History of British Telegraph and Speed of News

In the early years of telegraphy, telegraph wires run above the ground. Then in 1847 the chemist and physicist Michael Faraday suggested insulating them with gutta-percha, so that they could be laid underground or on the seabed.

The first London to Paris was in use in 1851 and after several attempts, a transatlantic telegraph cable was laid in 1865. By this time the telegraph was firmly established; at the end of the 1860s 111,000 miles of telegraph wires crisscrossed continental Europe.

One of the great advantages of the telegraph was the speed with which news could be collected and distributed. London’s The Times likened the transatlantic cable to the arrival of Columbus in the New World, though at the same time the editor warned his reporters that ‘telegrams are for facts: background and comment must come by post: The telegraph service quickly revolutionized journalism.

By the end of the 1850s, as many as 120 provincial newspaper in Great Britain received news by wire from parliament daily, and the London based agency that Julius Reuter had first started in Germany sent foreign news to editors in every town in the country.

Another innovation that the telegraph brought was the foreign correspondent or war correspondent the man in the spot at momentous events who could send news as soon as it happened, instead of weeks or months after.

The first and the greatest was W.H Russell of The Times. He was his paper’s correspondent covering several wars, including the Crimean war of the 1850 from which he sent vivid accounts of the charges of the Light and Heavy Brigades.

Just as powerful were Russell’s savage indictments of the inadequacies and inefficiencies of the British Headquarters Staff in the Crimea, and of the horrors of the hospital conditions. The influence of newspapers was now great enough for his reports to contribute to the fall of the government.
History of British Telegraph and Speed of News