Applied telegraphy dates practically from the year 1835, when Messrs Cooke and Wheatstone collaborated and presented to the world their five-needle telegraph system, requiring five-line wires, and since then rapid strides have been made, chiefly in connection with telegraphic apparatus. The five-needle system soon gave place to the double needle, an exceedingly useful instrument with two-line wires, and to the single needle with one wire. Then followed at successive intervals the Wheatstone A B C, Bright's Bell, Morse's Printer and Sounder (the most generally adopted handworked system of to-day), the Wheatstone Automatic, the Hughes Recorder, the Baudot, and other and more recent systems of direct printing telegraphy, such as the Creed and the Murray Multiplex. Finally wireless telegraphy was introduced, and its uses and capacities are in process of development. At first the use of the telegraph was almost entirely confined to railways, and it was not until 1846 that a private company was formed to undertake the business of transmitting telegrams. Various other companies followed in succeeding years, but considerable dissatisfaction was felt at the inequalities of service and rates which prevailed. Small towns were neglected, and as the telegraph lines followed the railways, many places were not served at all. It was becoming more and more evident that a uniform system under one administration was a public need.
In the year 1868 an Act was passed empowering her Majesty's Postmaster-General to acquire, work, and maintain electric telegraphs, and two years later the business and interests of the several telegraph companies were taken over by the State. There can be no question that this measure, which entailed a considerable monetary outlay at the commencement, has been of immense value to the general public. The purchase of the telegraphs by the State was a huge undertaking, but in many respects it was mismanaged by Parliament as well as by officials. For instance, the story of the cable to Scilly is a concrete example of how the public were fleeced. All inland telegraphs in existence on a given day were to be taken over on the terms and conditions laid down in the Act of Parliament. Three joint-stock companies were immediately formed—the Guernsey and Jersey, the Shetland, and Scilly Islands Companies; and they went to work “hammer and tongs” to get their cables laid before they could be stopped by the provisions of the Bill which was then being carried through Parliament. It was touch and go with these bastard companies, and the effort made to lay the Scilly cable is very amusing reading. Owing to bad pilotage every inch of the cable was expended before the operators got within five miles of the islands. Now unless the cable could be laid and certified as being in working order within a given number of days they would not be allowed to land at all. The electrician in charge cut the cable a few fathoms from the ship and steamed into Scilly towing the “fag end” behind. “It was a gala day with the Scillonians.” It was the dawn of a new era to them. They kept high festival, and the shore end was landed and hauled up over the cliffs by willing hands. And then, wonderful to relate, with the two ends of the cable lying several miles apart at the bottom of the Channel, the clever electrician produced messages printed in plain characters on the Morse slip, and on the faith of these signals the contractors issued their certificate. The inventive genius of the electrician had saved the situation. The Scilly cable was “in being,” and would have to be reckoned with when the time came for purchase.
The Woodpecker and the Telegraph Post.
Several instances occurred some time ago of injury to telegraph poles in the neighbourhood of Shipston on Stour, caused by large holes being driven into and almost through them. The offender was discovered to be simply a woodpecker. The bird is thought to have imagined that the humming of the wires indicated insects.
The united cost of the transfer had been seriously under-estimated, and the telegraph service has always been more or less burdened by the expenditure incurred at the outset. The transfer, however, has been a great boon to the nation, and has enabled the postal and telegraph system of Great Britain and Ireland to become the largest and most complete organisation for the transmission of messages in the world. The immense increase in business would, however, have been impossible but for the advances made since the transfer in telegraphic apparatus, and in wire values, such as the introduction of the duplex, quadruplex, and multiplex systems, which allow of a single wire being electrically split up for the simultaneous transmission of a number of currents.
Previous to 1870 the number of telegraph offices in the United Kingdom was approximately 3000, as against 13,520 at the present day. The total number of messages dealt with in the time of the companies amounted to between six and seven millions annually. At the present time upwards of eighty-six million telegrams are dealt with annually.
The charges were high compared with the present time, as much as 7s. 6d. being required for a twenty-word telegram to Liverpool in the fifties, and later the average cost of a telegram to the public was 2s. 2d. per message.