History of the Atlantic Cable & Submarine Telegraphy

	History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications from the first submarine cable of 1850 to the worldwide fiber optic network
Cable & Wireless: Communications Old And New

Charles F. Tunnicliffe (1901-1979) was one of England's finest wildlife artists and book illustrators. See his full biography from the Isle of Anglesey website.

Tunnicliffe was commissioned by Cable & Wireless, Ltd., to produce a series of illustrations entitled "Communications Old And New", a pictorial history of communications from smoke signals to radio. These were published as magazine ads in the early 1940s, appearing in Punch and possibly other publications.

In 1944 the illustrations were published as a book, also titled "Communications Old And New", with the author of the text identified as Lt. Commander R.T. Gould, R.N.

Tunnicliffe produced 28 scraperboard illustrations for the series. The pieces shown here are from a set of prints perhaps made to promote the book, or for corporate relations purposes.

Click on each image for a larger view.

Thanks to Fay for the cover image

The Electric Telegraph of 1839 connected Paddington in London with Slough to the west and was instrumental in catching a murderer who fled by train.

The Atlantic Cable laying expeditions of 1858 to 1866. The illustration shows the Great Eastern which laid the first successful cable in 1866.

Wireless Telegraphy. The illustration shows Marconi in St. Johns, Newfoundland, receiving the first transatlantic radio signal from Poldhu in Cornwall in 1901.

Last revised: 30 November, 2008

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