Charles Wheatstone

Charles Wheatstone (1802-75), British physicist and inventor, best known for his work in electricity. Born in Gloucester, he was apprenticed in 1816 to his uncle, a musical-instrument maker in London. In 1823 he inherited the business, and in 1829 he invented the concertina (see Accordion). Self-educated in science, in 1834 he was appointed professor of experimental philosophy at the University of London, and in 1837, with the British electrical engineer Sir William Fothergill Cooke, he patented the first British electric telegraph. The electrical instrument known as the Wheatstone bridge, although invented by the British scientist Samuel Hunter Christie, bears his name because he was the first to apply it for measuring resistance in electric circuits (see Electric Circuit; Electric Meters). Wheatstone also invented (1838) the stereoscope. He was knighted in 1868.