Submarine Telegraph Company
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The Submarine Telegraph Company was a British company which laid and operated
submarine telegraph cable A submarine communications cable is a cable laid on the seabed between land-based stations to carry telecommunication signals across stretches of ocean and sea. The first submarine communications cables were laid beginning in the 1850s and car ...
s. Jacob and
John Watkins Brett John Watkins Brett (1805–1863) was an English telegraph engineer. Life Brett was the son of a cabinetmaker, William Brett of Bristol, and was born in that city in 1805. Brett is known as the founder of submarine telegraphy. He formed the Sub ...
formed the English Channel Submarine Telegraph Company to lay the first cable across the
English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...
. An unarmoured cable with
gutta-percha Gutta-percha is a tree of the genus ''Palaquium'' in the family Sapotaceae, which is primarily used to create a high-quality latex of the same name. The material is rigid, naturally biologically Chemically inert, inert, resilient, electrically n ...
insulation was laid in 1850. The recently introduced gutta-percha was the first
thermoplastic A thermoplastic, or thermosoftening plastic, is any plastic polymer material that becomes pliable or moldable at a certain elevated temperature and solidifies upon cooling. Most thermoplastics have a high molecular weight. The polymer chains as ...
material available to cable makers and was resistant to seawater. This first un
armoured cable In electrical power distribution, armoured cable usually means steel wire armoured cable (SWA) which is a hard-wearing power cable designed for the supply of mains electricity. It is one of a number of armoured electrical cables – which include ...
was a failure and was soon broken either by a French
fishing boat A fishing vessel is a boat or ship used to catch fish and other valuable nektonic aquatic animals (e.g. shrimps/prawns, krills, coleoids, etc.) in the sea, lake or river. Humans have used different kinds of surface vessels in commercial, arti ...
or by abrasion on the rocks off the French coast. 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 & Wireless (CW). ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'' commemorated the 50th anniversary of the cable in 1900; CW and the
Science Museum, London The Science Museum is a major museum on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London. It was founded in 1857 and is one of the city's major tourist attractions, attracting 3.3 million visitors annually in 2019. Like other publicly funded ...
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. A
proof of principle A proof of concept (POC or PoC), also known as proof of principle, is an inchoate realization of a certain idea or method in order to demonstrate its feasibility or viability. A proof of concept is usually small and may or may not be complete, ...
was conducted in 1849 by
Charles Vincent Walker Charles Vincent Walker FRS (20 March 1812 – 24 December 1882) was an English electrical engineer and publisher, a major influence on the development of railway telecommunications, he was also the first person to send a submarine telegraph sign ...
of the South Eastern Railway using
gutta-percha Gutta-percha is a tree of the genus ''Palaquium'' in the family Sapotaceae, which is primarily used to create a high-quality latex of the same name. The material is rigid, naturally biologically Chemically inert, inert, resilient, electrically n ...
insulated cable. Gutta-percha, recently introduced by
William Montgomerie William Montgomerie (1797–1856) was a Scottish military doctor with the East India Company, and later head of the medical department at Singapore. He is best known for promoting the use of gutta-percha in Europe. This material was an import ...
for making medical equipment, was a natural rubber that was found to be ideal for insulating ocean cables. Walker laid two miles (3.2 km) of the cable from the ship ''Princess Clementine'' off the coast of
Folkestone Folkestone ( ) is a coastal town on the English Channel, in Kent, south-east England. The town lies on the southern edge of the North Downs at a valley between two cliffs. It was an important harbour, shipping port, and fashionable coastal res ...
. With the other end connected to the railway telegraph lines, he successfully sent telegraph messages from the ship to London. At the conclusion of the experiment, South Eastern Railway reused the cable in a wet railway tunnel. 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
Gutta Percha Company The Gutta Percha Company was an English company formed in 1845 to make a variety of products from the recently introduced natural rubber gutta-percha. Unlike other natural rubbers, this material was thermoplastic allowing it to be easily Mold ...
was contracted to manufacture the cable. A paddle tug, ''Goliath'' was chartered for cable laying. ''Goliath'' transported the cable from the manufacturing plant in
Greenwich Greenwich ( , , ) is an List of areas of London, area in south-east London, England, within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London, east-south-east of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime hi ...
to
Dover Dover ( ) is a town and major ferry port in Kent, southeast England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies southeast of Canterbury and east of Maidstone. ...
in short lengths which were then spliced together onto a single drum. 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. ''Goliath'' laid the cable between Dover and
Cap Gris Nez Cap Gris-Nez is a cape located in Audinghen, a commune in the Pas-de-Calais département of northern France. Part of the Côte d'Opale, it is classified as a protected natural area. Its cliffs mark the closest point of France to Great Britain, ...
in France on 28 August 1850 Unlike later submarine cables, this one had no armouring to protect it. The single copper wire was protected only by the layer of gutta-percha insulation around it. This made it very light, and it was necessary to attach periodic lead weights to make it sink. Messages sent across the cable were unintelligible due to
dispersion Dispersion may refer to: Economics and finance *Dispersion (finance), a measure for the statistical distribution of portfolio returns * Price dispersion, a variation in prices across sellers of the same item *Wage dispersion, the amount of variat ...
of the signal, a phenomenon which was not understood at the time, and would be an even greater problem to the first
transatlantic telegraph cable Transatlantic telegraph cables were undersea cables running under the Atlantic Ocean for telegraph communications. Telegraphy is a largely obsolete form of communication, and the cables have long since been decommissioned, but telephone and dat ...
. Dispersion was a problem not fully solved on submarine cables until loading started to be used at the beginning of the 20th century. Both ends of the communication assumed that the messages did not make sense because the other end was in the midst of drunken celebrations of their success. It was decided to try again in the morning. During the night the cable failed. Initial reports stated that cable was damaged where it passed over rocks near Cap Gris Nez, but later French fishermen were blamed. The cable was never put back into service. While it is certainly true that French fishing boats recovered lengths of the cable hauled up in their nets, and in some cases cut the cable to free their gear, it remains unclear if this was the initial cause of the failure. A story circulated much later (from 1865) that the fisherman who initially cut the cable thought it was a new species of seaweed with gold in its centre. Although this story is still found in modern sources, it is likely apocryphal.


