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180-478: In the nineteenth century, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland had the world's first commercial telegraph company. British telegraphy dominated international telecommunications well into the twentieth. Telegraphy is the sending of textual messages by human operators using symbolic codes . Electrical telegraphy used conducting wires to send messages, often incorporating a telegram service to deliver

360-693: A much more limited form of home rule , opted-out of joining the Free State and remained part of the Union under this limited form of self-government. In light of these changes, the British state was renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on 12 April 1927 with the Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act . The modern-day United Kingdom is the same state, that is to say a direct continuation of what remained after

540-812: A short-lived revolt in 1857. In overseas policy, the central policy was free trade , which enabled British financiers and merchants to operate successfully in many otherwise independent countries, as in South America. Beginning in earnest in the second half of the nineteenth century, the Imperial government granted increasing levels of autonomy to locally elected governments in colonies where white settlers had become demographically or politically dominant, with this process eventually resulting in Canada , Australia , New Zealand , Newfoundland and South Africa becoming self-governing dominions . While these dominions remained part of

720-471: A board; it had to be learned. The profession of telegraph operator (telegraphist) had been created. In 1843, the telegraph line was extended to Slough and Cooke converted it to a one-needle system. New uninsulated wires were run suspended from poles on ceramic insulators , a system Cooke patented, which rapidly became ubiquitous. Cooke financed this extension as the Great Western was unwilling to finance

900-674: A century from the final defeat of Napoleon following the Battle of Waterloo to the outbreak of World War I , Britain was almost continuously at peace with Great Powers . The most notable exception was the Crimean War with the Russian Empire , in which actual hostilities were relatively limited. However, the United Kingdom did engage in extensive wars in Africa and Asia , such as the Opium Wars with

1080-525: A close relationship with the STC. From about 1857, the two companies had an agreement that all STC submarine cables were to be used only with the Magnetic's landlines. The Magnetic also controlled the first cable to Ireland. This control of international traffic gave them a significant advantage in the domestic market. Both Newall and Glass, Elliot laid cables as subcontractors to the inland telegraph companies. Newall

1260-541: A commitment to the landed aristocracy. He used his London residence as a venue for intimate dinners and private consultations, together with extensive correspondence that kept him in close touch with party leaders in the Commons and with leading figures in the Lords. He gave public rhetorical support to Ultra-Tory anti-reform positions, but then deftly changed positions toward the party's centre, especially when Peel needed support from

1440-639: A common price structure, destroying their original business model. Competition from the District and UKTC, together with economies of scale as the network grew, steadily drove down prices. In 1851, the ETC charged ten shillings (50p) for a twenty-word inland telegram over 100 miles (160 km). This fell to four shillings (20p) in 1855, but was still expensive for a typical Victorian worker to use. A weaver , for instance, earned on average ten shillings and sixpence (52.5p) per week in 1855. Further reductions occurred in

1620-488: A complete list, see Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs . The coalition that defeated Napoleon was financed by Britain, and held together at the Congress of Vienna in 1814–1815. It successfully broke Napoleon's comeback attempt in 1815. Castlereagh played a central role at Vienna, along with Austrian leader Klemens von Metternich . While many Europeans wanted to punish France heavily, Castlereagh insisted on

1800-693: A compromise with both taking some credit. Wheatstone had no interest in commercial enterprises, wishing only to publish scientific results. The ETC bought out Wheatstone's patent interest in exchange for royalties, and acquired Davy's relay patent. They bought out Bain for the substantial sum of £7,500 (equivalent to £1,000,000 in 2023) after he had threatened to derail the bill forming the company because his patents would be infringed. The ETC bought out other telegraph patents when they could, often not because they wanted to use them, but to suppress competition. The company concentrated on their railway business first but struggled to be profitable. Their relationship with

1980-590: A constitutional government there and recognising the independence of Spain's American colonies after their wars of independence in 1824. British merchants and financiers and, later, railway builders, played major roles in the economies of most Latin American nations. In the 1825 to 1867 era, widespread public demonstrations, some of them violent, escalated to demand reform. The ruling Tories were dead set against anything smacking of democracy or popular rule and favoured severe punishment of demonstrators, as exemplified by

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2160-722: A copper conductor. Up to 1865, the Gutta Percha Company, which had a monopoly on the supply of the material, made nearly all the cores for submarine cables in the UK. S. W. Silver and Co. in Silvertown , London, made waterproof clothing using rubber and gutta-percha. In 1864, an offshoot of Silver and Co., the India Rubber, Gutta Percha and Telegraph Works Company , was founded as a rival cable manufacturer. Some early submarine cables were laid with just their insulation for protection. This

2340-553: A demand with which the railway companies mostly complied. The Electric also petitioned other landowners to exclude the UKTC; sometimes UKTC lines were cut illegally. All this activity made it extremely difficult for the UKTC to establish trunk routes between cities. They had one good option—exclusive rights along canals, but they could not reach Scotland or Ireland this way. The UKTC completed their first trunk line in 1863 connecting London, Birmingham , Manchester , and Liverpool . In 1864,

2520-597: A further decline, but by 1970, telegram usage had fallen to its lowest total ever under nationalisation. Repeated price increases to control the deficit drove usage down even further. Post Office Telecommunications was separated from the Post Office as British Telecom in 1981. This was a first step towards its privatisation in 1984. In 1982 British Telecom ended its inland telegram service. International telegrams could be sent by telephone and were received by ordinary letter post. Some private wire use of telegraph continued after

2700-526: A good insulator held back their development. Rubber was tried but degraded in salt water. The solution came with gutta-percha , a natural latex from trees of the genus Palaquium in the Far East. It sets harder than rubber when exposed to air, but when soaked in hot water it becomes plastic and mouldable. On cooling it rehardens. William Montgomerie , the head of the medical department in Singapore , brought

2880-493: A government committee was formed in 1859 to investigate the issue. In their final report in 1861, the committee concluded that future failures of this kind were avoidable now that the technology was better understood. They recommended specifications for future cable construction, installation, and maintenance. After the Red Sea failure, the government no longer provided subsidies or guarantees and left it to private companies to assume

3060-534: A handful of them grew to any significant size. Cooke and financier John Lewis Ricardo established the Electric Telegraph Company (ETC) in 1846, the first company formed to provide a telegraph service to the public. Wheatstone was not involved having had a serious falling out with Cooke over who should take credit for the invention. The matter went to arbitration with Marc Isambard Brunel acting for Cooke and Daniell acting for Wheatstone. They reached

3240-531: A large part of the business totalling well over £2 million in 1873—one per cent of total British manufactured exports. The world's first ocean cable was laid across the English Channel . Jacob and John Watkins Brett had been planning such a cable since 1847. In 1849, the South Eastern Railway Company conducted a trial of two miles (3.2 km) of cable made by the Gutta Percha Company from

3420-419: A long process, emphasising the urgent need in 1832 to settle the intense and growing political unrest across Britain. He believed that the respectable classes deserved to have their demands for greater representation met, but he refused to extend political power to the mass of the lower middle class and working class, saying that they were not ready to be trusted with it. He wanted to preserve the basic elements of

3600-588: A loss of nearly £2 million (£270 million in 2023)) for the Atlantic Telegraph Company. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the union of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into one sovereign state , established by the Acts of Union in 1801. It continued in this form for over a century. In 1927, it evolved into

3780-515: A major impact on British opinion at the time and on history ever since as a symbol of officialdom brutally suppressing a peaceful demonstration thinking mistakenly that it was the start of an insurrection. The Ultra-Tories peaked in strength about 1819–1822 then lost ground inside the Tory Party. They were defeated in important breakthroughs that took place in the late 1820s in terms of tolerating first dissenting Protestants. An even more decisive blow

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3960-506: A major manufacturer of electrical equipment with a 16.5-acre (6.7 ha) site. Gutta-percha production was near-monopolised by the India Rubber, Gutta Percha and Telegraph Works Company, by then a subsidiary of Telcon, at their 15-acre (6.1 ha) site in Silvertown. The company operated several cable ships, of which the Silvertown was the largest in the world. Siemens also had a cable manufacturing facility at Woolwich . Exports were

