"We hope the time is very near when Sydney and Melbourne will be brought within a few minutes of each other".
Sydney Morning Herald, 1855. The Timelines segment of the SMH today says: It was estimated construction of a telegraph line between the two colonies would cost about £100 a mile, and take a year to complete. [Until the corruption of the last decade, the expression was *per* mile.] [Telegraph services commenced in the mid-1840s, first in the UK and very shortly afterwards in the USA, with the first international connection crossing the English Channel in 1851. [ http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/ahc/publications/commission/books/linking-a-nation/chapter-7.html "Samuel McGowan brought the telegraphy technology to Australia in 1853. Australia's first electric telegraph connection ran from Melbourne to the nearby port of Williamstown, the first message being received in March 1854. Later in the year the wire was extended to Geelong and Queenscliff. "One of the early important messages transmitted by telegraph in Australia was the first account to reach Melbourne of the Eureka rebellion on the gold fields at Ballarat later that year. From the beginning, the telegraph service was run by the colonial post office administration. "Telegraphs were cheap to install, the main cost being the copper wires. No heavy engineering was involved, and the telegraph machines themselves were cheap and easy to manufacture. By 1858, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide were connected. Tasmania, not far behind, was connected in 1859". [The Overland Telegraph from Adelaide to Darwin was built in 1870-72, connecting the Australian network to the world via Java - presumably Dutch-controlled Batavia, now Jakarta.] -- Roger Clarke http://www.rogerclarke.com/ Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd 78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916 mailto:[email protected] http://www.xamax.com.au/ Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Law University of NSW Visiting Professor in Computer Science Australian National University _______________________________________________ Link mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
