Electric Telegraph Company
The Electric Telegraph Company (ETC) was a British
The ETC had a monopoly of electrical telegraphy until the formation of the
The ETC was heavily involved in laying
Formation
The Electric Telegraph Company was the world's first public
Up to this point telegraph lines had been laid mostly in conjunction with railway companies, and Cooke had been a leading figure in convincing them of its benefits. However, these systems were all for the exclusive use of the railway company concerned, mostly for
The collaboration between Cooke and
Early years
The company was not immediately hugely profitable, and shares were more or less worthless.[11] In 1846 it won a concession from Belgium for telegraph lines covering the whole country. The company installed a line from Brussels to Antwerp but the traffic was light (mainly stock exchange business) and the company decided to return its concession to the Belgian Government in 1850. In 1848, after a dispute with the Great Western over an engine the ETC was alleged to have damaged, the telegraph line from Paddington to Slough was removed, although the railway company continued to use the telegraph at the Box Tunnel.[12]
The setback with the Great Western did not slow the growth of the telegraph along railway lines, and these continued to be the main source of revenue. By 1848 the company had telegraph lines along half of the railway lines then open, some 1,800 miles, and continued to make deals with more railway companies after that. These included in 1851 a new contract with Great Western which was extending its line to Exeter and Plymouth and by 1852 the ETC had installed a line that ran from London, past Slough, as far as Bristol. These contracts usually gave the company exclusive rights to install telegraph lines. This gave the company a significant advantage over competitors when other companies entered the market.[13]
Other areas of growth were in the supply of news to newspapers, and contracts with stock exchanges. However, general use by the public was retarded by the high cost of sending a message.[14] By 1855 this situation was changing. The ETC now had over 5,200 miles of line and sent nearly three-quarters of a million messages that year. The growth, together with competitors coming on to the market, drove down prices. ETC's maximum charge for an inland telegram (over 100 miles) fell from ten shillings in 1851 to four shillings in 1855.[15]
By 1859, growth required the company to relocate its London
Government reserved powers
In the
Competitors
The first competitor to emerge was the
A more serious rival came in 1851 with the formation of the
Other companies came on to the market, but ETC remained by far the largest of them with the Magnetic second. The ETC and the Magnetic so dominated the market that they were virtually a duopoly until nationalisation.[33]
Submarine cables
The Electric Telegraph Company merged with the International Telegraph Company (ITC) in 1854 to become the Electric and International Telegraph Company. The International Telegraph Company had been formed in 1853 for the purpose of establishing a telegraph connection to the
Monarch
The Monarch was the first ship to be permanently fitted out as a cable ship and operated on a full-time basis by a cable company, although the fitting out for the Netherlands cables was considered temporary.[36] She was a paddle steamer built in 1830 at Thornton-on-Tees with a 130 hp engine.[37] She was the first of a series of cable ships named Monarch.[38]
The cable laying equipment of Monarch was a major step forward compared to the unspecialised ships that had previously been used for cable laying, with
Besides the cables to the Netherlands, Monarch laid several cables around Britain in its first year. One of these was a cable across the
A number of improvements were made to Monarch over the years and its gear became the prototype for future cable ships. A cable picking-up machine was soon fitted with a drum that could be driven by both steam engine and manual winching, designed by the company engineer, Frederick Charles Webb. In 1857, draw-off gear was fitted to avoid crew having to hold the cable taught by hand, and water-cooled brakes were fitted in 1863.[41]
The ship was frequently chartered to other companies like the Submarine Telegraph Company and the Magnetic for cable work. The first charter was to
After nationalisation in 1870, Monarch irreparably broke down on her first cable mission for the
Ireland
The chief competitor to the company, the Magnetic, had succeeded in providing the first connection to Ireland in 1853 on the Portpatrick–Donaghadee route.[44] The ETC was keen to establish its own connection. In September 1854 Monarch attempted to lay a lightweight cable from Holyhead in Wales to Howth in Ireland. This attempt was a failure, as had previous attempts on both routes with lightweight cable. In June 1855 Monarch tried again, but this time with a heavier cable made by Newall. This attempt was successful, the cable being to a similar design to the one Newall had made for the successful Magnetic cable.[45]
Another cable was laid to Ireland in 1862, this time from Wexford in Ireland to Abermawr in Wales. The cable was made by Glass, Elliot & Co and laid by Berwick.[46]
Channel Islands
A subsidiary company, the Channel Islands Telegraph Company was formed in 1857 for the purpose of providing telegraph to the Channel Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, and Alderney. The main cable was made by Newall and laid by Elba between Weymouth and Alderney in August 1858. The cable required numerous repairs due to the rocky coast of Alderney and the tidal race between Portland Bill and the Isle of Portland. The main section was finally abandoned as a maintenance liability shortly after September 1860.[47]
Isle of Man
A subsidiary company, the
Nationalisation
The company was nationalised by the British government in 1870 under the
The Electric Telegraph Company formed the largest component of the resulting state monopoly run by the GPO.