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
Thomas Russell Crampton Thomas Russell Crampton, MICE, MIMechE (6 August 1816 – 19 April 1888) was an English engineer born at Broadstairs, Kent, and trained on Brunel's Great Western Railway. He is best known for designing the Crampton locomotive but had many e ...
, who was put in charge of ordering the new cable. Crampton specified a much improved cable. The core of the new cable, again made by the Gutta Percha Company, was to have four conductors, substantially increasing the potential traffic, and insulated with gutta-percha as before. However, the four separate insulated conductors were not laid into a single cable by the Gutta Percha Company. This task was given to a wire-rope making company, Wilkins and Wetherly, who armoured the cable with an outer layer of helically laid iron wires. Production was halted for a time due to a dispute with R.S. Newall and Company of
Gateshead Gateshead () is a town in the Gateshead Metropolitan Borough of Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank. The town's attractions include the twenty metre tall Angel of the North sculpture on the town's southern outskirts, ...
. Newall had a patent for manufacturing wire rope with a soft core to make it more flexible, and claimed that this submarine cable breached that patent. The issue was resolved by allowing Newall to take over production of the cable at Wilkins and Wetherly's Wapping premises. The completed cable was 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
River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...
. This was a difficult task which had to frequently be halted to tie back protruding broken iron wires. At the River Thames, the cable was loaded on to the ''Blazer'', a hulk loaned to the Submarine Telegraph Company by the government. The cable was laid between
South Foreland South Foreland is a chalk headland on the Kent coast of southeast England. It presents a bold cliff to the sea, and commands views over the Strait of Dover. It is centred northeast of Dover and 15 miles south of North Foreland. It includes th ...
and
Sangatte Sangatte (; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Pas-de-Calais Departments of France, department on the northern coast of France on the English Channel. The name is of Flemish origin, meaning hole or gap in the sand. Engineering Sangatte i ...
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 Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a French port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Calais is the largest city in Pas-de-Calais. The population of the city proper is 67,544; that of the urban area is 144,6 ...
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. 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.Smith, p. 17 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. The line was finally open to the public on 19 November 1851. The occasion was marked by setting off an
electrical fuse In electronics and electrical engineering, a fuse is an electrical safety device that operates to provide overcurrent protection of an electrical circuit. Its essential component is a metal wire or strip that melts when too much current flows t ...
over the telegraph from Dover to fire a cannon in Calais. In reply, Calais fired a cannon in
Dover Castle Dover Castle is a medieval castle in Dover, Kent, England and is Grade I listed. It was founded in the 11th century and has been described as the "Key to England" due to its defensive significance throughout history. Some writers say it is the ...
. 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. This was the first undersea submarine cable put into service.
Werner von Siemens Ernst Werner Siemens ( von Siemens from 1888; ; ; 13 December 1816 – 6 December 1892) was a German electrical engineer, inventor and industrialist. Siemens's name has been adopted as the SI unit of electrical conductance, the siemens. He ...
had used gutta-percha-insulated cable to cross the
Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...
in 1847 and
Kiel Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...
Harbour in 1848, but this was the first working undersea cable to link two countries.


