upon him the year before. William Fothergill Cooke was bestowed this honour for his service to telegraphy. The Cooke journal of recent discovery in the latter part of the 20th century represents the earliest full record of this service extant.
A civil list pension was granted to Cooke in 1871. He died on 25 June 1879.
Read more about this topic: William Fothergill Cooke
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