History of the Atlantic Cable & Submarine Telegraphy

	History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications from the first submarine cable of 1850 to the worldwide fiber optic network
The Evolution of Cable & Wireless by Bill Glover

The chart below shows a timeline of the many companies that consolidated over the years to become Cable & Wireless. Click on the links to read Bill Glover's history of each company.
John Pender was a pivotal figure in the early development of submarine telegraphy and continued to play a major role in the industry until his death in 1896
The Anglo-Mediterranean Telegraph Company The British-Indian Submarine Telegraph Company The Falmouth, Gibraltar and Malta Telegraph Company The Marseilles, Algiers and Malta Telegraph Company merged in 1872 to form THE EASTERN TELEGRAPH COMPANY	The British Australian Telegraph Company The British-Indian Extension Company The China Submarine Telegraph Company merged in 1872 to form THE EASTERN EXTENSION, AUSTRALASIA & CHINA TELEGRAPH COMPANY

The African Direct Telegraph Company The Eastern & South African Telegraph Company The Europe & Azores Telegraph Company The London-Platino Brazilian Telegraph Company The Pacific & European Telegraph Company The River Plate Telegraph Company Société Anonyme Belge des Câbles Télégraphiques The West African Telegraph Company The West Coast of America Telegraph Company The Western Telegraph Company merged with The Eastern Telegraph Company and The Eastern Extension, Australasia & China Telegraph Company to form THE EASTERN & ASSOCIATED TELEGRAPH COMPANIES

The Eastern & Associated Telegraph Companies merged with Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company Pacific Cable Board West Indian Cable & Wireless system operated by the Pacific Cable Board GPO Imperial Atlantic Cables GPO Beam Services British East African Broadcast Company to form IMPERIAL & INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS LTD

The following were acquired by Imperial & International during 1929-32 The Indo-European Telegraph Company The Indo-European Telegraph Department of the Government of India West India & Panama Telegraph Company The Direct West India Cable Company Halifax & Bermudas Cable Company

In 1934 Imperial & International Communications Ltd. changed its name to CABLE & WIRELESS LTD

Last revised: 16 March, 2007

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Research Material Needed

The Atlantic Cable website is non-commercial, and its mission is to make available on line as much information as possible.

You can help - if you have cable material, old or new, please contact me. Cable samples, instruments, documents, brochures, souvenir books, photographs, family stories, all are valuable to researchers and historians.

If you have any cable-related items that you could photograph, copy, scan, loan, or sell, please email me: billb@ftldesign.com