Cable, telegraph cable

William Fothergill Cooke and Charles Wheatstone patented the world’s first practical commercial electric telegraph system in 1837. This telegraph cable sample was produced by them to demonstrate their five wire electric telegraph system to railways companies. The five- needle, six wire system was first adopted by the Great Western Railway (GWR) between London Paddington and West Drayton in 1839. With twenty possible needle positions the five needle telegraph was six codes short of being able to encode the complete alphabet. The letters omitted were C, J, Q, U, X and Z. The telegraph was marketed as being simple to use and required little operator training.
Telegraphic instruments were developed for use on London's new railway network. Telegraph wires ran alongside railway tracks to transmit messages, signals and, time. Before the 1830s, national time was not standardised with each area of Britain having its own ‘local’ time, based on the sunrise and sunset. To operate the newly built railways safely and to a timetable, railway companies used the telegraph system to introduce a national standard 'railway' time system. By 1855, this had been brought in line with Greenwich Mean time, telegraphed along cables the length and breadth of Britain.