History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications
from the first submarine cable of 1850 to the worldwide fiber optic network

Johnson & Phillips
Cable gear suppliers

JOHNSON AND PHILLIPS LTD.

This 1917 advertisement from the back pages of a cable textbook shows the Eastern Telegraph Company’s CS Restorer, fitted with Johnson and Phillips cable gear. The ship is pictured on the River Thames.

Founded in 1875 and located in Charlton, south-east London, the company offered: "Complete equipments of cable machinery, accessories and stores for cable laying and repairing steamers."

Their products also included: "Telegraph, telephone and insulated electric cable of all kinds" and "Machinery and plant for electric cable manufacture".

Brief biographies of W.C. Johnson and S.E. Phillips, the partners in the firm, are given in The Electricians’ Directory with Handbook for 1885:

JOHNSON, W.C.
(of the firm of Johnson and Phillips).
Educated at Victoria College, in the island of Jersey.

When about seventeen years of age Mr. Johnson became an articled pupil to Mr. W.F. Gooch, at the Vulcan Foundry in Lancashire, where he remained for five years. Failing, however, to find work that was congenial to his tastes, and after declining with considerable hesitation the offer of an appointment in a drawing office at the rate of £50 per annum, he resolved to join the applied sciences department, King’s College, London, for a year, and on the completion of this term he was engaged as a draughtsman by Mr. H. Clifford, the engineer of the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company’s works.

It was here, in working out designs for improved cable machinery, under the immediate supervision of Mr. Clifford, that he obtained a clear insight into the most advanced form and construction of this important branch of engineering, and his keen observation had ample scope, not only in the direction to which his abilities so conspicuously tend, viz., in the design and construction of machinery, but also in the laying of all the original cables of the Eastern and Eastern Extension Telegraph systems.

He was appointed chief engineer in the laying of the British Australasian cable, the expedition being commanded by Captain Halpin. He left the works of the Telegraph Construction Company to join Mr. S.E. Phillips in establishing a business of their own.

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PHILLIPS, S. E.

Mr. Phillips, when a boy, was brought into contact with telegraphy, his father being at that time engaged with Dr. Whitehouse in carrying out experimental work in connection with the first Atlantic cable. He subsequently accompanied his father in the first Malta and Alexandria cable expedition; and he became a member of the staff which Colonel Stewart formed to go out with the Persian Gulf cable, remaining at Bushire as a junior clerk.

At the end of three years’ service he returned to England, and obtained an appointment on the electrical staff of Messrs. Latimer Clark, Ford and Co., leaving these gentlemen to become electrician to Mr. W.T. Henley, and in whose service he remained for ten years.

At Mr. Henley’s works he was appointed manager of the cable department, and occasionally he accompanied some of the cable expeditions as the head of the electrical department. As an inventor Mr. Phillips has given us a fluid insulator, which has been largely adopted in India. In 1875 he joined Mr. W.C. Johnson in partnership, and a small works was established at Charlton.. This formed the nucleus of the present extensive range of factories.

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The address of the firm was given in 1885 as 14, Union-court, Old Broad-street, E.C., and Victoria Works, Charlton, S.E.

In 1895 The Electrician published this expanded biography of Johnson:

Johnson, W. Claude, M.I.C.E., at the age of seventeen was articled to Mr. W.F. Gooch, C.E., serving five years’ apprenticeship in the locomotive works of the Vulcan Foundry, after which he studied at King’s College, London. From 1869 to 1875 he was with the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company, and acted in various capacities both at the works and in cable-laying expeditions. Here he became thoroughly conversant with the requirements of cable laying and picking up; indeed, so close was his study of the subject that he soon became recognised as the leading authority dealing with such apparatus. Hence, when in 1875 he joined Mr. S.E. Phillips, to form the firm of Johnson and Phillips, that firm took a commanding position in the manufacture of all cable apparatus, and from that time to this the firm has probably designed, or, we should say, Mr. Claude Johnson has designed, and the firm constructed, the largest part of the cable machinery existing.

Mr. Claude Johnson controls Charlton Works, which have steadily increased in size, and are still being added to. These works now cover an area of seven acres, and employ about 500 men. Latterly, the developments of electric lighting have overshadowed those of cable work, and the larger part of the works is devoted to lighting requirements, although just at present they are busy with cable machines designed for M. Grammont’s factory in France, and other work for the Eastern Telegraph Company. It speaks much for the capacity of Mr. Claude Johnson as an engineer and as an organiser to see the admirable way in which those works are conducted. He has had the great advantage of being well supported by his scientific partner, Mr. S.E. Phillips.

Literary and professional men are generally supposed to owe much to having sat at the feet of some Gamaliel, till it seems a pity that it was not fashionable for a successful business man to be surrounded with a bevy of learners. Of this firm it might be said that it pursues the only true course to ensure permanent success: it undertakes nothing it cannot perform, and is satisfied with none but the very best workmanship and materials. This speaks volumes for the heads and hearts that guide the venture.

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