The sultan's messenger: Cultural constructions of Ottoman telegraphy, 1847-1880

Technology and Culture

Volumn 41, Issue 4, 2000, Pages 669-696

  Bektas, Yakup ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0034345812     PISSN: 0040165X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/tech.2000.0141     Document Type: Article

References (125)

1. W. P. Andrew, Memoir on the Euphrates Valley Route to India (London, 1857), 161-62; W. Ainsworth to W. P. Andrew, 13 August 1856, Public Record Office (PRO), London, FO78-1420, 1856-1858, European and Indian Junction Telegraph, vol. 1 (hereafter TEL1). I use the following additional abbreviations in the footnotes: EAST.TEL for PRO, FO97-414, 1854-1856, Telegraph: Service in the East - Crimea, Varna, Bucharest, Sulmanie; TEL2 for PRO, PO78-1634, 1860-1861 European and Indian Junction Telegraph, vol. 2; TEL3 for PRO, FO78-1900, 1862-1865 European and Indian Junction Telegraph, vol. 3. In 1877, the world's telegraph systems were ranked as follows: United States, 79,000 miles; Great Britain, 75,000; Russia, 31,459; France, 28,784; Austria, 28,148; Germany, 19,152; Australia, 18,448; Turkey, 17,618; India, 15,705; Canada, 13,995; Italy, 12,622. Telegraphic Journal and Electrical Review 5 (15 October 1877), 246-47.
2. Although the wires and poles required regular maintenance, the electric telegraph greatly reduced the constraints imposed by geographical distance on communication and separated communication from transportation. On the relationship between space and the telegraph, see J. W. Carey, Communication as Culture: Essays on Media and Society (Boston, 1988), 201-29.
3. D. R. Headrick, The Tools of Empire: Technology and European Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century (Oxford, 1981), and The Invisible Weapon: Telecommunication and International Politics, 1851-1945 (New York, 1991), 19-21; Bruce J. Hunt, "Doing Science in a Global Empire: Cable Telegraphy and Electrical Physics in Victorian Britain," in Victorian Science in Context, ed. B. Lightman (Chicago, 1997), 312-33, and "Insulation for an Empire: Gutta-Percha and Development of Electrical Measurement in Victorian Britain," in Semaphores to Short Waves, ed. F. A. J. L. James (London, 1998), 85-104.
4. D. R. Headrick, The Tools of Empire: Technology and European Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century (Oxford, 1981), and The Invisible Weapon: Telecommunication and International Politics, 1851-1945 (New York, 1991), 19-21; Bruce J. Hunt, "Doing Science in a Global Empire: Cable Telegraphy and Electrical Physics in Victorian Britain," in Victorian Science in Context, ed. B. Lightman (Chicago, 1997), 312-33, and "Insulation for an Empire: Gutta-Percha and Development of Electrical Measurement in Victorian Britain," in Semaphores to Short Waves, ed. F. A. J. L. James (London, 1998), 85-104.
5. D. R. Headrick, The Tools of Empire: Technology and European Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century (Oxford, 1981), and The Invisible Weapon: Telecommunication and International Politics, 1851-1945 (New York, 1991), 19-21; Bruce J. Hunt, "Doing Science in a Global Empire: Cable Telegraphy and Electrical Physics in Victorian Britain," in Victorian Science in Context, ed. B. Lightman (Chicago, 1997), 312-33, and "Insulation for an Empire: Gutta-Percha and Development of Electrical Measurement in Victorian Britain," in Semaphores to Short Waves, ed. F. A. J. L. James (London, 1998), 85-104.
6. D. R. Headrick, The Tools of Empire: Technology and European Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century (Oxford, 1981), and The Invisible Weapon: Telecommunication and International Politics, 1851-1945 (New York, 1991), 19-21; Bruce J. Hunt, "Doing Science in a Global Empire: Cable Telegraphy and Electrical Physics in Victorian Britain," in Victorian Science in Context, ed. B. Lightman (Chicago, 1997), 312-33, and "Insulation for an Empire: Gutta-Percha and Development of Electrical Measurement in Victorian Britain," in Semaphores to Short Waves, ed. F. A. J. L. James (London, 1998), 85-104.