4140-514: A mild peace, with the Kingdom of France to pay 700 million livre in indemnities and lose the territory seized after 1791. He realised that harsher terms would lead to a dangerous reaction in France, and now that the conservative old-fashioned Bourbons were back in power, they were no longer a threat to attempt to conquer all of Europe. Indeed, Castlereagh emphasised the need for a " balance of power ", whereby no nation would be powerful enough to threaten

4320-528: A network that could be used by the public. Many competing companies arose; the most important of them was the Magnetic Telegraph Company (the "Magnetic") formed in 1850. They used the telegraph invented by William Thomas Henley , which did not require batteries. The Electric and Magnetic companies soon formed a cartel to control the market. They were profitable, but most other companies were not. Submarine telegraph cables were required to extend

4500-533: A popular revolution along the French model, employed severe repression. In the mid-1820s, however, as popular unrest increased, the government made a series of dramatic changes. The more liberal among the Tories rejected the ultraconservative "Ultra Tory" faction. The party split, key leaders switched sides, the Tories lost power, and the more liberally minded opposition Whigs took over. The Tory coalition fell apart, and it

4680-401: A quarter of a million messages. The United Kingdom Telegraph Company (UKTC), founded by Thomas Allan, was the last major telegraph company to be formed. Registered in 1850, it did not raise sufficient capital to launch until 1860. The business model was to charge a flat rate of one shilling (5p) for twenty words within 100 miles (160 km) and two shillings (10p) beyond this, undercutting

4860-403: A rectangular pulse (as used in telegraphy) has multiple frequency components. At the receiving end it appears as if part of the pulse has been retarded, hence the term. The problem this causes for telegraphy is that adjacent pulses smear into each other, an effect called intersymbol interference by modern engineers, and if severe enough the message cannot be read. It forces the operator to slow

5040-481: A second trunk ran along the route from London, to Northampton , Leicester , Sheffield , Barnsley , and Wakefield , ending in Hull . The northern end of this line was linked to Manchester and Liverpool, connecting the two trunks together at both ends. Later, UKTC extended the trunk network into Scotland, reaching Glasgow and Edinburgh . In 1865, the network was extended west, reaching Swansea and Plymouth . In 1858,

5220-457: A secondary circuit. A local battery provided the current for a new pulse through the contacts and onwards along the telegraph line. Davy's relay was the first device to use metallic make-and-break contacts, a great improvement on electrodes dipping into a container of mercury. The relay's importance was it allowed telegraph transmissions over long distances that would otherwise require operators at periodic intermediate stations to read and retransmit

5400-654: A single entity. Thus, the Eastern Telegraph Company and the Marconi Wireless Company were merged into Imperial and International Communications Ltd, which changed its name to Cable & Wireless Ltd in 1934. The Porthcurno station remained open for exactly one hundred years, closing in 1970 when the last cable was taken out of service. Submarine coaxial cables with repeaters , which carried multiple telephone channels using frequency division multiplexing , had been in use for some time. By then, there

5580-549: A state monopoly. For instance, Siemens early telegraph installations in Prussia had a distinctly military purpose; in France it was years before the public could use the telegraph. In Britain, between 1846, the formation of the first telegraph company, until nationalisation in 1870, the telegraph grew entirely at the instigation of private companies using private capital and without government support. 64 telegraph companies were formed during that period, though 68% of them failed and only

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5760-627: A successful campaign against the Corn Laws. These were tariffs on imported food that kept up the price of grain to placate Tory landowners. The major factor in the cost of living was the price of food , and the Corn Laws kept the price high. Bright was a powerful speaker, which boosted him to election to parliament in 1843. His radical program included extension of the suffrage, land reform and reduction of taxation. He opposed factory reforms, labour unions and controls on hours For workers, women and children, arguing that government intervention in economic life

5940-399: A suitable way of applying it to long runs of cable. The Gutta Percha Company was founded in 1845 to exploit the new material. They initially made bottle stoppers, but soon expanded to a wide range of products. In 1848, on hearing of its potential use for telegraph cables, the firm modified a machine for extruding gutta-percha tubing into one capable of continuously applying gutta-percha to

6120-453: A system it considered experimental. Up to this point, they had insisted on exclusive use and had refused Cooke permission to open public telegraph offices. Cooke's new agreement gave the railway free use of the system in exchange for the right to open public offices, establishing a public telegraph service for the first time. A flat rate of one shilling (5 decimal pence ) was charged regardless of message length; many people paid this just to see

6300-506: A telegraph after seeing Georg Wilhelm Muncke demonstrate a needle telegraph in March 1836, Cooke built a prototype shortly afterwards but did not pursue this design. He looked for mechanical solutions instead because he believed (wrongly) that the needle telegraph would require multiple wires, each driving a separate needle. Cooke initially made a telegraph with a clockwork detent mechanism operating electromagnets. The first mechanical apparatus

6480-489: A uniform fashion, and city officials were elected by the local taxpayers. By far the most important of the reforms was the democratisation of Parliament, which began in a small but highly controversial fashion in 1832 with the Reform Act of 1832 . The main impact was to drastically reduce the number of very small constituencies , with only a few dozen voters under the control of a local magnate. Industrial cities gained many of

6660-830: A watered-down reform. He routinely gave the same advice to foreign governments. Diplomats across Europe took careful note of his move from the Tories to the Whigs, and suspected him of sympathy with the reform movements which were setting off upheavals in France, Belgium and elsewhere, and which frightened the reactionary governments of the major powers Russia, Austria and Russia. In reality he drew his foreign policy ideals from Canning. His main goals were to promote British strategic and economic interests worldwide, remain aloof from European alliances, mediate peace in Europe and use British naval power sparingly as needed. He worried most about France as an adversary, although he collaborated with them as in securing

6840-549: The Admiralty . They were already using an optical telegraph , and despite it being frequently unusable because of weather, saw no need for his invention. Though never put to the test, it is unlikely that Ronalds' system would have worked over very long distances using static electricity generators. Even the relatively short test system only worked well in dry weather. Nearly all the successful telegraph systems used extensive electrochemical cells as their power source. The invention of

7020-595: The All Red Line , because at that time British territories and colonies were usually coloured red or pink on maps, it carried long-distance telecommunications to all parts of the British Empire. The idea was to create a network that did not pass through any non-British territory to avoid security and political risks. In 1928, British submarine cables still dominated world telecommunications, but they were increasingly under threat from radiotelegraphy . A particular concern

7200-632: The Allied and Associated Powers including the British Empire, France, Russia, Italy and the U.S. against the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire . The deadliest conflict in human history up to that point, the war ended in an Allied victory in November 1918 but inflicted a massive cost to British manpower, materiel and treasure. Growing desire for Irish self-governance led to

7380-545: The Atlantic Telegraph Company , and the Red Sea to India cable in 1859 laid by the Red Sea & India Company. The transatlantic cable's insulation failed after a few weeks. The cable to India (manufactured and laid by Newall) was too thin and laid taut over underwater peaks which soon broke it in multiple places. The guarantees provided by the government for these two ventures led to a financial loss. In response,

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7560-636: The British Empire . Industrial Revolution accelerated, with textile mills joined by iron and steel, coal mining, railroads and shipbuilding. The second British Empire, founded after the loss of the Thirteen Colonies in the American Revolutionary War of the 1770s, was dramatically expanded in India , other parts of Asia, and Africa. There was little friction with other colonial powers until

7740-470: The British Isles , but it was smaller in terms of industry, finance, mercantile marine and naval strength. Napoleon expected that cutting Britain off from Continental Europe would end its economic hegemony. On the contrary Britain possessed the greatest industrial capacity in the world, and its mastery of the seas allowed it to build up considerable economic strength through trade to its possessions and

7920-653: The Continental System . This policy aimed to eliminate the threat from the British by closing French-controlled territory to foreign trade. The British Army remained a minimal threat to France; it maintained a standing strength of just 220,000 men at the height of the Napoleonic Wars, whereas the French Imperial Army exceeded a million men—in addition to the armies of numerous allies and several hundred thousand national guardsmen that Napoleon could draft into

