Development of the Anglo-Indian telegraph
J.M. Adams · Engineering Science and Education Journal · 1997
Between the end of the Indian Mutiny in 1857 and 1870, four Anglo-Indian telegraph routes were constructed. The first of these, via the Red Sea, was abandoned in 1861 leaving the British and Indian Governments to honour their guaranteed annual payments of 4½% on the capital invested. The second, via the Persian Gulf was completed in 1865 but proved difficult to operate without English speaking telegraphists through the Ottoman Empire. The third, via Siemens' Russian network and north Persia and employing English operators, reduced the mean time for telegrams to less than one day but was rapidly in competition with a submarine cable from Cornwall to Bombay via the Mediterranean. The author, a grandson of one of the Anglo-Indian telegraphists, reviews some contemporary records of the telegraph routes.