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. 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. 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
brazing Brazing is a metal-joining process in which two or more metal items are joined by melting and flowing a filler metal into the joint, with the filler metal having a lower melting point than the adjoining metal. Brazing differs from welding in ...
a
scarf joint A scarf joint, or scarph joint, is a method of joining two members end to end in woodworking or metalworking. The scarf joint is used when the material being joined is not available in the length required. It is an alternative to other joints ...
with hard solder. However, the heat from the blowpipe softened the gutta-percha which became plastic and dripped off the cable. An alternative method was therefore used. Two inches of insulation was stripped from each end, the exposed wires twisted together and
soft solder Solder (; NA: ) is a fusible metal alloy used to create a permanent bond between metal workpieces. Solder is melted in order to wet the parts of the joint, where it adheres to and connects the pieces after cooling. Metals or alloys suitable ...
ed. Sheets of gutta-percha heated to a plastic state were then wrapped around the joint and clamped in a mould. This resulted in a cigar-shaped bulge around the joint which was undesirable for cable laying.


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 The General Post Office (GPO) was the state postal system and telecommunications carrier of the United Kingdom until 1969. Established in England in the 17th century, the GPO was a state monopoly covering the dispatch of items from a specific ...
.


List of cables laid

Until 1863, all cable cores were made by the
Gutta Percha Company The Gutta Percha Company was an English company formed in 1845 to make a variety of products from the recently introduced natural rubber gutta-percha. Unlike other natural rubbers, this material was thermoplastic allowing it to be easily Mold ...
as they had a monopoly on gutta-percha cable. In 1863, they merged with cable manufacturer Glass, Elliot & Company to form the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company.Haigh, p. 27


References


Bibliography

* Glover, Bill; Burns, Bill
"The Submarine Telegraph Company"
''History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications'', accessed an

5 August 2020. * Haigh, Kenneth Richardson, ''Cableships and Submarine Cables'', Adlard Coles, 1968 . * Huurdeman, Anton A., ''The Worldwide History of Telecommunications'', Wiley, 2003 . * Kieve, Jeffrey L.

David & Charles David & Charles Ltd is an English publishing company. It is the owner of the David & Charles imprint, which specialises in craft and lifestyle publishing. David and Charles Ltd acts as distributor for all David and Charles Ltd books and cont ...
, 1973 . * 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. * Smith, Willoughby
''The Rise and Extension of Submarine Telegraphy''
J.S. Virtue & Company, 1891 . {{Telecommunications industry in the United Kingdom Defunct telecommunications companies of the United Kingdom Technology companies established in 1849 Technology companies disestablished in 1890 Telecommunications companies established in 1849 Telecommunications companies disestablished in the 19th century Telegraph companies of the United Kingdom 1849 establishments in England 1890 disestablishments in England