tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3606941903131462398.post6453126014578009340..comments2023-06-10T09:02:38.570+01:00Comments on Ramsgate Remembered: Submarine Telegraph OfficeUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3606941903131462398.post-61118579815211814922010-08-24T10:09:07.999+01:002010-08-24T10:09:07.999+01:00No problem Josh. If there's anything else I ca...No problem Josh. If there's anything else I can help with please contact me at <a href="phil@ramsgatehistory.com" rel="nofollow">phil@ramsgatehistory.com</a>Philhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00081026907222344795noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3606941903131462398.post-63118014669417773732010-08-24T09:23:56.453+01:002010-08-24T09:23:56.453+01:00I am just making a blog related to this. If you ag...I am just making a blog related to this. If you agree, I would like to use some of your content. And with full refernce of course. Thanks in advance.<br /><br />- JoshAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3606941903131462398.post-71374159571316895932010-06-16T22:09:57.757+01:002010-06-16T22:09:57.757+01:00Here is my contribution. The following information...Here is my contribution. The following information came from the Times newspaper. Accessed via Kent County Central Library and using library card to logon.<br /><br />22 July 1846. Tests were conducted across Portsmouth harbour to test insulation on cables.<br />5 September 1850. Dover cable break after a week on the rocks off Cap Gris Nez. Lead sheathing too soft over rocks near coast.<br />12 Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3606941903131462398.post-20332760149023744022010-06-16T21:54:39.197+01:002010-06-16T21:54:39.197+01:00I think it would be appropriate to reproduce that ...I think it would be appropriate to reproduce that sign too!<br /><br />The point with (local) history is to check as many sources as possible against one another, trying to get as near to a contemporary account as possible always remembering who wrote the original record and why!<br /><br />You have to develop a nose for the lazy historians who compound the mistakes of earlier mistaken authors byMichael Catesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3606941903131462398.post-25405376357842659352010-06-16T21:04:33.876+01:002010-06-16T21:04:33.876+01:00Michael I will look into it when I get some spare ...Michael I will look into it when I get some spare time, I am afraid most of this information comes from my probably faulty memories when studying telecommunications in the 1960s.<br /><br />At the time I also worked part time for Querne Marine in the harbour as an engineer and I think the information that Ramsgate had the second functioning cross channel cable came from the other engineers I Michael Childhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09499435016469020417noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3606941903131462398.post-31809122586362507812010-06-16T19:36:02.274+01:002010-06-16T19:36:02.274+01:00Just an aside - the Clock House has replica signs,...Just an aside - the Clock House has replica signs, which I researcherd in the 1980s, reminding us that "Ramsgate Mean Time is 5 mins 41 seconds faster tahn the above clock" and telling us that the stroke of the, now missing, bell indicates GMT. The original signs were erected in 1848when reliable telegraph time information could be sent alogside the railway from Greenwich. This markedMichael Catesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3606941903131462398.post-40064110800727746692010-06-16T18:56:09.751+01:002010-06-16T18:56:09.751+01:00Michael - look at the source in the link I posted ...Michael - look at the source in the link I posted earlier, it is very specific and is an exact contemporary of the Dover cable. <br /><br />However,p129 of The worldwide history of telecommunications By Anton A. Huurdeman, available on Google Books, does mention Ramsgate.<br /><br />So - I think more work is needed to resolve these interesting events.Michael Catesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3606941903131462398.post-84376989725079088392010-06-16T17:31:11.655+01:002010-06-16T17:31:11.655+01:00Phil Telegraph poles beside the track.Phil Telegraph poles beside the track.Michael Childhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09499435016469020417noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3606941903131462398.post-43125084382437745732010-06-16T17:10:00.877+01:002010-06-16T17:10:00.877+01:00Michael I think the first Dover cable was 1850 and...Michael I think the first Dover cable was 1850 and only lasted long enough to send one telegram, the next and first successful cross channel one, Dover – St Margaret’s Bay to be exact, to Calais – Sangatte- to be exact, cable laying started on 25th September 1851 and lasted about 30 years.<br /><br />We are talking here about cutting edge technology and the competition could be intense, if say Michael Childhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09499435016469020417noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3606941903131462398.post-74879444877931236562010-06-16T16:53:06.899+01:002010-06-16T16:53:06.899+01:00Thanks gentlemen. How would the cables have been l...Thanks gentlemen. How would the cables have been laid from London to the coast? Would the railway have been used as the route? I'm sure I read somewhere that a railway engineer was involved in submarine cable trials.Philhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00081026907222344795noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3606941903131462398.post-1724489705214286572010-06-16T14:36:18.598+01:002010-06-16T14:36:18.598+01:00Just looking more deeply into the History of the A...Just looking more deeply into the History of the Atlantic Cable and Underse communications website and found the following page:<br /><br />http://www.atlantic-cable.com/Cables/1853EnglandBelgium/index.htm<br /><br />Were there really rival cables laid from Dover and Ramsgate to Ostende in the same year (1853)? There is no mention of any Ramsgate cable in this work until 1864.Michael Catesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3606941903131462398.post-59080895556847286612010-06-16T14:27:27.897+01:002010-06-16T14:27:27.897+01:00Thanks Michael, Come to think of it, Crampton Towe...Thanks Michael, Come to think of it, Crampton Tower also had some submarine cable on display a few years ago, but again I can't remember its provenance. I also can't remember when the Ostende mail packet steamers were operating from Ramsgate rather than Dover, which might have been another reason for the link. I think around 1848? Rather like recent times, the shipping companies tried Michael Catesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3606941903131462398.post-61838252802901652752010-06-16T13:25:11.877+01:002010-06-16T13:25:11.877+01:00This relates to one of the very first cross channe...This relates to one of the very first cross channel telegraph cables that was used to transmit Morse Code between the UK and Belgium, the cable was laid between Ramsgate and Ostende in 1853.<br /><br />I believe the engineer Thomas Russell Crampton as in Crampton’s tower in Broadstairs was involved.<br /><br />I think that the Submarine Telegraph Company was eventually bought by the Post Office Michael Childhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09499435016469020417noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3606941903131462398.post-2003686844611129392010-06-16T13:08:10.135+01:002010-06-16T13:08:10.135+01:00Sadly, I don't think this was a Ramsgate '...Sadly, I don't think this was a Ramsgate 'first', though the proximity of Shah place and the then railway station might mean it was fairly early. The Maritime Museum has a section of submarine cable from an experimental link to one of the Lightships - I can't remember which one, or the date, or where its shore base was! This link describes the early experiments in Folkestone:<br Michael Catesnoreply@blogger.com