The London-Paris telephone
10 March 1891
Our Dover correspondent telegraphed last night:– the submarine cable for the Paris telephone was to-day laid across the Channel, but the connection of the shore end on the English side at St Margaret’s Bay will not take place till to-morrow morning. The work has been accomplished under the most unfavourable circumstances – in blinding storms of snow and sleet, and with a strong easterly gale blowing. The sea broke heavily on the English shore towards the latter part of the day.
London-Paris telephone connection
15 March 1891
Our correspondent at St Margaret’s Bay telegraphed last evening:– The anxiety which was felt lest the results should not be satisfactory over the most important part of the telephone connection between London and Paris, namely the cable across the Channel, has been removed by experiments made yesterday and to-day, speaking having been successfully accomplished between St Margaret’s and Paris. Some of the party who had been carrying out the work proceeded to Paris for the purpose of conducting the experiments at that end of the system, and last night the first words were exchanged over the wires. The French and English telephones were used, but by far the best results were obtained through the English instruments, the former being faint and indistinct. Some complimentary greetings were exchanged. So perfect was the transmission of the voice that not only was the speech audible, but the voices, it is stated, could be distinguished. The wires are now connected through with London, so that any further experiments will be made between the English and French capitals. To-day the telegraph ship Monarch recovered the two ends of the Calais-Dover telegraph cable, which had been broken for several weeks.
Editorial: good feeling and mutual understanding
25 March 1891
The fact that the completion of telephonic communication between England and France has attracted comparatively little attention, although a few years ago the possibility of such an achievement was considered rather a wild dream, is only another illustration of how accustomed we are to wonders in these days. There is some ground for the hope that a rapid development of the use of the new means of communication may increase good feeling and mutual understanding between the two countries. Of course there will continue to be the difference of language, for although a phonograph which could translate was exhibited at the Red Lion dinner of the British Association a couple of years ago, we can scarcely hope to see that invention applied to telephonic communication across the Channel.
The identity of language is of course a great advantage in connection with the telephone between Brussels and Paris. But though Frenchmen do not as a rule speak English, familiarity with the French language is rapidly spreading in this country, and hence this hindrance to telephonic converse is not likely to prove serious. At the outset it will perhaps be for press rather than for commercial purposes that the new means of communication will be most used; the Continental journals have for some considerable time had their regular international telephonic services. Probably the advantage will be rather with Continental than with English readers, for it is a truism to say that in this country we are already much better informed about Continental affairs than Continental nations are about our own actions and sentiments. But we should gain largely by such an increase in Continental knowledge, for it is, for instance, beyond dispute that the protectionist barriers which our neighbours have raised against us are largely based on mere prejudice.
Now, if any substantial good is to result from this new triumph of applied science, it is quite clear that the rates charged must be low. As a Belgian correspondent of the Times has pointed out, frequent and free intercourse will be out of the question if the Post Office authorities change five-and-a-half times the rates ruling on the Franco-Belgian line. It surely cannot be intended that the London and Paris telephone shall be merely an expensive toy. A charge of eight shillings for three minutes will rather enhance Continental ideas of British greed than promote the desired and pleasanter understanding of the true liberality our national policy.
From our London correspondent
2 April 1891
The last experiment with the Paris telephone before it took its place amongst the established business institutions amongst the established business institutions of the the two capitals was to “switch” the English wire in Paris on to the Marseilles line. The words spoken in London were heard distinctly on the shores of the Mediterranean, and softly but clearly came an answer back over eight hundred miles of sea and land. Yesterday communication between London and Paris was thrown open free of charge to all comers, with the result that the office was crowded for several hours, and the commercial public were familiarised with the new telephone and its popularity established.
To-day there has been a steady stream of paying customers, and as a large number of leading commercial houses and hotels at both ends have applied for special private wires, which are now being fixed, it is apparent that the submarine telephone is quietly settling down from the position of the latest scientific marvel to that of a mere matter-of-fact detail in the commonplace equipments of any business office.
