History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications
from the first submarine cable of 1850 to the worldwide fiber optic network

Stamps and First Day Covers: From the Atlantic Cable to Fiber Optics
Atlantic Cables - anniversary stamps and covers
Other cable covers
Information Technology Year British stamps
Cableship stamps -   44 cableships on 93 stamps
(Bill Glover Collection)
Cable Cover - The Submarine Telegraph Company - the first cable-laying company, founded in 1850
(Bill Glover Collection)
Cable stamps - ANZCAN, SCOTICECAN, Bermuda-Tortola, Denmark-Russia, Isle of Man-UK
(Bill Glover Collection)
Cable stamps & covers - Pacific Cable 1902-26, COMPAC, TPC1, TPC3, SAT 1 & 2
(Bill Glover Collection)
Cable stamps - China-Korea, Chino-Japanese, OLUHO, SEA-ME-WE 1, SEA-ME-WE 2, SEA-ME-WE 3, Japan Sea Cable
(Bill Glover Collection)
Cable stamps - Australia-Tasmania, CJFS, ECFS, EMOS 1, IOCOM, ITUR, Malaysia-Sabah, Netherlands Antilles
(Bill Glover Collection)
Cable stamps - ASEAN, Thailand -Vietnam - Hong Kong, SEACOM
(Bill Glover Collection)
Cable stamps - Repeaters and Branching Unit
(Bill Glover Collection)
Cable stamps & covers - Ascension Island Centenary, England-South Africa Cables 1899-1901, others
(Bill Glover Collection)
Cable stamps & covers - Cocos (Keeling) Islands Barrel Mail, and the Battle of Cocos
(Bill Glover Collection)
Cable stamps & covers - Australian Overland Telegraph
(Bill Glover Collection)
Cable stamps & covers - British Telegraph Companies
(Bill Glover Collection)
History of Cable & Wireless - by Bill Glover, illustrated by stamps & covers

Bill Glover writes about his interest in telegraphy and philately:

I've been studying the subject of Telegraphy for over 30 years. It started when I obtained a copy of James Dugan’s book "The Great Iron Ship." I knew of Isambard Kingdom Brunel from his railway engineering achievements. I was fascinated by the part Great Eastern played in the Atlantic Telegraph, so I followed this up with other books on Submarine Telegraphy and after about 3 years (1976) decided it would make an interesting collection.

At that time there were very few stamps to do with the subject and so I collected "Telecommunications". As my knowledge grew I included telegrams, slogans, FDCs, photographs, postcards, etc., and at the same time cut the collection down to "Telegraphy". So my collection starts with Claude Chappe and his Telegraph (1791), then Electric Telegraphy, Submarine Telegraphy and Wireless Telegraphy. It runs to about 780 pages of which around 250 are Submarine Telegraphy.

A long-time ambition was to win a medal at an International Exhibition, which I did at ITALIA 98, and another was to get all this information to as many interested collectors as possible. I've had articles published in the UK, USA, France, Germany, Spain and the Peoples Republic of China, but in each case it’s only a limited audience, and it takes up to eighteen months to get an article published.

Now with the web it’s a worldwide audience and instant publication.

Last revised: 23 February, 2017

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Research Material Needed

The Atlantic Cable website is non-commercial, and its mission is to make available on line as much information as possible.

You can help - if you have cable material, old or new, please contact me. Cable samples, instruments, documents, brochures, souvenir books, photographs, family stories, all are valuable to researchers and historians.

If you have any cable-related items that you could photograph, copy, scan, loan, or sell, please email me: [email protected]

—Bill Burns, publisher and webmaster: Atlantic-Cable.com