THE TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN, EUROPE, AMERICA, AND THE EAST.
By GEORGE WALTER NIVEN.
There are at present twenty-six submarine cable companies, the combined capital of which is about forty million pounds sterling. Their revenue, including subsidies, amounts to 3,204,060£.; and their reserves and sinking funds to 3,610,000£.; and their dividends are from one to 14¾ per cent. The receipts from the Atlantic cables alone amount to about 800,000£. annually.
The number of cables laid down throughout the world is 1,045, of which 798 belong to governments and 247 to private companies. The total length of those cables is 120,070 nautical miles, of which 107,546 are owned by private telegraph companies, nearly all British; the remainder, or 12,524 miles, are owned by governments.
MAP SHOWING CABLES FROM GREAT BRITAIN TO AMERICA AND THE CONTINENT.
The third largest cable company is the Anglo-American Telegraph Company, with thirteen cables, of a total length of 10,196 miles.
The British government has one hundred and three cables around our shores, of a total length of 1,489 miles. If we include India and the colonies, the British empire owns altogether two hundred and sixteen cables of a total length of 3,811 miles.
The longest government cable in British waters is that from Sinclair Bay, Wick, to Sandwick Bay, Shetland, of the length of 122 miles, and laid in 1885. The shortest being four cables across the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal, at the latter place, and each less than 300 ft. in length.
Of government cables the greatest number is owned by Norway, with two hundred and thirty-six, averaging, however, less than a mile each in length.