Located in the sylvan Porthcurno valley in Cornwall, on the Atlantic coast 506 km southwest of London, this unassuming place became the catalyst for communication between Britain and its former colonies.
Officials at the museum revealed that Porthcurno served as the center for international cable communications from 1870 to 1970, and even functioned as a training college for the communications industry until 1993.
Now a museum showcasing rare equipment and the history of the telegraph, Porthcurno has been granted a significant amount of funding to develop an international education program that involves community groups in India.
Among the recently discovered archives is a collection of the very first telegraph messages sent from Porthcurno and Mumbai (then Bombay).
Prior to this historic milestone, communication between England and India was unreliable and often took several months. According to the documents, the first message was sent on the night of 23 June, 1870, and a response was received in just 5 minutes, which was a remarkable technological feat at the time. This initial message, referred to as a ‘complimentary telegram,’ was exchanged between the Managing Director in London and the Manager in Bombay.
Anderson sent the first message, asking “How are you all?” to which the reply was “All well.”
The second message from Anderson read, “Please ask the gentlemen of the press in Bombay to send a message to the gentlemen of the press in New York.”
Throughout the night, several messages were exchanged, including some to the governor of Bombay, Lady Mayo to viceroy Lord Mayo based in Shimla, and even one from the Prince of Wales to the viceroy. A response was received from journalists based in Bombay stating, “From the Press of India to the Press of America: The Press of India sends salaam to the Press of America. Reply quick.”
According to the document, the viceroy of India sent a telegraph to the president of the United States and received a reply in just 7 hours and 40 minutes. Interestingly, this message was read in the American Congress the same evening. The viceroy’s message stated, “The Viceroy of India for the first time speaks direct by telegraph with the President of the United States. May the completion of the long line of uninterrupted communication be the emblem of lasting union between the Eastern and Western World.”
Telegraphic communication with India was first established in 1864 through overland telegraph lines from Europe to the Persian Gulf and then an undersea cable to Karachi. However, the overland section proved to be unsatisfactory, sparking efforts to lay more reliable cables beneath the sea.
In 1869, John Pender, a pioneer in telegraphy, established the British Indian Submarine Telegraph Company. Their mission was to lay undersea cables to India.
The Great Eastern, William Cory, Chiltern, Hawk, and Hibernia were the five ships used to lay the thousands of kilometers of cables. The process of laying the cables from Suez to Bombay took a total of six weeks. This was followed by the final link being laid from Malta to Porthcurno.
This marked the first long-distance cable connection, celebrated with great enthusiasm by the public, as records at the museum indicate. After the successful link with India, Porthcurno was connected to various other areas across the world through undersea cables.
At its peak, Porthcurno became the world’s largest station, operating with 14 cables. The telegraphic codename for Porthcurno was ‘PK.’
During World War II, Cornish miners dug tunnels to house an underground building and Porthcurno’s entire telegraph operations.
Today, this building is home to the museum and archives that sparked the communication revolution in the late nineteenth century.
In addition to receiving £1.44 million in funding earlier this year, the museum has now been granted £35,000 from the international telecommunications organization SubOptic. This funding will be used to develop an education project in collaboration with community groups in India and other countries.
Museum officials shared that the funds will support an international education program set to launch in spring 2013. This program will offer online learning resources, including video clips, animations, and games, enabling users to explore the science behind global cable-based telecommunications, as well as its impact on local identity, democracy, and culture.