7. In Britain and the United States the electric telegraph began as a system for regulating railway operations and generally followed the railway lines, with some exceptions. On the simultaneous expansion of railways and telegraphy, see J. Kieve, The Electric Telegraph: A Social and Economic History (Newton Abbot, 1973), 29-39; Iwan R. Morus, "The Electric Ariel: Telegraphy and Commercial Culture in Early Victorian England," Victorian Studies 39 (1996): 339-78.
8. In Britain and the United States the electric telegraph began as a system for regulating railway operations and generally followed the railway lines, with some exceptions. On the simultaneous expansion of railways and telegraphy, see J. Kieve, The Electric Telegraph: A Social and Economic History (Newton Abbot, 1973), 29-39; Iwan R. Morus, "The Electric Ariel: Telegraphy and Commercial Culture in Early Victorian England," Victorian Studies 39 (1996): 339-78.
9. Samuel F. B. Morse to Chamberlain, Paris, 22 February 1839, Morse Papers, Library of Congress; S. F. B. Morse: His Letters and Journals, ed. E. L. Morse (New York, 1973), 2:148-9; Cyrus Hamlin, Among the Turks (New York, 1878), 185-87.
10. Samuel F. B. Morse to Chamberlain, Paris, 22 February 1839, Morse Papers, Library of Congress; S. F. B. Morse: His Letters and Journals, ed. E. L. Morse (New York, 1973), 2:148-9; Cyrus Hamlin, Among the Turks (New York, 1878), 185-87.
11. Irade Dahiliye (internal affairs, hereafter I.D.) 7919, 11 August 1847, Basbakanlik Osmanli Arşivi, Istanbul (hereafter Ottoman Archives); John Porter Brown, "An Exhibition of Professor Morse's Magnetic Telegraph before the Sultan," Journal of the American Oriental Society 1 (1849): liv-lvii; Hamlin, 185-86; A. Tanrikut, Türkiye Posta ve Telgraf Teşkilat ve Mevzuati (Ankara, 1984), 536; Nesimi Yazici, "Osmanli Devleti'nde Posta Teşkilati" (Ph.D. diss., Ankara Ilahiyat Fakültesi, 1981), 350-53. For a detailed account of the electromagnetic telegraph at the sultan's palace, see Y. Bektas, "Displaying the American Genius: The Electromagnetic Telegraph in the Wider World," British Journal for the History of Science (forthcoming).
12. Irade Dahiliye (internal affairs, hereafter I.D.) 7919, 11 August 1847, Basbakanlik Osmanli Arşivi, Istanbul (hereafter Ottoman Archives); John Porter Brown, "An Exhibition of Professor Morse's Magnetic Telegraph before the Sultan," Journal of the American Oriental Society 1 (1849): liv-lvii; Hamlin, 185-86; A. Tanrikut, Türkiye Posta ve Telgraf Teşkilat ve Mevzuati (Ankara, 1984), 536; Nesimi Yazici, "Osmanli Devleti'nde Posta Teşkilati" (Ph.D. diss., Ankara Ilahiyat Fakültesi, 1981), 350-53. For a detailed account of the electromagnetic telegraph at the sultan's palace, see Y. Bektas, "Displaying the American Genius: The Electromagnetic Telegraph in the Wider World," British Journal for the History of Science (forthcoming).
13. Irade Dahiliye (internal affairs, hereafter I.D.) 7919, 11 August 1847, Basbakanlik Osmanli Arşivi, Istanbul (hereafter Ottoman Archives); John Porter Brown, "An Exhibition of Professor Morse's Magnetic Telegraph before the Sultan," Journal of the American Oriental Society 1 (1849): liv-lvii; Hamlin, 185-86; A. Tanrikut, Türkiye Posta ve Telgraf Teşkilat ve Mevzuati (Ankara, 1984), 536; Nesimi Yazici, "Osmanli Devleti'nde Posta Teşkilati" (Ph.D. diss., Ankara Ilahiyat Fakültesi, 1981), 350-53. For a detailed account of the electromagnetic telegraph at the sultan's palace, see Y. Bektas, "Displaying the American Genius: The Electromagnetic Telegraph in the Wider World," British Journal for the History of Science (forthcoming).
