The India Rubber, Gutta Percha and Telegraph Works Company was a London-based company based in
Silvertown
Silvertown is a district in the London Borough of Newham, in east London, England. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, Thames and was historically part of the parishes of West Ham and East Ham, Becontree Hundred, hundred of Becontr ...
,
East London
East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth.
Etymology
As in other languages, the word is formed from the f ...
. It was founded by
Stephen William Silver in March 1864 as Silver's Indiarubber Works and Telegraph Cable Company Ltd.
However in July that year the name was changed to the India Rubber, Gutta Percha and Telegraph Works Company.
Origins
S.W. Silver & Company had been doing business since the 18th century supplying colonial and army needs for clothing and acting as shipping agents for personnel traveling overseas. After
Charles Macintosh
Charles Macintosh FRS (29 December 1766 – 25 July 1843) was a Scottish chemist and the inventor of the modern waterproof raincoat. The Mackintosh raincoat (the variant spelling is now standard) is named after him.
Biography
Macintosh was b ...
developed waterproofing for fabric the company set up a factory at
Greenwich
Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross.
Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...
for manufacture of such goods. After that factory began manufacture of insulated wire and cable the factory was moved across the
Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...
to
North Woolwich
North Woolwich is an area in the London Borough of Newham in East London. It is located on the northern bank of the River Thames, across the river from Woolwich. It is connected to Woolwich by the Woolwich Ferry and Woolwich foot tunnel.
De ...
and continued to expand with much of the local population employed in the works and the area becoming known as Silvertown.
Before becoming a limited company the manufacture of cable had been restricted to relatively short segments of the cable and core (the conductor and inner insulation).
Silver's sons,
Stephen William Silver and
Hugh Adams Silver took over and expanded the business and began more work with submarine cable insulation becoming in 1863 Silver’s India Rubber Works & Telegraph Cable Company, Limited.
[
In 1864 Charles Hancock merged his West Ham Gutta Percha Company into Silver's company to form the India Rubber, Gutta Percha and Telegraph Works Company.][ Charles Hancock, a younger brother of Thomas Hancock, had been a founder of the ]Gutta Percha Company
The Gutta Percha Company was an English company formed in 1845 to make a variety of products from the recently introduced natural rubber gutta-percha. Unlike other natural rubbers, this material was thermoplastic allowing it to be easily mou ...
, but after a dispute with his partner he left to set up the rival West Ham Gutta Percha Company in 1850 with the support of his family. With Hancock's patents and experience in submarine cable manufacture the new company entered fully into the submarine cable manufacturing business while maintaining a profitable business ranging from making rubber bands to waterproof coats.[
]
Submarine cable
The company entered the business of laying as well as manufacturing cables for other companies engaged in cable laying. In 1865 the company manufactured and laid its first cable for the Submarine Telegraph Company
The Submarine Telegraph Company was a British company which laid and operated submarine telegraph cables.
Jacob and John Watkins Brett formed the English Channel Submarine Telegraph Company to lay the first cable across the English Channel. An u ...
from Dover
Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...
to Cap Gris Nez
Cap Gris-Nez (literally "cape grey nose"; ) is a cape on the Côte d'Opale in the Pas-de-Calais ''département'' in northern France.
The 'Cliffs of the Cape' is the closest point of France to England – from their English counterparts at Do ...
. In 1867 it manufactured and laid a cable linking Key West
Key West ( es, Cayo Hueso) is an island in the Straits of Florida, within the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Island, it cons ...
with Havana
Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center. and Punta Rassa for the Florida based International Ocean Telegraph Company
International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations".
International may also refer to:
Music Albums
* ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011
* ''International'' (New Order album), 2002
* ''International'' (The T ...
.[ The relationship with that Florida company resulted in cooperative founding of three new system operation companies, the ]West India and Panama Telegraph Company
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some R ...
, the Cuba Submarine Telegraph Company and the Panama and South Pacific Telegraph Company
Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a List of transcontinental countries#North America and South America, transcontinental country spanning the Central America, southern ...
