21. TELEGRAPH MAPS 1852 - 1868
Great Britain 1852
Click the thumbnail above for a greatly enlarged coloured version of
“The Electric Telegraph Company,
Chart of the Company’s Telegraphic System
in Great Britain, 1852”
published by the Electric Telegraph Company and printed by Day & Company, “lithographers to the Queen”, 17 Gate Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London
A large double-elephant size, 40 inches by 26¾ inches, paper map
“dissected” and mounted on cloth for convenient folding, and fitting into a protective slip case.
It was updated and reprinted regularly in the 1850s and 1860s,
versions dated 1852, 1853, 1859, 1860 (small) and 1866 are known
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Europe 1860
Click the thumbnail above for a greatly enlarged version of
“The Telegraphs of Europe”
published by the Electric & International Telegraph Company in 1860.
This map was a reprint to a double-elephant size, 40 inches by 26¾ inches,
of an earlier 30 inch by 36 inch version which accounts for the presence of
the original, short-lived Atlantic Cable of 1858.
Versions dated 1854, 1855, 1856, 1859, 1861, 1863, 1865 are known
The map was compiled by Francis Young, a professional teacher, and was engraved on steel by Lewis Becker by his patent ‘Omnigraph’ process.
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With thanks to Bill Burns of
The East 1865
Click the thumbnail above for a greatly enlarged version of the
“Telegraph Map of the Eastern World”
published in the ‘Illustrated London News’ on July 8, 1865.
Of note is the limited mileage of electric telegraph outside of Europe
Drawn and Engraved by John Dower, FRGS, Pentonville, London
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City Telegraphs 1868
Six diagrammatical maps prepared by government surveyors showing the telegraph stations in Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester just before the appropriation:
Key: E Electric & International Telegraph Company; M British & Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company; UK United Kingdom Electric Telegraph Company; UP Universal Private Telegraph Company; RS Railway Station
Telegraph, from the Greek “tele”, distant, and “graphos”, writing