8100-493: The Cooke and Wheatstone telegraph . The needle telegraph instrument suggested by Wheatstone, the battery invented by John Frederic Daniell , and the relay invented by Edward Davy were important components of this system. In 1846, Cooke and financier John Lewis Ricardo formed the Electric Telegraph Company which initially supplied telegraph systems to railway companies but soon branched out into other businesses, slowly building

8280-512: The Crimean War against the Russian Empire in the 1850s. That war was strictly limited in terms of scope and impact. The major result was the realisation that military medical services needed urgent reform, as advocated by the nursing leader Florence Nightingale . British diplomats, led by Lord Palmerston , promoted British nationalism, opposed reactionary regimes on the continent, helped the Spanish colonies to free themselves and worked to shut down

8460-485: The Daniell cell in 1836 by John Frederic Daniell made this possible. The earlier voltaic pile suffered from falling voltage if used continuously because of the formation of hydrogen bubbles around the copper electrode which tended to insulate it. The Daniell cell solved this problem by placing the zinc and copper electrodes in separate electrolytes with a porous barrier between them. The sulfuric acid electrolyte consumed

8640-819: The Eastern Telegraph Company in 1872. James Anderson , the captain of the Great Eastern , was made managing director. The British-Indian Submarine Extension Company laid a cable going east from India in 1871. This ran from Madras , which was connected overland to Bombay, to Singapore via Penang and Malacca . This met a cable in Singapore laid by the China Submarine Telegraph Company (founded 1869) running to Hong Kong . The British-Australian Telegraph Company (founded 1870) then connected Hong Kong to Port Darwin , Australia, via Java . This

8820-510: The French Revolution in 1793. Historians find that the violent radical element was small and weak; there were a handful of small conspiracies involving men with few followers and careless security; they were quickly suppressed. Nevertheless, techniques of repression included the suspension of Habeas Corpus in 1817 (allowing the government to arrest and hold suspects without cause or trial). Sidmouth 's Gagging Acts of 1817 heavily muzzled

9000-567: The General Post Office . Companies operating international submarine cables remained independent. A major mistake made during nationalisation was cost estimates failed to take into account the cost of purchasing railway company wayleaves , or even that it would be necessary to do so. The final bill far exceeded the original estimate. The telegraph was never profitable under nationalisation because of government policies. Prices were held low to make it affordable for as many people as possible, and

9180-465: The Great Western Railway installed a five-needle telegraph from Paddington station to West Drayton —the first commercial telegraph in the world. The cables were laid originally in an underground conduit, but the insulation began to fail. Cooke replaced the instruments with a two-needle system using only the wires that remained intact. The code for the two-needle system could not be read off

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9360-523: The Industrial Revolution progressed, society changed, becoming more urban. The postwar period saw an economic slump, and poor harvests and inflation caused widespread social unrest. British leadership was intensely conservative, ever watchful of signs of revolutionary activity of the sort that had so deeply affected France. Historians have found very few signs, noting that social movements such as Methodism strongly encouraged conservative support for

9540-718: The Irish War of Independence almost immediately after the conclusion of World War I, which resulted in British recognition of the Irish Free State in 1922. Although the Free State was explicitly governed under dominion status and thus was not a fully independent polity, as a dominion it was no longer considered to be part of the United Kingdom and ceased to be represented in the Westminster Parliament . Six northeastern counties in Ireland, which since 1920 were being governed under

9720-561: The Peterloo Massacre in Manchester in 1819. The Tory ranks were cracking, however, especially when Robert Peel (1788–1830) broke away on several critical issues. Nevertheless, the Whig party gets most of the credit. The middle classes, often led by nonconformist Protestants, turned against the Tories and scored the greatest gains. For example, symbolic restrictions on nonconformists called

9900-802: The Principality of Elba , peace appeared to have returned. Napoleon suddenly reappeared in 1815. The Allies united and the armies of Wellington and Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher defeated Napoleon once and for all at the Battle of Waterloo . To defeat France, Britain put heavy pressure on the United States , seizing merchant ships suspected of trading with France, and impressing sailors (conscription) born in Britain, regardless of their claimed American citizenship . British government agents armed Indigenous American tribes in Canada that were raiding American settlements on

10080-450: The Qing dynasty , to extend its overseas territorial holdings and influence. Britain's empire was expanded into most parts of Africa and much of South Asia. The Colonial Office and India Office ruled through a small number of administrators who managed the units of the empire locally, while local institutions began to develop. British India , by far the most important overseas possession, saw

10260-571: The SS Great Eastern , a huge, failing passenger ship built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel . They converted it into a cable layer . Telcon chartered the ship using it on some of the major cable installations around the world. By 1880, cable production was centred on the banks of the Thames in East London . Telcon was the major supplier, with some work subcontracted to W. T. Henley at North Woolwich ,

10440-513: The Test Acts were abolished in 1828 . Much more controversial was the repeal of severe discrimination against Roman Catholics after the Irish Catholics organised, and threatened rebellion, forcing major concessions in 1829 . Financial reform, led by William Huskisson and Peel, rationalised the tariff system, and culminated in the great repeal of the tariffs on imported grain in 1846, much to

10620-476: The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland , after the Irish Free State gained a degree of independence in 1922. The United Kingdom, from its islands off the coast of Europe, financed the coalition that defeated France during the Napoleonic Wars , and further developed its dominant Royal Navy enabling the British Empire to become the foremost world power for the next century. For nearly

10800-500: The frontier . The Americans felt humiliated and demanded war to restore their honour, despite their complete unpreparedness. The War of 1812 was a minor sideshow to the British, but the American army performed very poorly, and was unable to successfully attack Canada. In 1813, the Americans took control of Lake Erie and thereby of western Ontario , knocking most of the Indian tribes out of

10980-454: The independence of Belgium from the Kingdom of the Netherlands . He much preferred liberal and reform-oriented nations to reactionary powers. He placed a high priority on building up British strength in India, He spoke often of pride in British nationalism, which found favour in public opinion and gave him a strong basis of support outside Parliament. Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) was an intellectual who focused on reforming English law . He

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11160-473: The transatlantic telegraph cable for the Atlantic Telegraph Company . He formed many additional companies to lay various cables connecting Britain with its colonies in India, the Far East and Australia. Once these were laid, these disparate companies were merged into the Eastern Telegraph Company , established in 1872. In 1934, Cable & Wireless Ltd absorbed the company. The inland telegraph companies were nationalised in 1870 and then operated as part of

11340-486: The "betrayal" of the working classes and the "sacrificing" of their "interests" by the "misconduct" of the government. In 1838, Chartists issued the People's Charter demanding manhood suffrage, equal-sized election districts, voting by ballots, payment of Members of Parliament (so that poor men could serve), annual Parliaments, and abolition of property requirements. The ruling class saw the movement as dangerous. Multiple large peaceful meetings across England demanded change but

11520-450: The 1790–1815 period there was an improvement in morals caused by the religious efforts by evangelicals inside the Church of England, and Dissenters or Nonconformist Protestants as people: became wiser, better, more frugal, more honest, more respectable, more virtuous, than they ever were before." Wickedness still flourished, but the good were getting better, as frivolous habits were discarded for more serious concerns. The leading moralist of

11700-435: The 1850s in England, but when he took it to the US in 1849 he became embroiled in litigation with Samuel Morse . The dispute broke him financially, and he returned to clockmaking, his original profession, in later life. Development of the telegraph in Britain was distinctly different from that in other European countries. In Continental Europe , governments developed the telegraph for their own purposes and controlled them as

11880-410: The 1890s. British foreign policy avoided entangling alliances. Britain from the 1820s to the 1860s experienced a turbulent and exciting "age of reform". The century started with 15 years of war against France, ending in Wellington's triumph against Napoleon in 1815 at Waterloo. There followed 15 difficult years, in which the Tory Party, representing a small, rich landed aristocracy that was fearful of

12060-450: The 1960s and 1970s who argued against deep meanings of Whiggish progress because each of the reforms was relatively minor in itself. Historian Richard Davis concludes that the scholarship of the 1970s represented "a vindication of the main outlines of the old " Whig interpretation ." That is, the Reform Act of 1832 was a response to mounting popular pressure. It was "the culmination of a long historical process, and an important turning point in

