Submarine Telegraph Company
The Submarine Telegraph Company was a British company which laid and operated
The Bretts formed a new company, the Submarine Telegraph Company, and laid a new cable in 1851. This cable had multiple conductors and iron wire armouring. Telegraph communication with France was established for the first time in October of that year. This was the first undersea telegraph cable to be put in service anywhere in the world.
The Company continued to lay, and operate, more cables between England and the Continent until they were nationalised in 1890. Through a series of mergers they ultimately became part of Cable and Wireless (CW). The Times commemorated the 50th anniversary of the cable in 1900; CW and the Science Museum, London did the same on the 100th anniversary in 1950.
History
In 1847, the Bretts obtained a concession from the French government to lay and operate a submarine telegraph cable across the Channel. The concession lapsed without anything being achieved.
In the same year, the Bretts had the Channel concession renewed for ten years, but only on condition that communication was established by September 1850. The English Channel Submarine Telegraph Company was formed to carry out this task. The
Winding the cable onto the drum took some time. The individual lengths were retested in water at Dover quayside and repaired as necessary before joining on the drum. Unattended cable suffered from the attentions of souvenir hunters who cut off pieces, or stripped the insulation to confirm to themselves that there was copper inside. It was difficult to wind the cable evenly on the drum because the joints caused bulges and because the manufacturing process did not produce perfectly regular cable. Cotton packing and wooden slats were used to smooth out the unevenness, slowing the process even further.[5]
Goliath laid the cable between Dover and
First working undersea cable
The Bretts managed to renew their concession with a new date for establishing communication of October 1851. The company was reformed as the Submarine Telegraph Company in order to raise new capital. The largest investor was railway engineer
The completed cable was 25 nautical miles (46 km; 29 mi) long, far longer and heavier than anything the rope makers had previously manufactured, and there was some difficulty getting the cable out of the Wapping premises. There was no easy access and the adjacent business refused permission to cross their property, thinking that electrical apparatus would invalidate their fire insurance. However, a neighbouring business granted access, but the cable still had to be manually hauled to a wharf on the
The cable was laid between South Foreland and Sangatte by Blazer under tow from two tugs on 25 September 1851. The cable ran out a mile (1.6 km) before reaching Sangatte. As a temporary measure, a length of unarmoured cable used for the underground link from Sangatte to Calais was spliced on to enable the ocean cable to be landed. The telegraph station on the English side was in a private house in Dover. At first, they could not contact France, but soon discovered that the problem was not with the submarine cable. Rather a joint had been omitted in the underground cable between South Foreland and Dover. Telegraph communication between Britain and France was established for the first time on 15 October.[14]
In October, the steam tug Red Rover was tasked with replacing the temporary cable with a new section of armoured cable. Red Rover's first attempt was abandoned after running into bad weather. Trying again, it was discovered that there was no one on board who knew how to find Sangatte.[15] They arrived a day late and missed their rendezvous with HMS Widgeon which was tasked with making the splice at sea. The cable was finally landed and the splice made aboard Widgeon on 19 October.[16]
The line was finally open to the public on 19 November 1851.[17] The occasion was marked by setting off an electrical fuse over the telegraph from Dover to fire a cannon in Calais. In reply, Calais fired a cannon in Dover Castle.[18] The opening had again missed the French government deadline, but the concession was nevertheless renewed on 23 October for ten years from that date. The cable remained in service with the Submarine Telegraph Company for the lifetime of the company.[19] This was the first undersea submarine cable put into service. Werner von Siemens had used gutta-percha-insulated cable to cross the Rhine in 1847 and Kiel Harbour in 1848, but this was the first working undersea cable to link two countries.[20]
Manufacturing problems
Early submarine cables had numerous quality problems. The insulation was not applied evenly leading to variations in the cable diameter and shape. The conductor was not held on the centreline of the insulation, in places coming close to the surface making it easy for the conductor to become exposed. The insulation was full of air pockets due to the gutta-percha being applied in one thick coat instead of several thinner coats. All these issues with the insulation caused inconsistencies in the electrical properties of the cable.[21]
Quality of the conductor was also inconsistent. The diameter of the copper was variable, again leading to inconsistent electrical properties. There was little experience with annealing long lengths of copper. This resulted in inconsistent mechanical properties with brittle portions in the wire.[22]
An even bigger problem was caused by the joints. The copper wire was supplied in short, inconsistent, lengths. Initially on the 1850 cable, joints were attempted by
Nationalisation
The Submarine Telegraph Company went on to lay many more cables between Britain and the continent. In 1870 the inland telegraphs in Britain were nationalised, and in 1890 the cables and other assets of the Submarine Telegraph Company were taken over by the General Post Office.[24]
List of cables laid
Year | Route | Cable ship | Cable manufacturer* | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1851 | South Foreland to Sangatte | Blazer | Wilkins and Weatherly/ R.S. Newall and Company |
First undersea submarine cable in service |
1853 | Dover to Ostend | William Hutt | R.S. Newall and Company |
Six-core cable of same construction as the 1851 four-core |
1858 | Cromer to Emden | William Cory | Glass, Elliot & Co. | |
1859 | Cromer to Heligoland | William Cory | ||
1859 | Heligoland to Denmark | Berwick | ||
1859 | Gris Nez |
Berwick | ||
1859 | Jersey to Pirou | Resolute | ||
1861 | Beachy Head to Dieppe | Glass, Elliot & Co. | ||
1865 | Gris Nez |
India Rubber, Gutta Percha and Telegraph Cable Company |
||
1866 | Lowestoft to Norderney | William Cory | Part of the Indo-European Telegraph Company 's line to India
| |
1866 | La Panne |
W. T. Henley |
||
1870 | Cape d'Antifer |
W. T. Henley |
||
1880 | Jersey to Pirou |
* Until 1863, all cable cores were made by the
References
- ^ Haigh, p. 192
- ^ Kieve, p. 102
- ^ Haigh, p. 27
- ^ Haigh, p. 192
- ^ Smith, pp. 3–4
- ^ Newell, p. 478
- ^ Smith, pp. 9–10
- ^
- Haigh, p. 192
- Huurdeman, p. 129
- ^ Huurdeman, p. 129
- ^ Glover & Burns
- ^ Haigh, p. 192
- ^ Smith, pp. 15–16
- ^ Smith, p. 16
- ^
- Smith, p. 17
- Haigh, pp. 192–193
- ^ Smith, p. 17
- ^
- Smith, pp. 17–18
- Haigh, p. 193
- ^ Haigh, p. 193
- ^ Smith, p. 18
- ^ Haigh, p. 193
- ^ Kieve, p. 101
- ^ Smith, p. 2
- ^ Smith, pp. 1–2
- ^ Smith, pp. 2–3
- ^ Haigh, p. 193
- ^ Haigh, p. 193
- ^ Haigh, p. 27
Bibliography
- Glover, Bill; Burns, Bill, "The Submarine Telegraph Company", History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications, accessed and archived 5 August 2020.
- Haigh, Kenneth Richardson, Cableships and Submarine Cables, Adlard Coles, 1968 OCLC 497380538.
- Huurdeman, Anton A., The Worldwide History of Telecommunications, Wiley, 2003 ISBN 0471205052.
- Kieve, Jeffrey L., The Electric Telegraph: A Social and Economic History, David and Charles, 1973 OCLC 655205099.
- Newell, E. L., "Loading coils for ocean cables", Transactions of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, Part I: Communication and Electronics, vol. 76, iss. 4, pp. 478–482, September 1957.
- OCLC 1079820592.