13 Facts About Edward Davy

Edward Davy was an English physician, scientist, and inventor who played a prominent role in the development of telegraphy, and invented an electric relay.

Edward Davy was educated at a school run by his maternal uncle in Tower Street, London.

Edward Davy was then apprenticed to Dr C Wheeler, house surgeon at St Bartholomew's Hospital.

Edward Davy won the prize for botany in 1825, was licensed by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries in 1828 and the Royal College of Surgeons in 1829.

Edward Davy published Outline of a New Plan of Telegraphic Communication in 1836 and carried out telegraphic experiments the following year.

Edward Davy demonstrated the operation of the telegraph over a mile of wire in Regent's Park.

Edward Davy's telegraph was not protected by a patent at this stage, but one was granted in the following year, 1838, despite the objections of Cooke and Wheatstone.

Edward Davy invented a relay which used a magnetic needle which dipped into a mercury contact when an electric current passed through the surrounding coil.

Edward Davy apparently had some thoughts on a wireless telegraphy system.

Edward Davy's marriage broke down shortly after the Regent's Park demonstration and he found himself in litigation with his wife and her creditors.

Edward Davy was editor of the Adelaide Examiner from June to July 1842 and was elected president of the Port Adelaide Mechanics' Institute at its inaugural meeting in 1851.

Edward Davy was a director and manager of the Adelaide Smelting Company and became chief assayer of the Government Assay Office in Adelaide in February 1852.

Edward Davy was appointed assay master in Melbourne in July 1853 until the office was abolished in October 1854.