12240-448: The African Direct Telegraph Company (1885). These companies were all merged into the Eastern Telegraph Company, which became the Eastern and Associated Cable Company—the largest multinational of the 19th century. The development of the undersea telegraph cable network began in the late nineteenth century. In October 1902, a worldwide network of cables and relay stations—including some 100,000 miles of undersea cables—was inaugurated. Called

12420-436: The BETC takeover, the Magnetic acquired its founder Henry Highton 's needle telegraph. This instrument was the cheapest of the manual telegraph systems at between £2 10 shillings (£2.50) and £3 (equivalent to £370 in 2023). By the time of nationalisation, the Magnetic were also using Bright's bells on their most important lines. Charles Tilston Bright invented this instrument; it was acoustic rather than visual allowing

12600-407: The BETC was the attraction for the Magnetic in its takeover of both. The Magnetic used a telegraph system not covered by ETC's patents— William Thomas Henley and George Foster's needle telegraph, which did not require batteries. While the operator was sending a message, the handle's movement generated the electricity electromagnetically. This was the meaning of magnetic in the company name. After

12780-521: The British Empire, in practice, these governments were permitted greater management of their own internal affairs, with Britain remaining primarily responsible for their foreign and trade policies. Rapid industrialisation that began in the decades prior to the state's formation continued up until the mid-19th century. The Great Irish Famine , exacerbated by government inaction in the mid-19th century, led to demographic collapse in much of Ireland and increased calls for Irish land reform . The 19th century

12960-514: The British Empire. In response, London began to cooperate with Japan , France and Russia, and moved closer to the United States . Although not formally allied with any of these powers, by 1914 British policy had all but committed to declaring war on Germany if the latter attacked France. This was realized in August 1914 when Germany invaded France via Belgium , whose neutrality had been guaranteed by London. The ensuing First World War eventually pitted

13140-520: The British Telegraph Company to avoid confusion with the ETC. The BETC failed because they were founded on the mistaken assumption that they could obtain railway wayleaves. They wrongly believed Parliament would force the railway companies to allow them to erect lines. They obtained very few wayleaves; one exception was the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway . Magnetic took them over in 1857 under

13320-509: The Chartists were unable to force serious constitutional debate. In July 1839, however, the House of Commons rejected, by 235 votes to 46, a motion to debate the Chartists' national petition, bearing 1.3 million signatures. Historians see Chartism as both a continuation of the 18th century fight against corruption and as a new stage in demands for democracy in an industrial society. Prime ministers of

13500-555: The District and leased them back for a peppercorn rent in exchange for the District passing on the Magnetic's messages to and from outside London. The District's business model was to provide cheap telegrams within London and not install expensive links between cities. Prices were fourpence (1.7p) for ten words and sixpence (2.5p) for fifteen. By comparison, a long distance telegram on the Electric cost four shillings (20p). The District's area

13680-742: The Empire with the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 . The government purchased all the slaves for £20,000,000 (the money went to rich plantation owners who mostly lived in England), and freed the slaves, most of whom were in the Caribbean sugar islands. The Whigs became champions of Parliamentary reform by making the Reform Act of 1832 their signature measure. It sharply reduced the numbers of "rotten borough" and "pocket boroughs" (where elections were controlled by powerful families), and instead redistributed seats on

13860-463: The English and Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company (Magnetic Telegraph Company, or "Magnetic" for short) in 1850, initially to connect Britain and Ireland with a submarine telegraph cable. The first attempt failed, as did several attempts by rival companies. The Magnetic finally succeeded in 1853, giving Ireland a telegraphic connection to Britain for the first time, and through Britain to mainland Europe. This

14040-466: The French armies when they were needed. Although the Royal Navy effectively disrupted France's extra-continental trade—both by seizing and threatening French shipping and by seizing French colonial possessions—it could do nothing about France's trade with the major continental economies and posed little threat to French territory in Europe. France's population and agricultural capacity far outstripped that of

14220-517: The Government is rising by its side, nay, daily counteracting its views." The Duke of Wellington, Britain's most famous war hero, told Peel, "If we cannot get rid of the Catholic Association, we must look to Civil War in Ireland sooner or later." Peel and Wellington agreed that to stop the momentum of the Catholic Association it was necessary to pass Catholic emancipation , which gave Catholics

14400-512: The Gutta Percha companies was to create a company that could make and maintain the second transatlantic telegraph cable for the Atlantic Telegraph Company. It was also his motivation for buying Great Eastern , the only ship capable of holding all the required cable. With great difficulty, the transatlantic connection was achieved by 1866, creating a truly worldwide telegraph network. London could now communicate with most other telegraph offices in

14580-622: The International Telegraph Company to overcome Dutch objections to a British company laying telegraph cables on their soil. This company was merged back into the ETC in 1854 and named the Electric and International Telegraph Company. Other subsidiary companies created to lay submarine cables were the Channel Islands Telegraph Company (1857) and the Isle of Man Telegraph Company (1859). John Watkins Brett established

14760-571: The Irish Free State's secession, as opposed to being an entirely new successor state . A brief period of limited independence for the Kingdom of Ireland came to an end following the Irish Rebellion of 1798 , which occurred during the British war with revolutionary France . The Kingdom of Great Britain 's fear of an independent Ireland siding against them with Revolutionary France resulted in

14940-437: The London region. In 1865 the ETC, Magnetic, and UKTC formed a combined news service, leaving only one source of news by telegraph. This monopoly irritated the newspapers, and some campaigned vigorously against the telegraph companies. This control of the news became an argument for nationalisation of the telegraph system. To connect the telegraph to anywhere outside Britain, submarine telegraph cables were needed. The lack of

15120-486: The Parliamentary level, there was a reorganisation of the governmental system in the rapidly growing cities, putting a premium on modernisation and expertise, and large electorates as opposed to small ruling cliques. A rapidly growing middle class, as well as active intellectuals, broaden the scope of reform to include humanitarian activities such as a new poor law and factory laws to protect women and children workers. In

15300-839: The Protestant faith, and his lack of support for the initiative led the Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger , to resign. During the War of the Second Coalition (1799–1801), Britain occupied most of the French and Dutch overseas possessions , the Netherlands having become a satellite state of France in 1796, but tropical diseases claimed the lives of over 40,000 troops. When the Treaty of Amiens ended

15480-414: The UKTC laid a cable from Newbiggin to Jutland , Denmark, which was extended to Russia giving the UK direct telegraph access to North European and Scandinavian countries. The UKTC used the printing telegraph of David Edward Hughes . This was an early form of teleprinter that printed the message directly without the operator needing to decode it. Transmission was from a piano-like keyboard marked with

15660-709: The United States. The Spanish uprising in 1808 at last permitted Britain to gain a foothold on the Continent. The Duke of Wellington gradually pushed the French out of Spain, and in early 1814, as Napoleon was being driven back in the east by the Royal Prussian Army , the Imperial Austrian Army , and the Imperial Russian Army , Wellington invaded southern France. After Napoleon's surrender and exile to

15840-488: The United States. The trend of emigration would continue in Ireland for decades and Ireland's population has never recovered to its pre-famine levels. The Irish language was almost wiped out. The failure of the British government to respond to the crisis in the eyes of the Irish people would lead to a growth in resentment of Britain and a rise in Irish nationalism . The famine is remembered in Ireland to this day as oppression by

16020-571: The Whig coalition in 1830. The Tories despised him thereafter as a turncoat, and many of the more radical Whigs were distrustful of his basically conservative views that saw him fainthearted about or opposed to reform measures. He typically warned on the one hand against delays and on the other hand against excessive enthusiasm for reforms, preferring compromise. He was keenly sensitive to public opinion, and indeed often shapes it through his dealings with newspaper editors. When he sensed that public demand had reached an unstoppable momentum, he would work for

16200-459: The Whigs to demand for civil and religious equality. Grievances included a 1753 law that to be legally recognised marriage had to take place in the Anglican parish church . The Anglican parish register was the only legally accepted birth documentation. The Anglican parish controlled the only religious burial grounds. The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge had to reject non-Anglican applicants. At

16380-468: The aristocracy in terms of its control of the House of Commons. However, it ran the government: of the ten prime ministers under Victoria, six were peers. The seventh was the son of a duke. Two (Peel and Gladstone) emerged from the business community and only one (Disraeli) was a self-made man . Of the 227 cabinet members between 1832 and 1905, 139 were sons of peers. Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington , who defeated Napoleon, served as