14. Irade Dahiliye (internal affairs, hereafter I.D.) 7919, 11 August 1847, Basbakanlik Osmanli Arşivi, Istanbul (hereafter Ottoman Archives); John Porter Brown, "An Exhibition of Professor Morse's Magnetic Telegraph before the Sultan," Journal of the American Oriental Society 1 (1849): liv-lvii; Hamlin, 185-86; A. Tanrikut, Türkiye Posta ve Telgraf Teşkilat ve Mevzuati (Ankara, 1984), 536; Nesimi Yazici, "Osmanli Devleti'nde Posta Teşkilati" (Ph.D. diss., Ankara Ilahiyat Fakültesi, 1981), 350-53. For a detailed account of the electromagnetic telegraph at the sultan's palace, see Y. Bektas, "Displaying the American Genius: The Electromagnetic Telegraph in the Wider World," British Journal for the History of Science (forthcoming).
15. Irade Dahiliye (internal affairs, hereafter I.D.) 7919, 11 August 1847, Basbakanlik Osmanli Arşivi, Istanbul (hereafter Ottoman Archives); John Porter Brown, "An Exhibition of Professor Morse's Magnetic Telegraph before the Sultan," Journal of the American Oriental Society 1 (1849): liv-lvii; Hamlin, 185-86; A. Tanrikut, Türkiye Posta ve Telgraf Teşkilat ve Mevzuati (Ankara, 1984), 536; Nesimi Yazici, "Osmanli Devleti'nde Posta Teşkilati" (Ph.D. diss., Ankara Ilahiyat Fakültesi, 1981), 350-53. For a detailed account of the electromagnetic telegraph at the sultan's palace, see Y. Bektas, "Displaying the American Genius: The Electromagnetic Telegraph in the Wider World," British Journal for the History of Science (forthcoming).
16. Şefik Bey (first secretary to the sultan) to Morse, 9 December 1847; J. L. Smith to D. S. Carr (U.S. minister resident to the Ottoman Empire), 31 January 1848; and Carr to Morse, Istanbul, 23 October 1848, Diplomatic Correspondence, RG 84, United States National Archives, Washington, D.C. Morse was always proud to acknowledge the sultan's distinction. See Morse to Haidar Effendi (Ottoman chargé d'affaires in Paris), Irade Hariciye (external affairs, hereafter I.H.) 8587, Paris, 15 September 1858, Ottoman Archives; Morse to Hamlin, New York, 15 May 1863, Robert College Heritage Collections, Istanbul; Morse, Letters and Journals, 2:297-99.
17. Hamlin, 185-95. "Pasha," "Bey," and "Effendi" are titles of respect and often of official or professional rank. A pasha is a high-ranking Ottoman official or governor. "Bey" is generally a title of courtesy, similar to "mister" or "gentleman," but also a lower military rank. "Effendi" refers to a man of education. The Ottomans did not use surnames; personal name and title sufficed.
18. Similar reactions came from Japanese daimyos, who even managed to keep some parts of western Japan out of the telegraphic network until their great rebellion in Satsuma in 1877 was suppressed. The internal reaction of Chinese officials delayed the introduction of the system there. On Japan, see Zenshichi Takahashi, Oyatoigaigokujin, tsûshin (Tokyo, 1969); on China, see Erik Baark, Lightning Wires: The Telegraph and China's Technological Modernization, 1860-1890 (Westport, Conn., 1997), 69-70.
19. Similar reactions came from Japanese daimyos, who even managed to keep some parts of western Japan out of the telegraphic network until their great rebellion in Satsuma in 1877 was suppressed. The internal reaction of Chinese officials delayed the introduction of the system there. On Japan, see Zenshichi Takahashi, Oyatoigaigokujin, tsûshin (Tokyo, 1969); on China, see Erik Baark, Lightning Wires: The Telegraph and China's Technological Modernization, 1860-1890 (Westport, Conn., 1997), 69-70.
