First arrest as a result of telecommunications

On 1 January 1845 John Tawell (1784–1845) travelled to Salt Hill, near Slough, UK, and poisoned his mistress Sarah Hart (born Lawrence) with a treatment for varicose veins called Scheele’s Prussic Acid. On leaving the scene, he was spotted by a neighbour, who had heard Sarah’s screams and cries for help. John made it back to Slough station, where he boarded the 7:42 p.m. train to London Paddington. Both Slough and Paddington stations on the Great Western Railway had been fitted with a Cooke-Wheatstone two-needle telegraph system. Sarah Hart’s neighbour raised the alarm with the local vicar, who asked the Station Master at Slough to alert the police at Paddington by means of the electric telegraph. At Paddington Station, Sergeant William Williams was handed the message and arrested John, who was subsequently convicted and hanged at 8 a.m. on Friday, 28 March 1845. From that day, John Tawell became known as “The Man Hanged by the Electric Telegraph”. In 1987 the two telegraph instruments used in the John Tawell story were presented by their maker, Reid Brothers, to the Science Museum in London, where they have been preserved.