16560-600: The basis of population. It also broadened the franchise, adding 217,000 voters to an electorate of 435,000 in England and Wales . The main effect of the act was to weaken the power of the landed gentry , and enlarge the power of the professional and business middle-class , which now for the first time had a significant voice in Parliament. However, at this point the great majority of manual workers, clerks and farmers did not have enough property to qualify to vote. Many of them received

16740-549: The cable and used the Great Eastern to lay it. To limit the risk, Pender founded three companies, each tasked with laying one section of the cable. The Anglo-Mediterranean Company (founded 1868) laid a cable from Malta to Alexandria in Egypt. From there, a short overland cable via Cairo connected to Suez . The Falmouth, Gibraltar and Malta Telegraph Company (founded 1869) connected Malta to Porthcurno , Cornwall, with landings at Gibraltar and Carcavelos , Portugal. The company

16920-411: The coast, but very deep water was avoided because it was difficult to retrieve cables for repair. In 1868, the expected life of a cable was fifteen years, and most laid to that date had not lasted that long. A similar problem with deteriorating insulation plagued buried inland cables, the Magnetic suffering the most from this. A recurring problem with buried cables, and most especially submarine cables,

17100-529: The conquest of Europe the way Napoleon had. Vienna ushered in a century of peace, with no great wars and few important localised ones until the Crimean War (1853–1856). Prussia, Austria, and Russia, as absolute monarchies , tried to suppress liberalism wherever it might occur. Britain first took a Reactionary position at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, but relented and broke ranks with the absolute monarchies by 1820. Britain intervened in Portugal in 1826 to defend

17280-572: The decision to unite the two countries. This was brought about by legislation in the parliaments of both kingdoms and came into effect on 1 January 1801. The Irish had been led to believe by the British that their loss of legislative independence would be compensated with Catholic emancipation , that is, by the removal of civil disabilities placed upon Roman Catholics in both Great Britain and Ireland . Despite personal sympathy for Roman Catholics, King George III believed that agreeing to Catholic Emancipation would violate his Coronation Oath to uphold

17460-463: The dismay of grain farmers. The 1846 repeal of the Corn Laws established free trade as the basic principle by which British merchants came to dominate the globe, and brought cheap food to British workers. A depoliticised civil service based on merit replaced patronage policies rewarding jobs for partisan efforts. Efficiency was a high priority in government, with the goal of low taxation. Overall, taxation

17640-641: The early 1860s, with both the ETC and the Magnetic attempting to compete with the UKTC's flat one shilling rate. The ETC stopped charging for the address as part of the message, reducing the cost further. In 1865, the ETC, Magnetic and UKTC fixed a common scale of charges for all three companies. The flat rate was dropped and a twenty-word message cost one shilling (5p) up to 100 miles (160 km), one shilling and sixpence (7.5p) up to 200 miles (320 km), and two shillings (10p) up to 300 miles (480 km). Local messages within London and large towns were sixpence (2.5p). The falling prices stimulated more traffic as

17820-439: The emergence of a more liberal and broadly based political system… it deserves its old designation of 'Great.'" David Thompson has stressed the revolutionary nature of the entire package of reforms: Chartism was a large-scale popular protest movement that emerged in response to the failure of the 1832 Reform Bill to give the vote to the working class. It lacked middle-class support, and it failed repeatedly. Activists denounced

18000-504: The end of the telegram service, and the telex system continued in use by an ever-diminishing group of private users. Most of these succumbed to alternatives on the internet in the 1990s. Francis Ronalds conducted the first demonstration that an electric telegraph could be operated over a substantial distance in his Hammersmith garden in 1816. He used eight miles of iron wire strung between wooden frames. High-voltage friction machines were his power source. Ronalds offered his system to

18180-519: The era, William Wilberforce , saw everywhere "new proofs presenting themselves of the diffusion of religion". Nonconformists, including Presbyterians , Congregationalists , the Baptists and the rapidly-growing Methodist denomination , as well as Quakers , Unitarians and smaller groups. They were all outside the established Church of England (except in Scotland, where the established Church of Scotland

18360-422: The established companies. The Electric, with the Magnetic's support, put a great deal of effort into obstructing the UKTC, challenging their right to use highways in Parliament. This was unresolved until Parliament passed an Act in 1862, allowing the UKTC to erect trunk lines along highways. The Electric used their exclusive agreements with the railways to demand they cut down UKTC lines crossing railway property,

18540-441: The event as an opening battle against revolutionaries. In reaction Lord Liverpool 's government passed the " Six Acts " in 1819. They prohibited drills and military exercises; facilitated warrants for the search for weapons; outlawed public meetings of more than 50 people, including meetings to organise petitions; put heavy penalties on blasphemous and seditious publications; imposing a fourpenny stamp act on many pamphlets to cut down

18720-490: The existing constitution by removing obvious abuses, thinking that this would strengthen aristocratic leadership. He persuaded the king to promise to create enough new peers to force the bill through the House of Lords. The king made the promise while also advising the peers to stop blocking the bill. The Reform Act was Grey's principal achievement; it reflects his pragmatic, moderate and conservative character, as well as his parliamentary skills of timing and persuasion. His cabinet

18900-545: The face of determined House of Commons action. After defeating the first two versions of the Reform Act of 1832, the Whigs got the King to agree to appoint as many new peers as was necessary to change the outcome. He promised to do so, but convinced the Lords it would be much wiser for them to approve the law. A weak ruler as regent (1811–1820) and king (1820–1830), George IV let his ministers take full charge of government affairs. He

19080-515: The financial sector was profitable. The insurer Lloyd's of London was a major user from the beginning. They had telegraph instruments installed directly in their London offices in 1851. Telegraph use by the public was slow to grow because of high prices but increased after competition drove down prices. This led to the company relocating their London central office to bigger premises in Great Bell Alley, Moorgate , in 1859. The eastern portion of

19260-456: The flow on news and criticism. Offenders could be harshly punished including exile in Australia . In practice the laws were designed to deter troublemakers and reassure conservatives; they were not often used. One historian would write: "Peterloo was a blunder; it was hardly a massacre." It was a serious mistake by local authorities who did not understand what was happening. Nevertheless, it had

19440-505: The hydrogen oxidizing it to water, before it could reach the copper electrode in the copper sulphate electrolyte. A later improvement by J. F. Fuller in 1853 replaced sulfuric acid with zinc sulfate . Another important development was the relay , invented by surgeon Edward Davy in 1837 and patented in 1838. It allowed the regeneration of weak telegraph pulses. The incoming pulse activated an electromagnet that moved an armature . Electrical contacts attached to it closed and completed

19620-413: The information some time after an event. The ETC had a staff of news gathering journalists and by 1854 had 120 newspaper customers. News items included political news from Parliament, stock exchange prices, and sports news, especially horse racing where race results were wanted quickly. Until telegraph offices were opened directly at the racetrack, ( Newmarket did not get one until 1860) a fast rider took

19800-482: The inland public companies, only the ETC and the Magnetic were profitable. The District, with its low prices, suffered a loss every year of its existence except 1865. The UKTC, a later start up, hoped to take business away from the big two with low prices, but they were handicapped by an inability to obtain wayleaves on the best routes. The resulting price war ended with them joining the ETC/Magnetic cartel and agreeing

19980-422: The installers enter her property only once (after wiping their feet) to access the roof. Meals were hoisted up to the workmen on rooftops until they had finished. Around seven thousand interviews and negotiations were conducted, many of them equally troublesome, to erect only 280 miles (450 km) of wire. The District's cheap prices stimulated a much more casual use of the telegraph; in 1862 the company transmitted

20160-460: The international slave trade. It was a time of prosperity, population growth and better health, except in Ireland where over one million deaths were caused by the Great Famine when the potato crop failed in the 1840s. The Government did little to help the starving poor in Ireland. Along with the one million deaths, another one million would emigrate in a few short years, mostly to Britain and to

20340-401: The key legal, political, economic and social reforms of the 1830s and 1840s. He especially influenced the reform of education, prisons, poor laws, legal procedures and Parliamentary representation. John Bright (1811–1889) built on his middle-class Quaker heritage and his collaboration with Richard Cobden to promote all varieties of humanitarian and parliamentary reform. They started with

