Skip to content

Britians Motivation for Telegraphy

Title: @headrickSubmarineTelegraphCables2001 date: 2023-03-05 type: literature project:

tags:: #telegraph #Britan #monopoly #memex2 #atomic projects::

As I see it, the British government had a huge monopoly on the telegraph industry for 3 main reasons, colonialism, their head start in research and development, and the vast economic benefits.

Colonialism

Britain had many colonies spread out throughout the world, which communicating with them from the homeland was very difficult because you had to wait weeks for a letter to travel across the ocean. Especially colonies such as Canada, Australia, and South Africa had a large population of European settlers that wanted to know what is happening back in their homeland.

Britain had many colonies spread out throughout the world, which communicating with them from the homeland was very difficult because you had to wait weeks for a letter to travel across the ocean. Especially colonies such as Canada, Australia, and South Africa had a large population of European settlers that wanted to know what is happening back in their homeland. ^ec37b8

Research and Development

Although Britain may seem to be ahead of everyone, that is only because they sunk the funds for the tests on the technology. They had spent thousands of dollars overall before the first official underwater telegraph cable worked in the 1850s, with many failed attempts such as the one in the Red Sea, (Similar to how there were many attempts in creating a standardize library catalogue Historical Developments of Library Systems) which was rushed, and the technology was not fully ready yet (Headrick, 2001)(page 6). Since they were the first to lay an underwater cable, they had a head start in building up their network.

Economy

Due to Britain vast colonial empire involving a very large volume of trade between countries such as India (page 10), they wanted to keep up to date on what the country was doing because it had already tried to revolt once before. If the British government could be notified faster that something is going on, they will be able to send reinforcements quicker, squashing any sort of uprising keeping these colonies that are essentially banks to them.

Citational Information

Headrick, DR and Griset, P. 2001 Submarine Telegraph Cables: Business and Politics, 1838-1939. The Business History Review 75(3): 543–578. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3116386.

In the RND section it is very similar to how Britan was one of the first to develop a library catalogue, thus making them very big in the industry. Development of Catalogue codes The creation of the telegraph is different from the telephone. Business differences for the telephone Accelerating forces other than military