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26. DOWNLOAD, LINKS & CONTACT
Steven Roberts: 1950-2012 |
I'm sorry to report that Steve Roberts died unexpectedly in December 2012. The Distant Writing website will be maintained to honour his memory, but there will be no further updates.
As of January 2014, the Distant Writing website has been archived for preservation by the British Library.
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Steve Roberts at the Royal Institution, October 2009
Photograph by Ivor Hughes |
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Readers of Distant Writing may also be interested in
the writer's other work on early
telegraphy, the essays generously hosted by the Atlantic Cable website.
Just
click the adjacent lightning-flash icon to download or to read these pieces.

| Distant Writing
The entire
text of Distant Writing, without any of the illustrations, is
available in PDF format for easier reading or for printing and is also
readable on the Scribd site. It was last updated on December 4, 2012,
Click on the
lightning flash icon to Download the 340 page document.
It is a
large file, over 4MB, suitable only for fast connections. |

| The Moving Fire
The first biography of John Watkins Brett,
Father of Submarine Telegraphy. Nine episodes in the life of J W Brett, and
that of his brother Jacob, based on original research into nineteenth century
resources, including several newly found and unpublished letters. It deals with
the formation of the many telegraph companies in which they were involved and
the ultimate, unjust downfall of the "Moving Fire" that created the first
world-wide web.
Click the lightning flash to read it in your browser, click on Previous Page to return to this site.
A PDF download of the text of The
Moving Fire is available HERE |

| Troubled
Parents
The early struggles of the ancestors of the Telegraph Construction
& Maintenance Company; Heimann, Küper & Co., Glass, Elliot & Co.,
and the Gutta-Percha Company, as well as of their much less well-known competitors in telegraph cable
making, Andrew Smith, R S Newall, W T Henley, S W Silver and Christopher
Nickels.
Click the lightning flash to read it in your browser, click on Previous Page to return to this site.
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| Nathaniel John
Holmes
A biography of the "last of the first telegraphers", from
manager of the Central Telegraph Station in London during 1848 to engineer of
the Great Northern Telegraph Company of Copenhagen.
Click the lightning flash to read it in your browser, click on Previous Page to return to this site.
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| George
Saward
A short biography of the first manager of the Atlantic Telegraph
Company, who fought for and saved the business but was mysteriously abandoned on its ultimate success.
Click the lightning flash to read it in your browser, click on Previous Page to return to this site.
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| Henry Weaver
A
biography of one of the most important managers in the nineteenth
century domestic and cable telegraph companies. From being a telegraph
clerk in Hull, he controlled the business of the Electric
Telegraph Company and went on to become managing director of the
Anglo-American Telegraph Company
Click the lightning flash to read it in your browser, click on Previous Page to return to this site.
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| Thomas
Allan
A biography of the inventor of the "light cable" for
submarine telegraphy in 1853, now in common use, most notable for the many
abortive telegraph companies that he promoted in the 1850s and 1860s, and his pioneering work on electro-magnetic engines in the mid-1850s.
Click the lightning flash to read it in your browser, click on Previous Page to return to this site.
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| Bridging the Gap 1863 - 1870
An essay on the news telegraphs that connected America and Europe before the completion
of the Atlantic cable.
Click the lightning flash to read it in your browser, click on Previous Page to return to this site.
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| Early Irish Cables
A chronological summary of the complex history of the earliest efforts to
connect Britain and Ireland by electric telegraph.
Click the lightning flash to read it in your browser, click on Previous Page to return to this site.
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CONTACT
Distant Writing
has been a collation of small pieces acquired over a long time. The use
of printed sources from the nineteenth century has the defect of being
unverifiable; although checks have been made, all manner of authorial
and compositors' errors might have crept in, let alone the writer's own
contributions; corrections and comments are therefore welcome.
Messages about the site may be sent to the Webmaster. |