20520-503: The king. The fiasco helped ruin the prestige of the monarchy and it recovered a fraction of the power wielded by King George III in his saner days. Historian Eugene Black says: The Ultra-Tories were the leaders of reaction and seemed to dominate the Tory Party , which controlled the government. Every untoward event seemed to point to a conspiracy on the left which necessitated more repression to head off another terror such as happened in

20700-520: The leader of the Conservative party in the House of Lords, 1828–1846. Some writers have belittled him as a befuddled reactionary, but a consensus reached in the late 20th century depicts him as a shrewd operator who hid his cleverness behind the facade of a poorly-informed old soldier. Wellington worked to transform the Lords from unstinting support of the Crown to an active player in political manoeuvring, with

20880-412: The letters of the alphabet. The system had been offered to the Electric in 1858, but they rejected it. The operation of the printing telegraph was mechanical. A spinning wheel with the character types , similar to a modern daisy wheel printer , was pressed against the paper at the appropriate time. The wheel in the receiving machine had to be kept in exact synchrony with the sending machine, otherwise

21060-583: The local level, everyone who lived in the boundaries of an Anglican church was required to pay taxes to support the parish. The Test and Corporation laws required all national and local government officials had to attend Anglican church services. In February 1828, Whig leader Lord John Russell , presented petitions assembled by the main Nonconformist pressure group, the United Committee, which represented Congregationalist, Baptists and Unitarians. Their demand

21240-425: The majority. The great Reform Act 1832 came at a time of intense public and elite anxiety and broke the logjam. The parliamentary system, based on a very small electorate and large numbers of seats that were tightly controlled by a small elite, was radically reformed. For the first time the growing industrial cities had representation in Parliament. This opened the way for another decade of reform that culminated in

21420-569: The manufacturing of wire rope. R.S. Newall and Company in Tyne and Wear , Glass, Elliot & Company , and W. T. Henley in London. were the principal companies involved in this early work. In 1864, the Gutta Percha Company merged with Glass, Elliot to form the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company (Telcon). John Pender instigated this becoming chairman. Pender, with a consortium including Thomas Brassey and Daniel Gooch , bought

21600-749: The material to the attention of the Royal Society in 1843 when he sent samples of Gutta-percha to them. Montgomerie thought of using the material, in place of rubber which deteriorated rapidly in damp tropical conditions, to make medical equipment. After testing some samples, Michael Faraday recognised its potential for underwater cables. Wheatstone introduced plans in the House of Commons for submarine cables as early as 1840. In 1844–1845, he tested (probably short) lengths of cable in Swansea Bay . He tried various insulations, including gutta-percha, but he could not find

21780-458: The message. Davy began experimenting in telegraphy in 1835, and in 1837 demonstrated his telegraph system in Regent's Park over a mile of copper wire. He held an exhibition in London, but after his marriage broke down, he abandoned telegraphy and emigrated to Australia. William Fothergill Cooke was the driving force in establishing the telegraph as a business in the United Kingdom. Inspired to build

21960-490: The mobilisation of all possible support in each constituency; about 80% of the men voted. The Tories discovered that their conservatism had an appeal to skilled workers, and also to women, hundreds of thousands of whom were organised by the Primrose League . Women's suffrage was not on the agenda. The abolition of the House of Lords , while often discussed, was never necessary because the upper house repeatedly retreated in

22140-535: The new name of the British and Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company. The Magnetic avoided the pitfalls encountered by the BETC. From the start, they planned their system based on underground cables along highways. Not only did the ETC have the railway wayleaves, but the United Kingdom Telegraph Company had the wayleaves for canals and the BETC had the wayleaves for overground cables along highways. This asset of

22320-675: The one that initially succeeded used five needles. They were operated in pairs, so they pointed to a letter of the alphabet marked on a board. Cooke proposed the Cooke and Wheatstone system to the Liverpool and Manchester Railway , and the London and Birmingham Railway trialled a four-needle system in July 1837. Both applications were for signalling rope-hauled trains ; both railways rejected them in favour of steam-driven whistles. Their first success came in 1838 when

22500-481: The operator to work faster. Not only did the Magnetic lay the first cable to Ireland, they had an exclusive agreement with the Submarine Telegraph Company which controlled the cables to Europe. For a short period, the Magnetic had control of all international traffic, shutting out the ETC. It acquired most of the railway wayleaves in Ireland, forcing the ETC to use roads and canals, the exact opposite of

22680-563: The opposition newspapers; the reformers switched to pamphlets and sold 50,000 a week. In industrial districts in 1819, factory workers demanded better wages, and demonstrated. The most important event was the Peterloo Massacre in Manchester , on 16 August 1819, when a local militia unit composed of landowners charged into an orderly crowd of 60,000 which had gathered to demand the reform of parliamentary representation. The crowd panicked and eleven died and hundreds were injured. The government saw

22860-496: The period included: William Pitt the Younger , Lord Grenville , Duke of Portland , Spencer Perceval , Lord Liverpool , George Canning , Lord Goderich , Duke of Wellington , Lord Grey , Lord Melbourne , Lord Palmerston and Robert Peel . The aristocracy remained dominant: there were 200 hereditary peers in the House of Lords in 1860; by 1837 they numbered 428; in 1901, there were 592. The number rose to 622 by 1910. Reform legislation in 1832, 1867, 1884 and 1918 weakened

23040-450: The political and social status quo. The major constitutional changes included a reform of Parliament, and a sharp decline in the power and prestige of the monarchy. The Prince regent, on becoming King George IV in 1820 asked Parliament to divorce his wife Queen Caroline of Brunswick so that he could marry his favourite lover. Public and elite opinion strongly favoured the Queen and ridiculed

23220-408: The position that had been reached at both ends of the circuit. Although much slower than other telegraph systems, it was possible to reach 25  wpm with practice. The company proved to be highly profitable. It charged £4 per mile of wire per annum and had few overheads. Unlike the public companies, it did not have to staff telegraph offices or employ operators to send and receive messages. Of

23400-446: The public used the telegraph for mundane everyday messages. This generated a steep increase in profits. Between 1861 and 1866, the combined net profits of the ETC and Magnetic rose from £99,000 to £178,000. This was not due solely to the increasing size of the network, the gross income per mile of wire was also increasing. The telegraph companies offered a news service useful to regional newspapers, which would otherwise have received

23580-431: The railways, however, gave them a structural advantage over competitors that started up later. By the time they arrived on the scene, the ETC had agreements with most railways, which gave them exclusive use of the wayleaves , shutting out their competitors from the most economical way of building a telegraph network. After 1848, other areas of the business grew. Supplying news to newspapers and stock exchange information to

23760-509: The repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846—ending the tariff on imported grain that kept prices high for the landed aristocracy. Repeal was heavily promoted by the Anti-Corn Law League , grass roots activists led by Richard Cobden and based in the industrial cities; they demanded cheap food. There were a series of reforms of the electoral laws, expanding the number of male voters and reducing the level of corruption. The reactionary Tory element

23940-511: The result would be unreadable. The Hughes machine did this by sending synchronisation pulses down the line, a marked improvement over earlier machines which were slow and temperamental. The Universal Private Telegraph Company (UPTC) was established in 1861 to provide private telegraph links for companies and institutions. They used the ABC telegraph, also known as Wheatstone's universal telegraph, an instrument patented by Charles Wheatstone in 1858. It

24120-409: The results to the nearest telegraph office. In places where the office was in line of sight , the results could be signalled to an observer with a telescope at the office but only in clear weather. In 1859, the ETC and Magnetic entered into an exclusive agreement with Reuters to supply foreign news. Reuters retained the right to supply shipping and commercial news directly to private subscribers in

24300-459: The risk of new ventures entirely. Getting a telegraph connection to India was a priority for the government after the Indian Mutiny of 1857; the urgent telegram requesting assistance had taken forty days to reach London. The telegraph went only as far as the coast of India and from there the message travelled by ship. The failure of the first cable was a significant blow. A connection to India

