In 1859 the London District Telegraph Company was organized for the purpose of transmitting telegraph messages between points in Metropolitan London. In 1860 the company had 52 stations and 73.5 miles of line; and it carried 74,582 messages. In 1862 it had 84 offices and 103 miles of line, and it carried 243,849 messages. In 1865 the company reached its highest point, carrying 316,272 messages. The company at that time had 123 miles of line and 83 offices. The London District Telegraph Company began with a tariff of 8 cents for 10 words, and 12 cents for a message of 10 words with a reply message of 10 words. It soon changed its tariff to 12 cents for 15 words, experience having shown that 10 words was an insufficient allowance.[15] Subsequently the company added porterage charges for delivery beyond a certain distance. In 1866, the company raised its tariff to 24 cents. The company never earned operating expenses; and in November, 1867, its shares, upon which $25 had been paid in, fluctuated between $3.75 and $6.25.[16]
Mr. Robert Grimston, Chairman of the Electric and International Telegraph Company, in 1868 commented as follows upon the experience of the London District Telegraph Company. “A very strong argument against the popular fancy that the introduction of a low rate of charge in towns and country districts would induce the shopkeepers and the lower classes to use the telegraph is furnished by the example of the London District Telegraph Company. A better or a wider field than the metropolitan for an illustration of this theory could not surely be furnished. The facts, however, being, that after several years of struggling existence, the tariff being first fixed at 8 cents, and then at 12 cents, the company has never paid its way.”
FOOTNOTES:
[4] A Report to the Postmaster General upon Certain Proposals which have been made for transferring to the Post Office the Control and Management of the Electric Telegraphs throughout the United Kingdom, July, 1868; Supplementary Report to the Postmaster General upon the Proposal for transferring to the Post Office the Control and Management of the Electric Telegraphs, February, 1868; Special Report from the Select Committee on the Electric Telegraphs Bill, 1868; and Report from the Select Committee on the Telegraphic Bill, 1869.
Unless otherwise stated, all the material statements made in this chapter are taken from the foregoing official documents.
[5] Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates, July 21, 1868, p. 1,603.
[6] Special Report from the Select Committee on the Electric Telegraphs Bill, 1868; q. 2549 and 1581.
[7] Special Report from the Select Committee on the Electric Telegraphs Bill, 1868; q. 2508; and Report from the Select Committee on the Telegraphic Bill, 1869; q. 346.
[8] Report from the Select Committee on the Telegraphic Bill, 1869; q. 327; and Special Report from the Select Committee on the Electric Telegraphs Bill, 1868; q. 88.
[9] Supplementary Report to the Postmaster General upon the Proposal for transferring to the Post Office the Control and Management of the Electric Telegraphs, 1868; and Sir James Anderson, in Journal of the Statistical Society, September, 1872.