Omaha daily bee., 1897-06-06
BRlTAINlS CHIEF ELECTRICIAN
Character Sketch of the Noted Englishman
William Henry Preece.
MARKED FOR KNIeHTHooD AT THE JUBILEE
introduced the Telephone In England
and Built Up the Immense Tele-
graph System of Which
He IL the Head.

Conspicuous among the batch of noted
Englishmen marked for knighthood at the
coming jubilee celebration is William Henry
Preece. Mr. Preece is chief electrician to
the British government. From a comparai
lively humble position in the civil service
he has risen step by step until he is now
the head of the immense English telegraph
system. His fame as a scientific man has
meantime become worldwide. His genial
personality has impressed itself ON the people
of two continents. His books on special
electrical subjects are authoritative. He is,
in fact, a man of many parts. Yet
his term of service to the government
is about to expire by limitation and
he will shortly be retired las partial
recompense for the loss of his position he will
be retired on full pay, and as reward for
his zeal in the general quest for scientihc
truth he will be accorded all the honors OF
knighthood and possibly, as some Of his
friends fondly hope, those of baronetcy.
A COMPOSITE PORTRAIT.
William Henry Preece is one of those rare
EngIishmen who thoroughly appreciate Amer
lea and Americans. There is no trace OF
sycophancy underlying his avowal of this
feeling for he was skeptical enough when
he first visited the United States. 1t Is
sufficient in proof Of the esteem in which he
is held over here to say that on a recent
anniversary, although II was not publicly
announced, he received many kilograms of
congratulation from his friends in this coun-
try Like all men OF great versatility, he is
so to speak, a composite of many character
stics Thus, he is a deeply scientific man
who dearly loves joke, an imaginative
enthusiast and a cautious, painstaking In
vestigator, an athlete and a deep student,
| strict disciplinarian who is loved for hie
kindly disposition, a man of domestic in
cl IN he said foot In
every county in nfIngland several times
year an art lover rand shrewd man OF
affairs, a man Of an essentially retiring dis
position who is IA delightful after-dinner
| speaker. At all events, a man whose char
| acter phases aren many, varied and well
worth studying
| He comes we'll by, his scientific knowledge.
"I remember" he said recently to Herbert
Laws Webb his nephew, we'll known In cleo
| trical circles in this country, "when i was
| IL years old, our family doctor took me to
hear Faraday lecture at the Royal institu-
| tion. / was interested in his subjects
| and so fascinated with the great scientist
himself that begged to be and was allowed
| to attend every leDture Firaday gave during
! the course. At oae of his subsequent lee
| lures / acted Ge Fafaday's assistant, and
| was a constant attendant at all his lectures
| from 1886 to 1883. That was the period of
| his most famous work. | was yet in my
! teens. | recellect one memorable occasion
| when Faraday was studying underground
/ circuits. BY linking together some OF the
wires on the then existing lines he had
! obtained a complete circuit 800 miles long.
| Galyanometers were inserted at each 400
mile length, and the results of the expert
ments attracted great deal OF attention In
| the scientific world Among those present
were Sir George Airy then astronomer
royal and Edwin and Latimer Clark 1t was
my first real introduction to scientists and
| scientific men"
THE GROWTH OF PRODIGY.
| Truly such a baptism was presage OF his
future greatness. He became a scientific
prodigy At 20 years of age he was in charge
| OF the Electric and International Telegraph
! company He occupied the post but a brief
period, when he was appointed superintend-
ent Of the Southern district and OF the
London & Southwestern Railway company.
He was also engineer OF the Channel is-
lands telegraph. Those were the days when
anybody who was anybody might own tele-