20. Bernard Lewis, The Muslim Discovery of Europe (London, 1982), 221-38.
21. "Memorandum: Conversation with Frederic Cadogan respecting his proposal to carry out telegraphic communication between the Crimea and London, 4 December 1854," Earl Clarendon, 9 December 1854; Cadogan to Edmond Hammond, 13 and 22 December 1854; and Cadogan to Hammond, 2 January 1855, EAST.TEL.
22. "Convention between Her Majesty and the Emperor of the French, relative to the Establishment of a Line of Electric Telegraph between Bucharest and Varna. Signed at London, 1 February 1855 (Ratification exchanged at London, 28 February 1855)"; "Regulations for the Use of the Crimean Telegraph," 28 February 1855, EAST.TEL.
23. Balaklava, a small village southeast of Sevastopol, was the British supply harbor and headquarters of the allied armies in the Crimea. Its telegraphic link with Varna was a significant military advantage for the allied armies; Times (London), 22 January 1855 (leading article on the Black Sea telegraph). In addition to the disturbing influence of the strong return current, great difficulties were encountered at first in adapting the instruments furnished by Newall and Co. to the cable. See M. A. Biddulph, Report to the War Department on the Telegraphic Communication from Constantinople through Vienna to England, and Generally on the Submarine Telegraph Service in the East (London, 1856), 1-26. Indeed, the cable was laid with very little slack and did not survive for very long.
24. See Charles Bright, Submarine Telegraphs (London, 1898), 21.
25. The French laid a cable across the Danube, but it was very soon destroyed by passing vessels; Times (London), 12 May 1855 (lead article).
26. Illustrated London News, 17 November 1855, 597-98.
27. The Crimean telegraph was initially limited to military dispatches, but its use was later expanded to include official and public correspondence. See Stratford de Redcliffe to Earl Clarendon, 11 October 1855, and War Department to Lord Wodehouse, 25 October 1855, EAST.TEL. On the regulations and the Ottoman involvement, see Lord Cowley to Earl Clarendon, Paris, 17 November 1855; Office of Committee of Privy Council for Trade to Lord Wodehouse, 24 November 1855; and War Department to Lord Wodehouse, 24 December 1855, EAST.TEL.
28. I.H. 7383, 13 February 1857, and I.H. 7417, 14 February 1857, Ottoman Archives.
29. Edirne, held dear by the sultans as an old Ottoman capital, was a major commercial and political center in the European part of the empire. The telegraphic link there was to speed intelligence to Istanbul and serve as a junction to the European network. On this first Ottoman telegraph project, see A. Baha Gökoǧlu, Yurdumuzda Telgrafçilik, Ilk Hatlar, Ilk Telgraf Tarifesi, Ilk Telgraf Türesi (Istanbul, 1935), 48-57.
30. The Indian Mutiny of 1857 was the first Indian uprising against British rule. It began among the sepoys of the East India Company's army and spread rapidly but was suppressed by the British, who greatly benefited from a network of field telegraphs. The mutiny proved the value of speedy communication, and made a telegraph line between Britain and India a major British objective. The telegraphic communication with India, therefore, became the subject of intense debate in Britain among government officials, politicians, agents, and telegraph companies. For their voluminous correspondence, see, for example, House of Commons, "Correspondence respecting the Establishment of Telegraphic Communication in the Mediterranean, and with India," Parliamentary Papers, 1857-58,4 May 1858, vol. 60, pp. 1-368 [289-670], Some aspects of the telegraph in India are discussed in Saroj Ghose, "Commercial Needs and Military Necessities: The Telegraph in India," in Technology and the Raj, ed. R. MacLeod and D. Kumar (New Delhi, 1995), 153-76.
31. W. B. O'Shaughnessy to Sir James C. Melvill (secretary of the East India Company), 28 April 1856, and O'Shaughnessy to Melvill, 9 June 1856, TEL1. O'Shaughnessy (1809-89), who experimented on submarine telegraphy in India as early as 1839, was a major figure in the establishment of electric telegraphy in India. See Mel Gorman, "Sir William O'Shaughnessy, Lord Dalhousie, and the Establishment of the Telegraph System in India," Technology and Culture 12 (1971): 581-601.
