Year: 2022
Type: article
Abstract: The East India Company introduced Telegraph in India (1851) to establish a firm imperial control over its prized colony.Telegraph served the commercial, administrative and imperial purposes of the Company and practically saved the Company's Govt.during the mutiny of 1857 by quickly transmitting the news of the movements of the mutineers and sending SOS for military reinforcement.After the mutiny, when the administrative control of India passed on from the Company to the Queen's Govt., a pressing need was felt to telegraphically connect England with India.The first attempt was made by 'The Red Sea and India Telegraph Company' to lay submarine cable, which failed.The first successful underwater connection from London to Kolkata via Mumbai was made by the 'Eastern Telegraph Company' of John Pender through the Mediterranean, Red Sea and the Arabian Sea.From Kolkata it further extended to China, Japan and Australia.For laying a direct, dedicated overland telegraphic line between England and India, which is easier to maintain, the British Indian Govt.-ownedIndo-European Telegraph Department (IETD), which had already been operating telegraph systems in Persia (Iran) and the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) in the Middle-East, collaborated with the Siemens group of companies (based in London and Berlin), and the 'Indo-European Telegraph Company' (IETC) was formed.IETC's engineer Ernst Werner von Siemens made some important technological innovations that enabled a continuous transmission of messages from London to Kolkata via Prussia (Germany), Russian empire (Poland, Russia, Ukraine and Georgia) and Persia.The line entered India in Karachi and was connected to Kolkata via Agra.It took less than half an hour for a message to reach Kolkata from London.Between 1865 and 1875, a continuous telegraphic network from San Francisco to Melbourne via New York, London, Berlin, Saint Petersburg, Tehran and Kolkata was established.This network can be compared to Roman Roads, first Postal services or today's Internet.Telegraphic communications had important social, economic, political and cultural significance, establishing quick and easy communications between faraway countries.This was, no doubt, the first step towards globalization.
Source: Science and Culture
Author: INDRANIL SANYAL
Institution: Ministry of Culture
Language: English
Subfield: Computer Science Applications
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4285037527