Hughes

retired from the service and took up his resi-
dence in Baltimore, where he died in 1849.

Christopher Hughes was in the diplomatic
service for over thirty years, and his success in
his career was greatly due to his good-humored
wit and social qualities. Although he never held
higher rank than that of charge d'affaires, he won
for himself at all his posts a unique place in the
inner circle of social and diplomatic life. Henry
Clay declared that while he was secretary of
state, Hughes sent him more news and more im-
portant news than all the other diplomatic agents
put together (Clay to Gallatin, MSS., Depart-
ment of State, Netherlands, vol. VIII). Collect-
ing and forwarding news was an important part
of his service, and many volumes of his long,
rambling, humorous letters now lie in the ar-
chives of the Department of State. His more
serious qualities are described by John Quincy
Adams (Adams to Samuel Smith; MSS*, De-
partment of State, Netherlands, vol. VIII) as
"quick observation and accurate judgment, great
facility and great assiduity in the transaction of
business and an entire devotion to the interests
of his country."

[This article is based chiefly on unpublished letters
in the Department of State and in the Library of
Congress. A few of Hughes's letters and frequent men-
tion of him occur in published memoirs of the period,
English as well as American; see especially Memoirs
of John Quincy Adams (12 vols., 1874-77); Writings of
John Quincy Adams (7 vols., 1913-17) ; J. Bagot, Geo.
Canning and His Friends (1909), vol. II; The Speeches
of the Rt. Hon. George Canning , , , and Christopher
Hughes, Esq. (London, 1823). See also H. M. Wris-
ton, Exec. Agents in Am. For. Relations (1929); Let-
ter of Miss Margaret Smith Hughes to Her Father
(Baltimore, 1845); Md. Hist. Mag., June 1913, June
1915; "Between the Acts at Ghent," Va. Quart. Rev.,
Jan. 1929; "Christopher Hughes," Baltimore Sun, Jan*
13* 19^9; Baltimore Patriot and Commercial Gazette,
Sept 18, 1840.] E.S.W.

HUGHES, DAVID EDWARD (May 16,
i83i-Jan. 22,1900), inventor, was born in Lon-
don, England, of Welsh stock, the son of David
Hughes. When he was seven years old his par-
ents came to the United States and settled in
Virginia. There he received his primary educa-
tion, but in his teens he entered a school in Bards-
town, Ky., where he specialized in music and
after his graduation at the age of nineteen taught
music and natural philosophy. Soon tuning forks
and synchronism led him into telegraphic ex-
perimentation which, in turn, suggested ideas on
telegraphic printing. By 1853 he had become so
engrossed in these researches that he gave up his
teaching and settled in Bowling Green, Ky.,
where he could continue his experiments with-
out interruption. For bread and butter he gave
private music lessons. Two years later, still at
work with his problem, he was discovered by D.

Hughes

H. Craig, general agent of the Associated Press
and manager of the Commercial Printing Tele-
graph Company owned by the Associated Press.
Although the Commercial Company already con-
trolled the printing telegraph patents of Royal
Earl House [g.r.], inventor of the first practical
printing telegraph, Craig was quick to realize
the superiority of Hughes's ideas and induced
him to go to New York. There on Nov. i, 1855,
Hughes sold his uncompleted device to the Com-
pany for $100,000 furnished by Peter Cooper
[?.#.]. The following year he perfected his in-
strument and was granted patent no. 14,917, on
May 20, 1856. Meanwhile the American Tele-
graph Company was organized by Cyrus Field
[q.v.] and Peter Cooper, who purchased the Com-
mercial Company. Hughes was taken into the
new organization and his instruments subse-
quently were placed on its lines. Thus the two
practical printing telegraph systems (House and
Hughes) came under the control of one concern.
Both had many imperfections, but through the
able work of George M. Phelps the best features
of each were joined into an instrument used in
the United States for many years. To introduce
his system abroad, Hughes went to England in
1857. Being unsuccessful there after three years'
effort, he proceeded to France in 1860 and suc-
ceeded in having the system adopted by the
French government after a year's trial* In quick
order between 1862 and 1869 all the major Eu-
ropean countries adopted the Hughes printing
telegraph and conferred honors upon the inven-
tor. During these years and for some time there-
after, Hughes resided in Paris, but in 1877 he
settled in London and thenceforth devoted most
of his time to further experimental work in elec-
tricity and magnetism, publishing some of his
findings in the Proceedings of the Royal Society
of London, and in the Comptes Rendus . . . de
I'Acvdtmie des Sciences, Paris, Abroad, Hughes
is considered the inventor of the microphone
(1878), and the induction balance (1879). Be-
tween 1879 and 1885 he conducted many experi-
ments in aerial telegraphy, but he made no pub-
lic announcements; nevertheless, from his letters
and from intimate knowledge of his work many
authorities consider him to have been far ahead
of his time even in this field. Besides the gov-
ernmental honors which he received, Hughes
was successively a fellow and vice-president of
the Royal Society; and president of the Insti-
tution of Electrical Engineers, London. He re-
ceived the Royal Society's gold medal for
"experimental research in electricity and mag-
netism" and the Society of Arts conferred the
Albert Medal on him in 1897 "for his numerous

347