32. The founding members of the European and Indian Junction Telegraph Company included such leading British figures as Sir John MacNeill, railway engineer, William Ainsworth, geologist and geographer, and Major J. A. Moore, ex-director of the East India Company. They originally proposed to form a connection at Iskenderun with the Bretts' submarine cable and then carry the wire via Aleppo and the Euphrates to the head of the Persian Gulf and thence by submarine cable to Karachi. See Andrew, Memoir on the Euphrates Valley Route (n. 1 above), 142-43, 229-49. William Patrick Andrew (1806-1887) founded the Sind, Puncap and Delhi Railway Co. in 1855 and was its chairman until 1886. The great scheme of his life, from 1856 until his death, was the Euphrates Railway. He was knighted in 1882.
33. Melvill to Andrew, 10 July 1856; Andrew to Earl Clarendon, 23 June 1856; Melvill to Andrew, 25 March 1857; and Andrew to E. Hammond, 2 July 1857, TEL1.
34. Redcliffe to Earl Clarendon, Therapia, 28 July, 12 and 22 August 1857; Staniforth to Redcliffe, 11 August 1857, TEL1. Reşid, Ali, and Fuad pashas were three major Ottoman reformist politicians who held the positions of grand vizier and foreign minister at various times between 1840 and 1870.
35. O'Shaughnessy to Andrew, 20 August 1857, and Redcliffe to Earl Clarendon, Therapia, 22 August 1857, TEL1.
36. Redcliffe to Earl Clarendon, Therapia, 1 September 1857, TEL1.
37. Redcliffe to Earl Clarendon, Therapia, 10 September 1857, TEL1.
38. Ali Pasha to Musurus Pasha (the Ottoman ambassador at London), 30 September 1857, TEL1; House of Commons, "Correspondence respecting the Establishment of a Line of Telegraph between Constantinople and Basra," Parliamentary Papers, 1857-58, 15 April 1858, vol. 60, pp. 1-5 [281-88], and "Correspondence respecting the Establishment of Telegraphic Communication in the Mediterranean, and with India" (n. 19 above), p. 180.
39. Times (London), 16 September 1858. See also his speeches in Sir MacDonald Stephenson, Railways in Turkey: Remarks upon the Practicability and Advantage of Railway Communication in European and Asiatic Turkey (London, 1859), and Y. Bektas, "The British Technological Crusade to Post-Crimean Turkey: Electric Telegraphy, Railways, Naval Shipbuilding and Armament Technologies" (Ph.D. diss., University of Kent at Canterbury, 1995).
40. Times (London), 16 September 1858. See also his speeches in Sir MacDonald Stephenson, Railways in Turkey: Remarks upon the Practicability and Advantage of Railway Communication in European and Asiatic Turkey (London, 1859), and Y. Bektas, "The British Technological Crusade to Post-Crimean Turkey: Electric Telegraphy, Railways, Naval Shipbuilding and Armament Technologies" (Ph.D. diss., University of Kent at Canterbury, 1995).
41. Times (London), 16 September 1858. See also his speeches in Sir MacDonald Stephenson, Railways in Turkey: Remarks upon the Practicability and Advantage of Railway Communication in European and Asiatic Turkey (London, 1859), and Y. Bektas, "The British Technological Crusade to Post-Crimean Turkey: Electric Telegraphy, Railways, Naval Shipbuilding and Armament Technologies" (Ph.D. diss., University of Kent at Canterbury, 1995).
42. R. S. Newall, Observations on the Present Condition of Telegraphs in the Levant (London, 1860), 1-30; Lionell Gisborne to Lord Clarendon, 28 January 1858. See also "Memorandum on the Establishment of a Line of Telegraph to India via Basra," I. Irwing, 3 September 1859; and Foreign Office to Redcliffe, 14 September 1857, TEL1.
43. Redcliffe to Lord Clarendon, 28 October 1857, TEL1.
44. Musurus Pasha to Lord Clarendon, 27 January 1858, in "Correspondence respecting the Establishment of Telegraphic Communication in the Mediterranean, and with India," p. 206.
