Electric Telegraph Company

Formation

The Electric Telegraph Company was the world's first public telegraph company, founded in the United Kingdom by Sir William Fothergill Cooke and John Lewis Ricardo, MP for Stoke-on-Trent, with Cromwell F. Varley as chief engineer. It was incorporated by the Electric Telegraph Company's Act 1846 (9 & 10 Vict. c. xlvi). Its headquarters was in Founders Court, Lothbury, behind the Bank of England. This was the first company formed for the specific purpose of providing a telegraph service to the public. Besides Cooke and Ricardo, the original shareholders were railway engineer George Parker Bidder with the largest holding, Benjamin Hawes, Thomas Boulton, and three other members of the Ricardo family; Samson, Albert, and Frederick.

Up to this point telegraph lines had been laid mostly in conjunction with railway companies, and Cooke had been a leading figure in convincing them of its benefits. However, these systems were all for the exclusive use of the railway company concerned, mostly for signalling purposes, until 1843 when Cooke extended the Great Western Railway's telegraph on to Slough at his own expense, at which point he acquired the right to open it to the public. Railway telegraphy continued to be an important part of the company's business with expenditure on the railways peaking in 1847–48. This focus on the railways was reflected in the directors and major shareholders being dominated by people associated with railway construction. Additional railway people who had become involved by 1849 included Samuel Morton Peto, Thomas Brassey, Robert Stephenson (of Rocket fame and who was chairman of the company in 1857–58), Joseph Paxton, and Richard Till, a director of several railway companies.

The collaboration between Cooke and Charles Wheatstone in developing the Cooke and Wheatstone telegraph was not a happy one, degenerating into a bitter dispute over who had invented the telegraph. As a result, the company was formed without Wheatstone (although he claimed he had been offered the post of scientific adviser). At creation the company purchased all the patents Cooke and Wheatstone had obtained to date in building the Cooke and Wheatstone telegraph. It also obtained the important patent for the electric relay from Edward Davy for £600. The relay allowed telegraph signals weakened over a long distance to be renewed and retransmitted onward.

Early years

The company was not immediately hugely profitable, and shares were more or less worthless. In 1846 it won a concession from Belgium for telegraph lines covering the whole country. The company installed a line from Brussels to Antwerp but the traffic was light (mainly stock exchange business) and the company decided to return its concession to the Belgian Government in 1850. In 1848, after a dispute with the Great Western over an engine the ETC was alleged to have damaged, the telegraph line from Paddington to Slough was removed, although the railway company continued to use the telegraph at the Box Tunnel.

The setback with the Great Western did not slow the growth of the telegraph along railway lines, and these continued to be the main source of revenue. By 1848 the company had telegraph lines along half of the railway lines then open, some 1,800 miles, and continued to make deals with more railway companies after that. These included in 1851 a new contract with Great Western which was extending its line to Exeter and Plymouth and by 1852 the ETC had installed a line that ran from London, past Slough, as far as Bristol. These contracts usually gave the company exclusive rights to install telegraph lines. This gave the company a significant advantage over competitors when other companies entered the market.

Other areas of growth were in the supply of news to newspapers, and contracts with stock exchanges. However, general use by the public was retarded by the high cost of sending a message. By 1855 this situation was changing. The ETC now had over 5,200 miles of line and sent nearly three-quarters of a million messages that year. The growth, together with competitors coming on to the market, drove down prices. ETC's maximum charge for an inland telegram (over 100 miles) fell from ten shillings in 1851 to four shillings in 1855.

By 1859, growth required the company to relocate its London central office to Great Bell Alley, Moorgate, but retaining the Founders Court site as a public office. The Moorgate office was arranged over three floors and a large number of men and boys were recruited on an accelerating rate of pay. The company also employed a significant number of women from a higher social class as telegraphists operating the Wheatstone needle instruments. They were paid less and they had to leave if they married. A notable early employee was Maria Craig who became a supervisor. The portion of Great Bell Alley east of Moorgate Street was later renamed Telegraph Street in recognition of the importance of the company at 11–14 Telegraph Street. The site is now occupied by The Telegraph pub.

Historical documents

Records of the Electric Telegraph Company (33 volumes), 1846–1872, the International Telegraph Company (5 volumes), 1852–1858 and the Electric and International Telegraph Company (62 volumes), [1852]–1905 are held by BT Archives.