24480-485: The road was later renamed Telegraph Street after the company. The ETC remained by far the largest telegraph company until nationalisation in 1870, after which Cooke retired. Both he and Wheatstone were knighted for their services to telegraphy in 1869 and 1868, respectively. The ETC was heavily involved in laying submarine telegraph cables to Europe and Ireland. They operated the first cable ship permanently fitted out for laying cables, CS Monarch . In 1853, they created

24660-449: The seats but were still significantly underrepresented in Parliament. The 1831–1832 battle over parliamentary reform was, "a year probably unmatched in English history for the sweep and intensity of its excitement." Every few years an incremental enlargement of the electorate was made by Parliament, reaching practically all male voters by the 1880s, and all the women by 1928. Both parties introduced paid professional organisers who supervised

24840-579: The ship Princess Clementine anchored off Folkestone . The ship could send telegraph messages directly to London via a connection to the South Eastern's overhead telegraph line. After several failed attempts, the Bretts' company, the Submarine Telegraph Company (STC), succeeded in connecting to France in 1851. The company went on to lay many other cables to European countries. The Magnetic had

25020-564: The situation in Great Britain. London District Telegraph Company (the District ), formed in 1859 in London, was closely associated with the Magnetic. John Watkins Brett and Charles Kemp Dyer were directors of both companies; Edward Brailsford Bright was secretary of both. Their telegraph operators were trained at the Magnetic's headquarters in the Strand . The Magnetic installed the telegraph lines for

25200-419: The speed of sending so that there is again separation between the pulses. The problem was so bad on the first transatlantic cable in 1858 that transmission speeds were in minutes per word rather than words per minute. Thinking he could solve the problem by using a higher voltage, telegraph engineer Wildman Whitehouse only succeeded in permanently damaging the cable, making it unusable. This failure represented

25380-568: The strange equipment. The earliest machine for sending pictures by telegraph ( fax ) is credited to Scottish inventor Alexander Bain in 1848. He patented an earlier unbuilt design in 1843. Frederick C. Bakewell demonstrated another fax machine with an improved design at the Great Exhibition in 1851. Bain also invented a chemical printing telegraph . He used a dot-dash code with this machine similar to Morse code , but with different codepoints . The Bain telegraph enjoyed some popularity in

25560-413: The telegraph beyond mainland Britain . Suitable insulation for these was unavailable until Scottish military surgeon William Montgomerie introduced gutta-percha in 1843. The Submarine Telegraph Company laid the world's first international submarine cable in 1851 connecting England with France. In 1864, John Pender formed the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company to manufacture and maintain

25740-512: The telegraph was extended to every post office issuing money orders , whether or not that office generated enough telegraph business to be profitable. Telegraph usage increased enormously under the Post Office, but it was never as cheap as the postal service, and growing competition from the telephone reduced its market share. The telegraph was an important resource in both world wars, delaying its decline. The introduction of special greetings telegrams in 1935 proved highly popular and somewhat offset

25920-404: The telegraph would provide the means for much greater central control of overseas possessions. Colonial officials necessarily had a great deal of latitude for independent action due to the communication delay. The telegraph greatly restricted their independence, although it took some time for embedded attitudes to change. Pender's motivation in creating Telcon from the merger of Glass, Elliot and

26100-415: The telegraphed communication from the telegraph office. This is distinct from optical telegraphy that preceded it and the radiotelegraphy that followed. Though Francis Ronalds first demonstrated a working telegraph over a substantial distance in 1816, he was unable to put it into practical use. Starting in 1836, William Fothergill Cooke , with the scientific assistance of Charles Wheatstone , developed

26280-403: The transatlantic cable triggered the formation of many new companies to lay more submarine cables around the world. Pender founded most of these companies. His first project was to lay a new cable to India that covered most of the distance in international waters. This put it fully under British control, avoiding the political and other risks associated with an overland route. Telcon manufactured

26460-457: The upper house. Wellington's success was based on the 44 peers elected from Scotland and Ireland, whose election he controlled. Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey had promoted reform of Parliament since the 1790s, always to be defeated by the Ultra-Tories. The breakthrough came in his success in passage of the Reform Act of 1832. He sought this as the final step of reform, rather than a first step in

26640-517: The vote and the right to sit in Parliament. That happened in 1829 using Whig support. Passage demonstrated that the veto power long held by the ultra-Tories no longer was operational, and significant reforms were now possible across the board. The stage was set for the Age of Reform. The era of reform came in a time of peace, guaranteed in considerable part by the overwhelming power of the Royal Navy. Britain engaged in only one serious war between 1815 and 1914,

26820-482: The vote in 1867. The aristocracy continued to dominate the Church of England, the most prestigious military and naval posts, and high society, but not business, industry or finance. In terms of national governmental policy, the democratic wishes of the entire people had become decisive. Most historians emphasise the central importance of the legislation of the 1830s–60s, although there was a dissenting minority of scholars in

27000-521: The war, Britain agreed to return most of the territories it had seized. The peace settlement was in effect only a ceasefire, and Napoleon continued to provoke the British by attempting a trade embargo on the country and by occupying the city of Hanover , capital of the Electorate , a German-speaking duchy of the Holy Roman Empire which was in a personal union with the United Kingdom. In May 1803, war

27180-520: The war. When Napoleon surrendered for the first time in 1814, three separate forces were sent to attack the Americans in upstate New York , along the Maryland coast (burning Washington but getting repulsed at Baltimore ), and up the Mississippi River to a massive defeat at the Battle of New Orleans . Each operation proved a failure with the British commanding generals killed or in disgrace. The war

27360-452: The world. In 1862, a new submarine cable had been laid from Queenstown in southern Ireland to St David's Head in Wales. When this was connected to the transatlantic landing point at Valentia Bay (opposite Valentia Island ), it dramatically reduced the distance transatlantic messages had to travel from Ireland to London from 750 miles (1,210 km) to 285 miles (459 km). The success of

27540-542: Was Presbyterian ), They proclaimed a devotion to hard work, temperance, frugality and upward mobility, with which historians today largely agree. A major Unitarian magazine, the Christian Monthly Repository asserted in 1827: The Nonconformists suffered under a series of disabilities, some of which were symbolic and others were painful, and they were all deliberately imposed to weaken the dissenting challenge to Anglican orthodoxy. The Nonconformists allied with

27720-641: Was RCA in the US, but they were also losing business because of the Imperial Wireless Chain set up by the British government to connect the empire. The Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company , which was also a competitor outside the Empire, supplied the transmitters for the Imperial Chain. The Electra House Group, an informal alliance of British telecommunication companies, decided that they could best compete worldwide by merging their cable and radio companies into

27900-568: Was Robert Peel , who suddenly reversed himself on the Catholic issue and was roundly denounced and permanently distrusted by the Ultra Tory faction of die-hards. Earl Grey , prime minister from 1830 to 1834, and his rejuvenated Whig Party enacted a series of major reforms: the poor law was updated, child labour restricted and, most important, the Reform Act 1832 refashioned the British electoral system. In 1832 Parliament abolished slavery in

28080-460: Was a coalition of diverse interests, so in 1834 when it divided over the Irish church question he resigned. Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston played the dominant role in shaping British foreign-policy as Foreign Secretary (1830–1834, 1835–1841 and 1846–1851) and as prime minister (1855–1858, 1859–1865). He served as Secretary at War in Tory governments for two decades, but switched over to

28260-492: Was a deeply unpopular playboy. When he tried to get Parliament to pass a law allowing him to divorce his wife Queen Caroline , public opinion strongly supported her. After four decades of rule by Pittites and Tories the first breakthrough in reform came in the removal by a Tory government of restrictions on the careers of Protestant Nonconformists in the repeal in 1828 of the laws that required Anglican church membership for many academic and government positions. Much more intense

28440-471: Was a leading promoter of utilitarianism as a working philosophy of action. The "greatest happiness principle", or the principle of utility , forms the cornerstone of Bentham's thought. By "happiness", he understood a predominance of "pleasure" over "pain". He is best known for his inspiration of the radical forces, helping them define those reforms that were most urgently needed and how they could be implemented. His intellectual leadership helped achieve many of