45. War Department to Foreign Office, 3 January 1858; Foreign Office to Biddulph, 18 February 1858; and Irwing, "Memorandum on the Establishment of a Line of Telegraph to India via Basra," TEL1. General Sir Michael Anthony Shrapnel Biddulph (1823-1904) was trained at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. He served as assistant engineer of the Royal Artillery during the Crimean War, became director of submarine telegraphs in the Black Sea when the project began, and was made a colonel after the war. He probably volunteered for the position superintending the construction of the Istanbul to Fao line in order to be close to his prospective wife in the Crimea. After his return home in 1859 he served on the committee of the first Atlantic cable. Biddulph spent most of his subsequent military career in the British army in India as a commanding officer.
46. Left free to secure the employment of the staff required for the construction, Biddulph chose mostly from among those officers who had worked under him in the Crimea. For the details of Biddulph's employment in the Ottoman Empire, see Michael A. S. Biddulph, Report, Explanatory of a Map of the Telegraph Lines of the Ottoman Empire . . . with an Appendix, Containing Correspondence and Papers Relating to the Line of Telegraph Between Constantinople and Basra (London, 1860), 17. Biddulph's report includes the correspondence between him and Ottoman officials. See also the firman (imperial edict) explaining the details of Biddulph's engagement in I.H. 8297/1, Ottoman Archives.
47. They were J. G. Holdsworth, assistant engineer; C. Dukes, construction superintendent; C. Carthew, E. H. and H. E. McCullum, J. Welsh, and J. Irving, engineers; Thomas Humbly and W. Carr, linemen; and A. Ross and W. Turnbull, surveyors. Biddulph names four others as Chatfield, Lawrence, Colvin, and Nial. See Biddulph, Report. For an incomplete list of the Ottoman payroll, see M. Kaçar, "Osmanli Telgraf Işletmesi," in Çagim Yakalayan Osmanli, ed. E. Ihsanoǧlu and M. Kaçar (Istanbul, 1995), 71-73. See also I.H. 8587, 23 September 1858, Ottoman Archives.
48. H. C. Rawlinson, Notes on the Direct Overland Telegraph from Constantinople to Karachi (London, 1861).
49. They were Mustafa Effendi for the Izmit-to-Sivas section and Remzi Effendi for the Sivas-to-Diyarbekir section. See Biddulph to Mehmet Effendi, Constantinople, 14 August 1858, TEL1.
50. Biddulph to Ali Pasha, Constantinople, 14 August 1858, TEL1.
51. Sir Henry Bulwer (British ambassador in Istanbul) to Lord John Russell, 30 May 1860, TEL2; Biddulph, Report, 9. However, the memoir of Lewis Gordon, an engineering professor and a partner in Newall and Co., reveals that Biddulph was in fact lovesick: he had an affair with a lady in the Crimea, whom he had met while he was the head of the Crimean telegraph. Biddulph would often interrupt his work to visit her, a journey that could take four days or more, depending on the progress of the line from Istanbul. See Thomas Constable, Memoir of Lewis D. B. Gordon, F.R.S.E. (Edinburgh, 1877). Chaps. 5-8 are full of correspondence on Biddulph's love affair with Lady Karani, whom he eventually married. I thank Ben Marsden for pointing me to this correspondence. The Ottoman government did not continue Biddulph's services beyond his one-year contract. Ironically, the sultan granted him a considerable sum of money, apparently for his resignation due to "sickness.See I.H. 9423, 28 December 1859, Ottoman Archives.
52. Upon the recommendation of Sir Henry Bulwer, the British ambassador in Constantinople, the position of chief engineer was offered to Holdsworth, but he declined because he had been an officer under Biddulph's command. See Bulwer to Holdsworth, 13 March 1859; Holdsworth to Bulwer, 14 March 1859, TEL2. C. Carthew and the McCullum brothers, retired as noncommissioned officers of the Royal Artillery, assumed the superintendence of the works. Carthew was entrusted with the construction of the section between Mosul and Basra. He and his four assistants arrived at Baghdad in the summer of 1859 to direct the construction. See Colonel A. B. Kemball (British consul general at Baghdad) to Foreign Office, 20 July 1859, Baghdad, TEL2.
