Building Telegraph Networks P-u Tine Draga !

8/14/2019 Building Telegraph Networks P-u Tine Draga !

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Ministry of Education of Republic of Moldova

Technical University of Moldova

Radioelectronics and TelecommunicationsFaculty

English Chair

Theme: Building telegraph networks

Made by student of SER 05 group! StanilescuSergiu"

#erified by ! $urcanu #"

Chisinau 005


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%uilding telegraph net&or's

The rail&ay telegraph system is built ()*+0s, ! gro&ing&ith the rail&ays

The success of the electric telegraph on the Great Western

Railway encouraged other railway companies to take up the idea.

The new system soon paid for itself in cost savings as C.V.Walker, telegraph superintendent of the South astern Railway,

e!plained in "#$%&

'The cost of maintaining and working a singlepilot engine (all of which have )een

superseded )y the telegraph* amounted to a greater sum than is now re+uired to defray

the e!pense of the entire staff of telegraph clerks and the mechanics and la)ourersemployed in cleaning and repairing the instruments and maintaining the integrity of the

lone wires.'

year later (the year of the Great !hi)ition* the chief engineer of the -ondon /orthWestern Railway company wrote that the telegraph had proved its worth )y e!tending the

capacity of the railway 'in an incalcula)le degree'.

0rom now on there was no stopping the spread of the telegraph on railways.

1t was the railway companies who formed the first customers for the new technology of

the telegraph. 2ut even they needed some persuasion.

Cooke and Wheatstone's original interest came from Ro)ert Stephenson's -ondon and

2irmingham Railway, )ut following trials it went cold on the idea of introducing

telegraph onto its network. 1t took almost two more years )efore the Great Westerndecided to fund a trial telegraph from 3addington to West 4rayton. 2ut when Cooke and

Wheatstone suggested e!tending the line to Slough, the GWR seemed to lose interest. s

a result Cooke offered to run the line 5 even though he was almost )ankrupt.

lthough the telegraph was useful to the railways, it wasn't long )efore they developedtheir own dedicated systems for signalling and controlling the trains. This left the

message telegraph to )e mainly used for administration and passenger services.

Competing for &ayleaves ! the right toerect a pole

The first telegraph wires were laid underground )ut the standard

practice soon )ecame to hang them from insulators on telegraph
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poles. recting a pole route needed a continuous strip of land )etween the points to )e

linked and none of the telegraph companies owned land of this kind 5 nor did they want

to.

1nstead they made agreements with other landowners and o)tained rights (normally

e!clusive* to erect poles. These agreements were known as 'wayleaves'. The earlytelegraph lines had followed the railway tracks and the lectric 1nternational Telegraph

Company made good use of these routes. 1ts chief rival, the 2ritish 1rish 6agneticTelegraph Company, had no such facilities and instead was forced to use canal towpaths.

3oles could also )e erected alongside pu)lic highways or on private land )ut this called

for e!tensive and lengthy negotiations with a multitude of authorities and landowners.

The early telegraph network developed mostly along the railway lines.

t first, it was the contracts with the railway companies that kept the telegraph

companies going. The lectric Telegraph Company, the first of these companies, soon

developed so many agreements with the railways that its rivals were forced to use theroads and canals for their routes.

1n the cities the companies needed to )e ingenious. Some wires were )uried underground

)ut this was e!pensive. 1n "#$#, telegraph entrepreneurs hit on the idea of paying

homeowners for 'wayleaves' and then running his wires over the top of their roofs.

2y the following year, Charles 4ickens reported there were already "7% miles oftelegraph wire running over the rooftops of -ondon.

The first commercial public telegraph ()*+0, ! a

message from -ueen #ictoria

The growth of 2ritain's telegraphic network was e!tremely rapid,

matching the growth of railways in the "#8%s. The first

commercial pu)lic telegraph line ran )etween -ondon andGosport, near 3ortsmouth. 1t opened in 0e)ruary "#8$ with a

transmissionof a speech )y 9ueen Victoria. Within ten years,

most of the main cities of 2ritain were connected )y telegraph.

1n "#87 William Cooke :oined a new partner, the mem)er of 3arliament ;ohn -ewis

Ricardo, to set up the lectric Telegraph Company.

Within three years, the TC had opened the world's first central telegraph station in the

City of -ondon. This was to )ecome world famous as the Central Telegraph


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The net&or' gro&s ()*+*, ! an e.plosion

of possibilities

2y the end of "#8#, a)out ten years after the first telegraph

demonstration, the telegraph lines covered over ",#%% miles of2ritain's infant railway network 5 a)out half the rail lines in

service.

Within >$ years, 2ritain was connected to 7$%,%%% miles of telegraph wire and ?%,%%%

miles of su)marine ca)le. 6ore than>%,%%% towns and villages were part of the @A

network.

1n "#8# it took around ten weeks to send a message from -ondon to 2om)ay and get areply. 2y "#B8 it could )e done in four minutes.

www.telegraph.co.uk

Summary

The telegraphic age produced a new phenomenon 5 the wiring of a nation into a network.

Wired networks are so much a part of life today that we hardly think a)out them 5 )ut the

first telegraph wires seemed )oth alien and wondrous in Victorian times. Theconstruction of that first network re+uired huge feats of engineering and also gave rise to

some hard fought )attles.
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%ibliography!

Mabee! The /merican eonardo1 Samuel F % Morse ()2+3,"

4loss! S F % Morse ()2**,"

Staiti 6! S F % Morse ()2*2,"

)2)) Encyclopedia1 7Samuel Finley Breese Morse7" oveTo4no&1 Corp" 7Samuel F. B. Morse Papers7"8C"

7Morse Timeline7"8C"

7Samuel Finley Breese Morse: 1791 - 17!7" /dventures in Cybersound"

Calvert1 6" %"1 7"ear #meri$an Morse: how it sounded on a sounder7" September 01 000

7Samuel F. B. Morse7" 9ational :nventors ;all of Fame"

7Samuel F. B. Morse7" Unit ! Those :nventive /mericans" Smithsonian :nstitution1 00)"

7Morsum Magni%i$at&The maga'ine7"

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Building Telegraph Networks P-u Tine Draga !