The London District Telegraph Company was formed in 1859. It was renamed the London and Provincial Telegraph Company in 1867.
distantwriting.co.uk 25 June 2012
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The management were connected with the British and Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company
The British and Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company (also called the Magnetic Telegraph Company or the Magnetic) was founded by John Brett in 1850. The Magnetic was the principal competitor to the largest telegraph company in the United Kingdom, ...
and the firm aimed to compete with the dominant Electric Telegraph Company
The Electric Telegraph Company (ETC) was a British telegraph company founded in 1846 by William Fothergill Cooke and John Ricardo. It was the world's first public telegraph company. The equipment used was the Cooke and Wheatstone telegraph, ...
in the London area. Its original Chairman was the banker and Member of Parliament Samuel Gurney (1816–1882). It used a combination of underground and overhead wires and saved money by avoiding the need for an Act of Parliament
Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the Legislature, legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of ...
to authorise its activities. The overhead wires, however, required negotiation with individual households and landowners and were vulnerable to damage in bad weather. The firm employed many female clerks who were supervised by a "Matron" and "Sub Matrons".
In 1860 the company agreed with the Astronomer Royal
Astronomer Royal is a senior post in the Royal Households of the United Kingdom. There are two officers, the senior being the Astronomer Royal dating from 22 June 1675; the junior is the Astronomer Royal for Scotland dating from 1834.
The post ...
to relay the Greenwich Observatory
The Royal Observatory, Greenwich (ROG; known as the Old Royal Observatory from 1957 to 1998, when the working Royal Greenwich Observatory, RGO, temporarily moved south from Greenwich to Herstmonceux) is an observatory situated on a hill in ...
time-signal to all of its offices.[
Despite an extensive network of lines in London, the company never made a net profit and only once an operating profit. It was acquired by the ]Postmaster General
A Postmaster General, in Anglosphere countries, is the chief executive officer of the postal service of that country, a ministerial office responsible for overseeing all other postmasters. The practice of having a government official respons ...
in the general nationalisation
Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...
of private telegraph companies under the Telegraph Act 1868
The Telegraph Act 1868 (31 & 32 Vict. c.110) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It paved the way for the British state to take over telegraph companies and/or their operations.
It has been effectively repealed (only s.1, provi ...
.[
The company issued a number of ]telegraph stamp
Telegraph stamps are stamps intended solely for the prepayment of telegraph fees. The customer completed a telegraph form before handing it with payment to the clerk who applied a telegraph stamp and cancelled it to show that payment had been ...
s which are of interest to philatelist
Philately (; ) is the study of postage stamps and postal history. It also refers to the collection and appreciation of stamps and other philatelic products. Philately involves more than just stamp collecting or the study of postage; it is possi ...
s.[ Hiscocks, Steve. ''Telegraph & Telephone Stamps of the World: A priced and annotated catalogue''. Woking: S.E.R. Hiscocks, 1982, pp. 134-135. ]
See also
*List of historical British telcos
This list of historical British telcos is a list of telecommunications companies that either existed prior to British Telecom's (BT) privatisation, or, if created subsequently to BT's privatisation, took over telecoms networks that existed prior ...
References
{{Telecommunications industry in the United Kingdom
Telegraph companies of the United Kingdom
1859 establishments in England
Defunct telecommunications companies of the United Kingdom
British companies established in 1859
Telecommunications companies established in 1859
British companies disestablished in 1868
Technology companies disestablished in 1868
Telecommunications companies disestablished in the 19th century
1868 disestablishments in England