28620-760: Was a necessity for the rapidly growing industrial cities still labouring under a hodgepodge of centuries-old laws and traditions. When Peel took over the Home Office , he abolished the espionage and cruel punishments, ended the death penalty for most crimes, and inaugurated the first system of professional police —who in London to this day are still called "Bobbies" in his honour. The Municipal Corporations Act 1835 modernised urban government, which previously had been controlled by closed bodies dominated by Tories. Over 200 old corporations were abolished and replaced with 179 elected borough councils . Elections were to be based on registered voters, city finances had to be audited in

28800-452: Was a stalemate without purpose. A negotiated peace was reached at the end of 1814 that restored the prewar boundaries. British Canada celebrated its deliverance from American rule, Americans celebrated victory in a "second war of independence," and Britain celebrated its defeat of Napoleon. The treaty opened up two centuries of peace and open borders. Britain emerged from the Napoleonic Wars a very different country than it had been in 1793. As

28980-514: Was about 10%, the lowest in any modern nation. Foreign policy became moralistic and hostile to the reactionary powers on the continent, teaming up with the United States to block European colonialism in the New World through the Monroe Doctrine of 1823. Slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire. The Royal Navy stepped up efforts to stop international trade in slaves. Municipal reform

29160-424: Was always mistaken. He opposed wars and imperialism. His unremitting hostility to the Crimean war led to his defeat for reelection in 1857. He was soon reelected from Birmingham, leading a national campaign for parliamentary reform to enlarge the suffrage to reach the working man. He was intensely moralistic and distrusted the integrity of his opponents. He loathed the aristocracy that continued to rule Britain. He held

29340-445: Was an era of rapid economic modernisation and growth of industry, trade and finance, in which Britain largely dominated the world economy. Outward migration was heavy to the principal British overseas possessions and to the United States. With respect to other powers, the British remained non-aligned until the early 20th century when the growing naval power of the German Empire increasingly came to be seen as an existential threat to

29520-509: Was built in 1836. He pitched the telegraph to various railway companies as a means of signalling to control trains without success. Cooke, who was not scientifically trained, sought advice from Michael Faraday and Charles Wheatstone . Wheatstone recommended using a needle telegraph system. After the collaboration with Wheatstone had begun, they pursued only needle telegraphs. The Cooke and Wheatstone telegraph they developed and patented in May 1837 could have various arrangements of needles, but

29700-406: Was closely linked to the Church of England , and expressed its strong hostility toward Catholics and nonconformist Protestants by restricting their political and civil rights. The Catholic started to organise in Ireland, threatening instability or even civil war, and the moderates in Parliament emancipated them. The Nonconformists were similarly freed from their restrictions. In addition to reforms at

29880-405: Was declared again. Napoleon's plans to invade Great Britain failed, chiefly due to the inferiority of his navy, and in 1805 a Royal Navy fleet led by Nelson decisively defeated the French Imperial Navy and Royal Spanish Navy at Trafalgar , which was the last significant naval action of the Napoleonic Wars. In 1806, Napoleon issued the series of Berlin Decrees , which brought into effect

30060-422: Was designed to be used by unskilled operators with no knowledge of telegraph codes. Letters were marked around a dial with a button for each. The operator pressed the desired button and then turned a handle which generated pulses of current. These pulses moved a pointer through successive positions until it reached the button that had been pressed, at which point the current was cut off. A receiving dial indicated

30240-451: Was finally achieved in 1864 after the Indian government had laid a new cable made by W. T. Henley from Karachi to Fao, Iraq , and the using overland routes. This ocean route was a shorter distance than the Red Sea route and in shallower water, but still 1,450 miles (2,330 km). Many times longer than any other submarine cables, this was the first extremely long submarine cable to be a permanent success. The British government believed

30420-537: Was limited to within four miles (6.4 km) of Charing Cross , with possible later expansion to 20 miles (32 km). The District avoided the expense of erecting telegraph poles or burying cables by stringing the wires from building to building, a technique that could only be used in heavily built-up areas. Rooftop wires may have been cheap to install but getting the wayleaves could be troublesome. Thousands of individual permissions had to be obtained, and unusual conditions were sometimes imposed. One householder insisted

30600-500: Was no real need for distinct telegraph cables. Telegraph was declining, and multiple telegraph channels could be multiplexed into a single telephone channel since the 1920s. The Porthcurno Cable Hut where cables were landed is now the Porthcurno Telegraph Museum and the historic archive of Cable & Wireless. Maintenance costs of submarine cables were high. Ships' anchors frequently damaged them, and their insulation deteriorated over time. They were most at risk in shallow water near

30780-513: Was often unsuccessful. The cables were easily damaged and some attempts to lay them failed because they would not sink. The configuration found to work well was to twist the cable cores together, bind them with tarred hemp , wind a tarred cord around the whole group of cores, and then protect the assembled cores with iron wires twisted around them. The Gutta Percha Company never made completed cables of this sort, sending them to another company for finishing instead. These companies were specialists in

30960-511: Was prone to fall out with his customers and was often involved in litigation resulting in the company slowly moving away from the telegraph cable business. The British government took a strong interest in the provision of international telegraph connections. Government assistance to telegraph projects included the provision of Royal Navy ships to assist with cable laying and monetary guarantees. Two major failures gave them cause for concern—the first transatlantic telegraph cable , laid in 1858 by

31140-415: Was reassembled under the banner of the Conservative Party. Numerous Tories, such as Lord Palmerston , switched over to the Whig opposition, and it became the Liberal Party . Constitutionally, the 1830s marks a watershed: the end of Crown control over the cabinet. King William IV in 1834 was obliged to accept a Prime Minister who had a majority in Parliament, and the Crown ever since has gone along with

31320-412: Was so named because Falmouth was originally intended as the landing site in England. The tiny village of Porthcurno became the largest submarine cable station in the world after numerous other cables were landed there. In 1870, the British-Indian Submarine Company (founded 1869) provided the final link from Suez via Aden to Bombay . Once the connection was complete, the three companies were merged as

31500-401: Was the deepest submarine cable laid to date. The Magnetic was the ETC's largest competitor; both formed a virtual duopoly . In this context the ETC was commonly referred to as the Electric to counterpose it to the Magnetic. The Magnetic was not, however, the Electric's first competitor. The British Electric Telegraph Company (BETC), founded in 1849, was the first. Its name was later changed to

31680-554: Was the end point of the Australian Overland Telegraph Line , running 2,000 miles (3,200 km) to Port Augusta in South Australia . The three companies were merged as the Eastern Extension, Australasia and China Telegraph Company in 1873. This company connected Australia to New Zealand in 1876. Other Pender companies included: the Western and Brazilian Telegraph Company (1873), the Brazilian Submarine Telegraph Company (1873), Marseilles, Algiers and Malta Telegraph Company (1870), Eastern & South African Telegraph Company (1879), and

31860-532: Was the immediate repeal of the hated laws. Wellington and Peel originally were opposed, but then tried to compromise. They finally gave, splitting the Tory party, and signaling that the once unstoppable power of the Anglican establishment was now unexpectedly fragile and vulnerable to challenge. Three men shaped British foreign policy from 1810 to 1860, with only a few interruptions, Viscount Castlereagh (especially 1812–1822). George Canning (especially 1807–1829) and Viscount Palmerston (especially 1830–1865). For

32040-414: Was the long battle over the civil rights of Roman Catholics. Catholic emancipation came in 1829, which removed the most substantial restrictions on Roman Catholics in Great Britain and Ireland. The Duke of Wellington, as Tory prime minister, decided that the surging crisis in largely Catholic Ireland necessitated some relief for the Catholics, although he had long opposed the idea. The other main Tory leader

32220-400: Was the phenomenon of dispersion , which produces the effect called retardation . Dispersion, as it relates to transmission lines , is different frequency components of a signal travelling along a line at different speeds. Early telegraph engineers did not understand frequency analysis of this sort. The effect of dispersion on a telegraph pulse is to spread it out in time. This is because

32400-400: Was the unexpected repeal of the many restrictions on Catholics, after widespread organised protest by the Catholic Association in Ireland under Daniel O'Connell , with support from Catholics in England . Robert Peel was alarmed at the strength of the Catholic Association, warning in 1824, "We cannot tamely sit by while the danger is hourly increasing, while a power co-ordinate with that of

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