[ Electric Telegraph patents, 1874. ] Manuscript Memorandum of Agreement between Rev. Henry Highton and William Henry Allcard and George F. Smith.

6 + [1] pp., folio. On two bifoliums stitched together with black thread. Laid out in the customary legal style, with embossed tax stamp. Unsigned. The agreement is 'Between The Reverend Henry Highton of the Cedars, Putney, in the County of Surrey, Clerk, (hereinafter referred to as 'the Patentee') of the one part and William Henry Allcard of New Burlington Street in the County of Middlesex, Esquire, and George Frederick Smith of Golden Square in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, of the other part'. The document contains four long 'mutually agreed' resolutions between Highton ('the Patentee') and Allcard and Smith ('the Co-owners') involving financial and business arrangements, and ends with a 'Schedule' listing seven patents by Highton. In 1872 Allcard and Smith had become 'the Co-owners' with Henry Labouchere, and were projecting 'a Company to be called The Light Cable Telegraph Company Limited'. They now intend to set up another company, to be called 'The Highton Patent Company Limited'. Of Highton the document states: '[...] the Patentee was engaged in certain investigations and in making experiments with the view of establishing an improved method of Telegraphic Communication and had already made discoveries which it was considered would be especially valuable in their application to Submarine Lines'. According to Highton' s entry in the Oxford DNB he 'conducted a number of practical experiments in the application of electricity to telegraphy. [...] By the early 1870s he believed the sensitivity of the instrument would enable it to allow transatlantic communication along uninsulated underwater wires [...] His 1872 paper on the subject was well received, and the Society of Arts presented him with their silver medal for it.'