Cartoon from Punch magazine, 1864. The caption reads: ‘What an age we live in! Talk of the introduction of steam or of gas! Just look at the facilities afforded us by electricity. It is now six o’clock, and we are in Fleet Street, and this message was only sent from Oxford Street yesterday afternoon at three!’

1837 – Invention of the telegraph by Cooke & Wheatstone 1851 – Opening of world’s first submarine telegraph from London to Paris 1865 – First telegraph link between India and Europe reduced the time taken to send a message from around a month to less than a week. 1866 – The Atlantic cable was successfully laid. It transmitted telegraph messages at 7 words per minute 1876 – The telephone was patented by Alexander Graham Bell 1887 – Heinrich Hertz confirmed the existence of electro-magnetic (radio) waves. 1896 – Marconi patented the wireless 1899 – Marconi sent wireless signals across the Channel 1902 – Marconi sent wireless signals across Atlantic

Cartoon representing Marconi’s spanning of the Atlantic by radio, 1907.

See Also
Cooke & Wheatstone and the Telegraph Indo-European Telegraph Company Atlantic Cable Marconi