Portsmouth Shutter Telegraph Line
county:
county:
Surrey
West Sussex
parish:
county:
Portsmouth
Hampshire
A machine that's endowed with such wonderful pow'r / It writes, reads and sends news 50 miles in an hour. / Then there's watchwords, a spyglass, an index on hand, / And many things more none of us understand. ...
Adieu, penny posts! mails and coaches adieu! / Your Occupation's gone, 'tis all over wid you. /In your place telegraphs on your houses we'll see / to tell time, conduct lightning, dry shirts and send news.Various descriptions and models passed to Rev John Gamble, who studied the problem and wrote a report for the Duke:-
Observations on Telegraph ExperimentsThe war with revolutionary France indicated a need. The Admiralty decided it wanted a simple system, and cheap. They sent Gamble to experiment with a 5 shutter telegraph between Portsdown and Southsea; working by 1795. By the time Gamble returned to London he found that the 6 shutter system of Lord George Murray had found more favour. This could make 64 signals, of which 1 is void; 5 shutters could only make 32-1, not enough. Murray was got payment; Gamble was disgruntled, he could have added a shutter, he said. George Roebuck, surveyor, was appointed to select sites for lines from London to Deal, Sheerness and Portsmouth, September 1795. The Navy Board built the stations by the end of 1796, and Murray was in charge as Inspector of Telegraphs. Roebuck had the job later, from 1788.
The Portsmouth line ran from London, via Putney Heath, Cabbage Hill, Netley Marsh, Hascombe, Blackdown, then:-
