View source for India Rubber, Gutta Percha and Telegraph Works Company

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{{Infobox company
| name = India Rubber, Gutta Percha and Telegraph Works Company
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| image = File:Silvertown India Rubber and Telegraph Cable Works.png
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| image_caption = View of the premises of the India Rubber, Gutta Percha and Telegraph Works Company, circa 1869
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| former_name = Silver's Indiarubber Works and Telegraph Cable Company Ltd.
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| founded = {{Start date and age|1864|03}} in [[Silvertown]], [[London]], [[England]]
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| hq_location = [[Silvertown]]
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The '''India Rubber, Gutta Percha and Telegraph Works Company''' was a London-based company based in [[Silvertown]], [[East London]]. It was founded by [[Stephen William Silver]] in March 1864 as Silver's Indiarubber Works and Telegraph Cable Company Ltd.<ref name="gg">{{cite web |title=S. W. Silver and Co |url=https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/S._W._Silver_and_Co |website=www.gracesguide.co.uk |publisher=Graces Guides |accessdate=12 February 2019}}</ref> However in July that year the name was changed to the India Rubber, Gutta Percha and Telegraph Works Company.<ref name="gg"/>
==Origins==
S.W. Silver & Company had been doing business since the 18th century supplying colonial and army needs for clothing and acting as shipping agents for personnel traveling overseas. After [[Charles Macintosh]] developed waterproofing for fabric the company set up a factory at [[Greenwich]] for manufacture of such goods. After that factory began manufacture of insulated wire and cable the factory was moved across the [[River Thames|Thames]] to [[Woolwich|North Woolwich]] and continued to expand with much of the local population employed in the works and the area becoming known as Silvertown.<ref name=HACHTW>{{cite web |last=Glover |first=Bill |title=History of the Atlantic Cable & Submarine Telegraphy - British Cable Manufacturers |publisher= |date=22 December 2019 |url=http://atlantic-cable.com/CableCos/BritishMfrs/index.htm |accessdate=27 January 2020}}</ref> Before becoming a limited company the manufacture of cable had been restricted to relatively short segments of the cable and core (the conductor and inner insulation).<ref name=Bright>{{cite book |last=Bright |first=Charles |year=1898 |title=Submarine telegraphs: Their History, Construction, and Working |location=London |publisher=C. Lockwood and son  |lccn=08003683 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/submarinetelegra00brig/page/157 157]–158 |url=https://archive.org/details/submarinetelegra00brig |accessdate=27 January 2020}}</ref> Silver's sons, [[Stephen William Silver]] and [[Hugh Silver|Hugh Adams Silver]] took over and expanded the business and began more work with submarine cable insulation becoming in 1863 Silver’s India Rubber Works & Telegraph Cable Company, Limited.<ref name=HACHTW/>
In 1864 Charles Hancock merged his West Ham Gutta Percha Company into Silver's company to form the India Rubber, Gutta Percha and Telegraph Works Company.<ref name=HACHTW/> Charles Hancock, a younger brother of [[Thomas Hancock (inventor)|Thomas Hancock]], had been a founder of the [[Gutta Percha Company]], but after a dispute with his partner he left to set up the rival West Ham Gutta Percha Company in 1850 with the support of his family.<ref>Haigh, Kenneth Richardson, ''Cableships and Submarine Cables'', p. 26, Adlard Coles, 1968 {{oclc|497380538}}.</ref> With Hancock's patents and experience in submarine cable manufacture the new company entered fully into the submarine cable manufacturing business while maintaining a profitable business ranging from making rubber bands to waterproof coats.<ref name=HACHTW/><ref name=Bright/>
==Submarine cable==
The company entered the business of laying as well as manufacturing cables for other companies engaged in cable laying. In 1865 the company manufactured and laid its first cable for the [[Submarine Telegraph Company]] from [[Dover]] to [[Cap Gris Nez]]. In 1867 it manufactured and laid a cable linking [[Key West]] with [[Havana]] and [[Punta Rassa, Florida#Telegraph|Punta Rassa]] for the Florida based [[International Ocean Telegraph Company]].<ref name=HACHTW/><ref>{{cite web |last=Glover |first=Bill |title=History of the Atlantic Cable & Submarine Telegraphy - International Ocean Telegraph Company |publisher= |date=14 August 2016 |url=https://atlantic-cable.com/CableCos/WesternUnion/index.htm#io |accessdate=27 January 2020}}</ref> The relationship with that Florida company resulted in cooperative founding of three new system operation companies, the [[West India and Panama Telegraph Company]], the [[Cuba Submarine Telegraph Company]] and the [[Panama and South Pacific Telegraph Company]]. The company's cable ships {{ship|CS|Dacia}} and {{ship|CS|International}} were used to lay the {{cvt|4000|nmi| mi km}} of cable for those three systems<ref name=HACHTW/> Both ships were engaged in some of the first oceanic surveys in examining cable routing for [[Spanish National Telegraph Company]], with the Silver company being a major investor and contractor for cable and installation,  cables from [[Cadiz]] to the [[Canary Islands]]. They made two zig-zag sounding lines  gathering 552 soundings.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bright |first=Charles |year=1898 |title=Submarine telegraphs: Their History, Construction, and Working |location=London |publisher=C. Lockwood and son  |lccn=08003683 |page=[https://archive.org/details/submarinetelegra00brig/page/134 134] (footnote) |url=https://archive.org/details/submarinetelegra00brig |accessdate=27 January 2020}}</ref>