. The company's cable ships and were used to lay the of cable for those three systems[ Both ships were engaged in some of the first oceanic surveys in examining cable routing for ]Spanish National Telegraph Company
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
, with the Silver company being a major investor and contractor for cable and installation, cables from Cadiz to the Canary Islands
The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...
. They made two zig-zag sounding lines gathering 552 soundings.
After 1902 the company largely withdrew from cable manufacture but continued installing submarine cable until 1914 when only one cable ship, ''Dacia'' remained.[ ''Dacia'' was torpedoed 3 December 1916 by U-38 off ]Funchal, Madeira
Funchal () is the largest city, the municipal seat and the capital of Portugal's Autonomous Region of Madeira
)
, anthem = ( en, "Anthem of the Autonomous Region of Madeira")
, song_type = Regional anthem
, image_map=EU-Portugal_with_Madei ...
while diverting the German South American cable into Brest
Brest may refer to:
Places
*Brest, Belarus
**Brest Region
**Brest Airport
**Brest Fortress
* Brest, Kyustendil Province, Bulgaria
* Břest, Czech Republic
*Brest, France
** Arrondissement of Brest
**Brest Bretagne Airport
** Château de Brest
*Br ...
. U-38 sunk two other ships in this action and shelled Funchal with the British cable station as a primary target. The ship had previously repaired French cables and diverted German-African cables.[ The company withdrew from submarine cable work until 1922. Another ship, renamed , was acquired and modified for cable work that continued several years until that ship was sold to the Medway Steam Packet Company and the company's submarine cable work ceased.][
]
Cable ships
''Dacia'' and ''International'' were joined by two more ships as the cable laying business grew. , built by Hooper's Telegraph Works
The Hooper's Telegraph Works Ltd was established by William Hooper in 1870 to manufacture and lay submarine communications cable using his patented vulcanized rubber core. Before the company was formed to produce finished submarine cable Hooper h ...
as the second specifically designed cable ship and first ship designed for transatlantic cable laying was second in size only to ''Great Eastern'' when built in 1873. ''Hooper'' was acquired in 1881 and renamed ''Silvertown''.[Built by C. Mitchell and Co., Newcastle, 1873, . Sold 1881 to India Rubber, Gutta Percha and Telegraph Works Company and renamed ''Silvertown'' which was active in cable work through 1913. ''Silvertown'' began the trans Pacific cable at San Francisco for the ]Commercial Pacific Cable Company
Commercial Pacific Cable Company was founded in 1901, and ceased operations in October 1951. It provided the first direct telegraph route from America to the Philippines, China, and Japan.
The company was established as a joint venture of three c ...
in 1902.[ was built for the company as tender to ''Silvertown'' with two cable tanks but no cable laying machinery until a later refit when that machinery and bow sheaves were fitted. The last cable ship, replacing the torpedoed ''Dacia'', was ''Silvergray'' purchased in 1922 which was in operation only a few years as a cable ship.][
]
Other business
During the 1880s some of the first Bell’s patent telephones were manufactured at the Silvertown plant. The company by the 1890s was a supplier of electric generating plants to cities and towns both in the United Kingdom and on the Continent. Bicycle and later automobile tires were a major business segment in later years. By 1927 the company was in financial difficulty until the British Goodrich Rubber Company, itself a subsidiary of the B.F. Goodrich Company, acquired a controlling interest in 1933 and a year later the company's name was changed to British Tyre & Rubber Company.[
]
Footnotes
References
External links
Science Museum Group (London) corporation history summary, objects in collection
University of Pennsylvania, The Online Books Page, Subject: The India Rubber, Gutta Percha, and Telegraph Works Company, Limited
* ttps://archive.org/details/southamericancab00indi/page/n5/mode/2up ''South American Cables 1891-1892''Example of detailed description of the cable and cable lay.
Photographs sinking of CS ''Dacia''
{{British telegraph companies
Rubber industry
Telecommunications companies established in 1864
Cable manufacture in London
Submarine communications cables
Defunct telecommunications companies of the United Kingdom
Telegraph companies of the United Kingdom
1864 establishments in England
British companies established in 1864
Companies based in the London Borough of Newham