Glass, Elliot and Company

Glass, Elliot and Company. It was a pioneering British firm in the mid-19th century, instrumental in the development and manufacture of submarine communications cable. Based at the Greenwich works in London, the company played a central role in the risky early ventures of global telegraphy, laying cables across the Atlantic Ocean and other major waterways. Its technical expertise and corporate evolution were foundational to the creation of a worldwide communications network.

History

The company emerged around 1850 from the earlier partnership of John Watkins Brett and his brother Jacob Brett, who had formed the General Oceanic Telegraph Company. Richard Atwood Glass, a skilled manager and engineer, became a leading figure, giving the firm its name. Its early work was closely tied to the ambitious efforts of the Atlantic Telegraph Company, formed to realize Cyrus West Field's vision of a transatlantic telegraph cable. The company’s Greenwich factory became a hive of activity, drawing upon expertise from scientists like Lord Kelvin and engineers like Charles Tilston Bright. Following the initial failure of the 1858 cable, the firm continued to refine its techniques, contributing to the critical success of the 1866 *Great Eastern* expedition.

Products and innovations

The firm specialized in the complex, layered construction of durable submarine cables. Its core product was an armored cable, typically featuring a central copper conductor insulated with gutta-percha, a material supplied by its future merger partner, The Gutta Percha Company. This core was then protected with layers of tarred hemp and an external sheath of galvanized iron wires. Key innovations involved improving the electrical integrity and mechanical strength of these cables to withstand the immense pressures of the Atlantic Ocean seabed. The company’s engineers, working alongside figures like Wildman Whitehouse, grappled with challenges of signal attenuation and fault location, advancing the field of telegraphic engineering.

Notable projects

The company’s most famous undertaking was the production and laying of the pioneering transatlantic telegraph cable. It manufactured the cable used in the unsuccessful 1857 attempt and the briefly operational 1858 cable, which carried messages between Valentia Island in Ireland and Heart's Content in Newfoundland. Beyond the Atlantic, the firm was responsible for major cables in the Mediterranean Sea, including lines linking Sardinia to Bona and Malta to Alexandria. It also worked on cables in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, forming early links in the telegraph network to India and facilitating communications for the British Empire.

Corporate structure and mergers

The company’s structure was typical of the speculative industrial ventures of the Victorian era, closely allied with prominent telegraph promoters and financiers. A pivotal figure was John Pender, a Manchester merchant and Member of Parliament with significant investments in submarine telegraphy. In 1864, under Pender’s direction, the firm completed a historic merger with its key supplier, The Gutta Percha Company. This consolidation created the The Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company, universally known as Telcon. This new entity, with massive capital and integrated manufacturing, dominated the global cable industry for decades.

Legacy and impact

The legacy is profound, as its technical and corporate foundations directly enabled the first permanent electrical link between the Old World and the New World. The success of the 1866 transatlantic telegraph cable revolutionized global communications, shrinking time for news, diplomacy, and commerce from weeks to minutes. The merger that formed Telcon created a virtual monopoly that laid thousands of miles of cable, weaving the British Empire and global markets into an interconnected web. The company’s Greenwich works remained a cornerstone of the industry, and its pioneering work established Britain’s long dominance in submarine cable technology and global telecommunications.

Category:Defunct companies of the United Kingdom Category:History of telecommunications Category:Submarine communications cables Category:Companies established in the 1850s