After 1902 the company largely withdrew from cable manufacture but continued installing submarine cable until 1914 when only one cable ship, ''Dacia'' remained.<ref name=HACHTW/> ''Dacia'' was torpedoed 3 December 1916 by [[SM U-38|U-38]] off [[Funchal|Funchal, Madeira]] while diverting the German South American cable into [[Brest, France|Brest]].<ref name=DACIA>{{cite web |last=Glover |first=Bill |title=History of the Atlantic Cable & Submarine Telegraphy - CS ''Dacia'' |publisher= |date=9 February 2018 |url=https://atlantic-cable.com/Cableships/Dacia/index.htm |accessdate=27 January 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=CS ''Dacia'' (+1916) |publisher=The Wrecksite |date=22 December 2019 |url=https://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?145758 |accessdate=27 January 2020}}</ref> U-38 sunk two other ships in this action and shelled Funchal with the British cable station as a primary target.<ref>{{cite web |title=Madeira History - Funchal Shelled |publisher=Madeira History |url=https://www.love-madeira.com/madeira-history-funchal-shelled.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111219185836/https://www.love-madeira.com/madeira-history-funchal-shelled.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=19 December 2011 |accessdate=27 January 2020}}</ref> The ship had previously repaired French cables and diverted German-African cables.<ref name=DACIA/> The company withdrew from submarine cable work until 1922. Another ship, renamed {{ship|CS|Silvergray}}, was acquired and modified for cable work that continued several years until that ship was sold to the Medway Steam Packet Company and the company's submarine cable work ceased.<ref name=HACHTW/>
===Cable ships===
[[File:SS Silvertown 1873 1901.JPG|thumb|300px|CS ''Silvertown'' (ex ''Hooper'') in 1901.]]
''Dacia'' and ''International'' were joined by two more ships as the cable laying business grew. {{ship|CS|Hooper}}, built by [[Hooper's Telegraph Works]] as the second specifically designed cable ship and first ship designed for transatlantic cable laying was second in size only to [[SS Great Eastern|''Great Eastern'']] when built in  1873. ''Hooper'' was acquired in 1881 and renamed ''Silvertown''.<ref group=note>Built by [[Charles Mitchell (shipbuilder)|C. Mitchell]] and Co., Newcastle,  1873, {{GRT|4935}}. Sold 1881 to India Rubber, Gutta Percha and Telegraph Works Company and renamed ''Silvertown'' which was active in cable work through 1913. ''Silvertown'' began the trans Pacific cable at San Francisco for the [[Commercial Pacific Cable Company]] in 1902.</ref><ref name=HACHTW/><ref>{{cite web |last=Glover |first=Bill |title=History of the Atlantic Cable & Submarine Telegraphy - CS ''Hooper''/''Silvertown'' |publisher= |date=7 February 2019 |url=https://atlantic-cable.com//Cableships/Silvertown/index.htm |accessdate=27 January 2020}}</ref> {{ship|CS|Buccaneer}} was built for the company as tender to ''Silvertown'' with two cable tanks but no cable laying machinery until a later refit when that machinery and bow sheaves were fitted.<ref>{{cite web |last=Glover |first=Bill |title=History of the Atlantic Cable & Submarine Telegraphy - CS ''Buccaneer'' |publisher= |date=7 October 2011 |url=https://atlantic-cable.com//Cableships/Buccaneer/index.htm |accessdate=27 January 2020}}</ref> The last cable ship, replacing the torpedoed ''Dacia'', was ''Silvergray'' purchased in 1922 which was in operation only a few years as a cable ship.<ref name=HACHTW/>
==Other business==
During the 1880s some of the first Bell’s patent telephones were manufactured at the Silvertown plant.<ref>{{cite web |title=Silvertown Explosion 1917 |publisher=Museum of London |url=https://collections.museumoflondon.org.uk/online/event/216.html |accessdate=28 January 2020}}</ref> The company by the 1890s was a supplier of electric generating plants to cities and towns both in the United Kingdom and on the Continent. Bicycle and later automobile tires were a major business segment in later years. By 1927 the company was in financial difficulty until the [[British Goodrich Rubber Company]], itself a subsidiary of the [[B.F. Goodrich Company]], acquired a controlling interest in 1933 and a year later the company's name was changed to British Tyre & Rubber Company.<ref name=HACHTW/>
== Footnotes ==
{{reflist|group=note}}
==References==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
* [https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/people/cp97588/india-rubber-gutta-percha-and-telegraph-works-company-limited Science Museum Group (London) corporation history summary, objects in collection]
* [http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=The%20India%20Rubber%2C%20Gutta%20Percha%2C%20and%20Telegraph%20Works%20Company%2C%20Limited University of Pennsylvania, The Online Books Page, Subject: The India Rubber, Gutta Percha, and Telegraph Works Company, Limited]
* [https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/1034.html National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, Daniel Bolt Collection, house flag image]
* [https://archive.org/details/southamericancab00indi/page/n5/mode/2up ''South American Cables 1891-1892''] Example of detailed description of the cable and cable lay.
* [https://atlantic-cable.com/Cableships/Dacia/index.htm#divert Photographs sinking of CS ''Dacia'']
{{British telegraph companies}}
[[Category:Rubber industry]]
[[Category:Telecommunications companies established in 1864]]
[[Category:Cable manufacture in London]]
[[Category:Submarine communications cables]]
[[Category:Defunct telecommunications companies of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Telegraph companies of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:1864 establishments in England]]
[[Category:British companies established in 1864]]
[[Category:Companies based in the London Borough of Newham]]