Telegraph: History

As soon as they realised they needed to replace the copper telegraph lines, they removed the lines that were put there more than a century ago. They removed the connection to the cables from land to be able to spool onto cable reels. They did this with the use of capstan cranes, except for using people, they used Shire Horses to remove the cables from the ocean bed. As some cables were cut from fisherman, long since dead, thinking they had an unusual catch these cables were in two. The salvaged cables were taken apart to be remelted to make newer cables with better insulation.
Many of the cables that were salvaged were not long enough for the British Isles to use for putting their own network into place. It was the Americans that replaced the transatlantic telegraph lines, however, there were fewer than there were before.

The Redevelopment of Telegraph

In The Republic Of Ireland

The sections of cable that were salvaged were reused to create a telegraph network among the Republic of Ireland and a line to the Capital of Northern Ireland, Belfast. As they had a surplus this was sold to the UK, who couldn’t do much with the cables, apart from connecting the Devolved Capitals of the countries that made up the UK as well as connecting a new line to France.

Telegraph across the UK

The UK needed to cover the country in copper wires to be able to communicate with its other cities. The solution to this was to “mine” former wind farms that could no longer be used. The most famous of these was off the coast of Rottingdean. The Rampion Offshore Windfarm was salvaged for its copper and other metals.
The copper came from the 16 motors that moved the Nacelle as well as any electronics no longer in use.
Wind farms that were on land, suffered the same fate as those at sea but unlike those at sea were mined for their concrete and steel parts. The steel was remelted for other applications while the concrete was used in foundations and road repair. To this day citizens living in Rottingdean can look out to sea and see hedgehog-like spines where the old wind farm was.
With the copper from the wind farms that were remelted and turning into more efficient cables, they managed to connect all cities together. With the wind farms gone, the UK had a surplus supply of copper. This led to a renaissance in Redsmithing, which was previously an endangered craft, becoming a dead craft within the UK. When Birdencaster was founded it too was connected to the network along with the Redsmith profession.

The States and Canada

The States

As the States recovered more cable than the British Isles they managed to get most of their country covered in telegraph lines between cities and connected their network to Canada. Notable locations were between St John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador to New York and Helena, Montana to Calgary, Alberta.
While some areas did require more copper, again from salvaging wind farms, they had a surplus of copper themselves. A portion was sold to Canada to help with their Telegraph network.

Canada

Having the same issues as The British and The Americans, The Canadians as with the others mined their wind farms as well. The first place they connected their network was from St John’s to Ottawa as the Americans had already connected their network to St John’s.
From there all provincial capitals were connected apart from Edmonton as Calgary was closer to connect to the network. From there significant places were connected. In Alberta, an intermediary place, Red Deer, was connected to allow for Edmonton to be the last provincial Capital to be connected to the network.

Article Contents

Further Resources

Wikipedia Article on Rampion Wind Farm

Acknowledgements

Kahuna the Elder
Twitch
Kahuna The Elder's World Anvil Author Page

WriterGreg
Twitch
WriterGreg’s Website
WriterGreg First Draft - Twitch VOD Replay Channel
WriterGreg - Primary Channel
WriterGreg’s World Anvil Author Page