, microphone, and stereoscope, to aid in the installation of wires for the telegraph. He proposed to lay lines across the Thames and on the London and Birmingham Railway. Following his completion of the automatic telegraph in 1868, Wheatstone was knighted. With more than thirty-four distinctions and diplomas to his name, he became a much respected man in society. Telephones and the entire telephone answering service industry would not exist if it were not for the work of Sir Charles Wheatstone.