Equipment
The primary system initially used by the company was the two-needle and one-needle Cooke and Wheatstone telegraphs. Needle telegraphs continued to be used throughout the company's existence, but
In 1854 the ETC installed a pneumatic tube system between its London central office and the London Stock Exchange using underground pipes. This system was later extended to other major company offices in London. Systems were also installed in Liverpool (1864), Birmingham (1865), and Manchester (1865).[57]
Historical documents
Records of the Electric Telegraph Company (33 volumes), 1846–1872, the International Telegraph Company (5 volumes), 1852–1858 and the Electric and International Telegraph Company (62 volumes), [1852]–1905 are held by BT Archives.
See also
- Time signal § United Kingdom, the ETC was the first to distribute telegraph time signals
References
- ^ Haigh, p. 195
- ^ Bright, p. 246
- ^ Roberts, ch. 4
- ^ Kieve, p. 48
- ^ Kieve, pp. 31–32
- ^ Kieve, pp. 44–45
- ^ Kieve, p. 50
- ^ Kieve, pp. 40–44
- ^ Roberts, ch. 4
- ^ Kieve, p. 24
- ^ Kieve, p. 49
- ^ Kieve, p. 48
- ^ Kieve, pp. 49, 52
- ^ Kieve, p. 49
- ^ Kieve, p. 53
- ^ , retrieved 2023-08-05
- ^ Roberts, ch. 4
- CAMRA, accessed and archived16 February 2019.
- ^ Kieve, p. 50
- ^ Chase, p. 174
- ^ Chase, pp. 298–303
- ^ Kieve, p. 50
- ^ Kieve, p. 50
- ^ Roberts, ch. 4
- ^ Shaffner, p. 296
- ^ Kieve, pp. 50–51
- ^ Beauchamp, p. 77
- ^ Bright, p. 5
- ^ Roberts, ch. 5
- ^ Bright & Bright, pp. 73–74
- ^ Ash, p. 22
- ^ Kieve, p. 52
- ^ Hills, p. 22
- ^ Kieve, p. 52
- ^ Haigh, p. 195
- ^ Haigh, p. 195
- ^ Haigh, p. 196
- ^ Haigh, pp. 204, 206, 211
- ^ Haigh, p. 196
- ^ Haigh, p. 195
- ^ Haigh, p. 197
- ^ Haigh, pp. 196–197
- ^ Haigh, p. 198
- ^ Bright, p. 14
- ^ Haigh, p. 195
- ^ Haigh, p. 196
- ^ Haigh, pp. 195–196
- ^ Haigh, p. 196
- ^ Haigh, p. 198
- ^ Kieve, pp. 149–159, 160
- ^ Beauchamp, p. 74
- ^ Pitt, p. 154
- ^ Welch & Frémond, p. 16
- ^ Welch & Frémond, p. 16
- ^ Walley, p. 219
- ^ Kieve, pp. 81–82
- ^ Kieve, p. 82
Bibliography
- Ash, Stewart, "The development of submarine cables", ch. 1 in, Burnett, Douglas R.; Beckman, Robert; Davenport, Tara M., Submarine Cables: The Handbook of Law and Policy, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2014 ISBN 9789004260320.
- Beauchamp, Ken, History of Telegraphy, Institution of Engineering and Technology, 2001 ISBN 0852967926.
- OCLC 776529627.
- Bright, Edward Brailsford; Bright, Charles, The Life Story of the Late Sir Charles Tilston Bright, Civil Engineer, Cambridge University Press, 2012 ISBN 1108052886(first published 1898).
- Chase, Malcolm, Chartism: A New History, Manchester University Press, 2007 ISBN 9780719060878.
- Haigh, Kenneth Richardson, Cableships and Submarine Cables, Adlard Coles, 1968 OCLC 497380538.
- Hills, Jill, The Struggle for Control of Global Communication,University of Illinois Press, 2002 ISBN 0252027574.
- Kieve, Jeffrey L., The Electric Telegraph: A Social and Economic History, David and Charles, 1973 OCLC 655205099.
- McDonough, John; Egolf, Karen, The Advertising Age Encyclopedia of Advertising,
- Pitt, Douglas C., The Telecommunications Function of the British Post Office, Saxon House, 1980 ISBN 9780566002731.
- Roberts, Steven, Distant Writing, distantwriting.co.uk,
- Shaffner, Taliaferro Preston, The Telegraph Manual, Pudney & Russell, 1859.
- Walley, Wayne, "British Telecom", pp. 218–220 in, Welch, Dick; Frémond, Olivier (eds), The Case-by-case Approach to Privatization, World Bank Publications, 1998 ISBN 9780821341964.
External links
- BT Archives official site Archived 2011-02-19 at the Wayback Machine
- The BT Family Tree Archived 2011-09-06 at the Wayback Machine