Details

Papers of John Joseph Fahie

UK0108 SC MSS 009

1863-1918

5 boxes

English.

[1846-1934]. John Joseph Fahie was born in 1846 in Tipperary and educated at the Classical University of Ireland. He attended evening classes 1865-67 where he learnt about magnetism and electricity, while working for the Electric and International Telegraph Company. In 1867 he joined the Indo-European Government Telegraph Department and served at Jask as superintendent of the cable station, Shiraz and Teheran until his retirement from the Department due to ill health in 1897. He developed a system of duplex telegraphy which he operated on the Shiraz-Teheran line, and wrote many articles to the technical press and IEE Journal. In 1874 he donated £100 to the IEE for the establishment of a premium for the best paper written each year dealing with telegraphy and telephony. He was also a keen student of the history of science and concentrated his work on researching the pioneers of inventions such as the electric telegraph, the wireless telegraph and the electric light. In doing so he brought to prominence names which would otherwise have been unknown despite their important contributions to science, including Edward Davy, Henry Staite, William Petrie and D E Hughes. Fahie also did considerable work on Galileo. He published 'A History of Electric Telegraphy to 1837' (1884); 'A History of Wireless Telegraphy 1838-1899' (1899); and two works on Galileo, 'Galileo: his life and work' (1903) and 'A Memorial of Galileo Galilei 1564-1642; Portaits and Paintings, Medals and Medallions, Busts and Statues, Monuments and Mural Inscriptions' (1929) . He was elected and Associate of the IEE in 1873 and a Member in 1877. He died in Broughton in Furness on 12 June 1934, one of the IEE's oldest members.

John Joseph Fahie, Edward Davy

Telegraphy, Wireless telegraphy, Radiocommunication, Lighting, Persian Gulf, India

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