Whitehouse’s exact words: “In all honesty, I am bound to answer, that I believe nature knows no such application of that law; and I can only regard it as a fiction of the schools, a forced and violent adaptation of a principle in Physics, good and true under other circumstances, but misapplied here.”
"The object then is to render the telegraphic cable as different as possible in its electric condition to that required for a Leyden jar And as already stated this was found to be best effected by increasing the thickness of the non conducting material employed and by diminishing as much as possible the sectional area and the sur face of the internal conducting wire In the course of a long series of experiments conducted by Mr Whitehouse and Mr Bright of the Magnetic Telegraph Company it was ascertained that as by varying the kind of electricity made use of the speed of transmission could be increased or diminished at pleasure the true solution of the difficulty lay not in increasing the size of the conductors but in the application of a more energetic development of electrical force. With the view of testing the capabilities of electrical currents of this character apparatus was contrived by these gentlemen by means of which an inductive current of great intensity was obtained by a peculiar arrangement in which the coil of the primary currect in connexion with the battery was placed outside the secondary coil so as to allow the latter to come as close as possible to the electro magnet which when excited by the coil of primary wire produced in the secondary coil an induced current of the character required for traversing great lengths of submarine and subterranean conductors so as to produce an effect at the further ends without greater delay than what at present takes place in the transmission of signals through circuits of comparatively small length ordinarily employed for telegraphic purposes. This apparatus was applied successively to various lengths of conductors similar in electrical conditions to those of the Atlantic cable Continuous lengths of telegraphic wire of from 1,000 to 2,000 miles connected to the earth at each extremity were signalled through without difficulty and at a rate producing from 230 to 270 beats per minute of the recording instrument or from 15 to 20 words per minute."
So, Whitehouse was no dummy, and thought he had adequate experimental evidence to discount Thompson, besides the practical applications of undersea cables already in place. Seemingly, empirical evidence had proven Thompson wrong.
It's funny to me that "hit it harder physics" has been with us all along. "MOAR POWER!!!" (zztt!) "Well, back to the drawing board..."
It would be interesting to know why Whitehouse opposed Thompson's theory? What was his fundamental error?
Here's an account of the induction coil used: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Philosophical_Magazine/ZOo10wl7isMC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=telegraph%20Whitehouse&pg=PA544-IA424&printsec=frontcover
Another source of the same account: https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Atlantic_Telegraph/X4R1Ijv8QG8C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=telegraph+Whitehouse&printsec=frontcover
Another account of the experiment mentioned from no other than Samuel Morse, himself.
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Iron/UO43AAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=telegraph+Whitehouse&pg=PA367&printsec=frontcover
Whitehouse’s exact words: “In all honesty, I am bound to answer, that I believe nature knows no such application of that law; and I can only regard it as a fiction of the schools, a forced and violent adaptation of a principle in Physics, good and true under other circumstances, but misapplied here.”
OCR'd from The Engineer, vol. 3 January 1857 p. 82. THis was a year before the cable was completed. https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Engineer/9UtHAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=telegraph+Whitehouse&pg=PA82&printsec=frontcover
"The object then is to render the telegraphic cable as different as possible in its electric condition to that required for a Leyden jar And as already stated this was found to be best effected by increasing the thickness of the non conducting material employed and by diminishing as much as possible the sectional area and the sur face of the internal conducting wire In the course of a long series of experiments conducted by Mr Whitehouse and Mr Bright of the Magnetic Telegraph Company it was ascertained that as by varying the kind of electricity made use of the speed of transmission could be increased or diminished at pleasure the true solution of the difficulty lay not in increasing the size of the conductors but in the application of a more energetic development of electrical force. With the view of testing the capabilities of electrical currents of this character apparatus was contrived by these gentlemen by means of which an inductive current of great intensity was obtained by a peculiar arrangement in which the coil of the primary currect in connexion with the battery was placed outside the secondary coil so as to allow the latter to come as close as possible to the electro magnet which when excited by the coil of primary wire produced in the secondary coil an induced current of the character required for traversing great lengths of submarine and subterranean conductors so as to produce an effect at the further ends without greater delay than what at present takes place in the transmission of signals through circuits of comparatively small length ordinarily employed for telegraphic purposes. This apparatus was applied successively to various lengths of conductors similar in electrical conditions to those of the Atlantic cable Continuous lengths of telegraphic wire of from 1,000 to 2,000 miles connected to the earth at each extremity were signalled through without difficulty and at a rate producing from 230 to 270 beats per minute of the recording instrument or from 15 to 20 words per minute."
So, Whitehouse was no dummy, and thought he had adequate experimental evidence to discount Thompson, besides the practical applications of undersea cables already in place. Seemingly, empirical evidence had proven Thompson wrong.