53. For an appraisal of the submarine cables and technology of the time, see Vary T. Coates and Bernard Finn, A Retrospective Technology Assessment: Submarine Technology (San Francisco, 1979), 1-63; Crosbie Smith and Norton Wise, Energy and Empire: A Biographical Study of Lord Kelvin (Cambridge, 1989), esp. chaps. 13 and 19.
54. For an appraisal of the submarine cables and technology of the time, see Vary T. Coates and Bernard Finn, A Retrospective Technology Assessment: Submarine Technology (San Francisco, 1979), 1-63; Crosbie Smith and Norton Wise, Energy and Empire: A Biographical Study of Lord Kelvin (Cambridge, 1989), esp. chaps. 13 and 19.
55. Rawlinson urged the Royal Geographical Society to support the Ottoman line by introducing it to the more general notice of the British public as one of the instances of the application of geographical science to the practical wants of the age. See Rawlinson (n. 35 above), 2 and 17.
56. Foreign Office to Bulwer, Baghdad, 5 December 1860, TEL2; F. J. Goldsmid, Telegraph and Travel: A Narrative of the Formation and Development of Telegraphic Communication Between England and India, Under the Orden of Her Majesty's Government, with Incidental Notices of the Countries Traversed by the Lines (London, 1874), 79-84. I thank Sarah Barnard of the Institute of Electrical Engineers, London, for the full name of Greener, one of the early members of the Society of Telegraph Engineers and perhaps the first professional engineer involved in Ottoman telegraphy.
57. See Kemball's "Report on the Condition of the Telegraphic Line Now Under Construction between Constantinople and Baghdad" to Bulwer, 22 December 1860, TEL2.
58. Establishing communication across the Bosporus was a major technical challenge. In 1856 Liddell proposed in an ambitious plan to suspend a wire cord from two iron columns, one of which was to be erected on the top ot the Rumeli Tower on the European side, the other on the top of the Anadolu Tower on the Asian side, but the Ottoman and other engineers later found this idea impracticable. See Goldsmid, 80; Biddulph, Report (n. 33 above), 13. On the recommendations of Greener and Kemball, see Greener to Kemball, "Memoranda on Manipulation of Telegraph between Constantinople and Baghdad,24 December 1860, Constantinople; Kemball to Bulwer, 4 January 1861, Constantinople, TEL2.
59. See a lengthy report by Kemball to Lord Russell, 5 April 1861, Mosul, TEL2.
60. Ibid.; Kemball's reports from Ankara, 28 January 1861, and from Sivas, 14 February 1861, in Goldsmid, 82-83.
61. Foreign Office to India Office, 4 May 1861; Bulwer to Lord Russell, Constantinople, 24 May 1861, TEL2.
62. Davud Effendi to Ali Pasha, Constantinople, 7 June 1861 ; Bulwer to Lord Russell, Constantinople, 18 June 1861, TEL2.
63. Patrick Stewart, "On the comparative merits of overland and subfluvial lines of telegraph between Baghdad and Basra,in India Office to Foreign Office, 23 August 1860; Stewart to India Office, 18 August 1860; and India Office to Hammond, 31 August 1860, TEL2.
64. Kemball to H. J. Anderson (chief secretary of the government of Bombay), Baghdad, 7 May 1861, TEL2.
65. India Office to Hammond, 26 September 1861; Foreign Office to India Office, 28 September 1861, TEL2. The Ottoman Empire and Persia were on the main British land routes to India. A telegraph line through these countries to India would mean for Britain not only a line of speedy communication with India but also a significant political advantage, especially as a measure against Russian expansion into the region and a way of securing the route to India. The British considered their alliances with the sultan and shah indispensable to their political and economic interests in the East. A telegraph and railway network was intended to consolidate these alliances.
66. Stewart to Allison, Tehran, 17 June 1862; Foreign Office to Bulwer, 18 November 1862.TEL3.
67. Ali Pasha to Erksine, Constantinople, 27 December 1862, TEL3.
68. The draft convention was signed by Erksine, the British chargé d'affaires at Constantinople, and Ali Pasha, then the Ottoman foreign minister, on 9 December 1863. For this and the alterations, see "A Draft Convention Signed by Erksine and Ali Pasha," Foreign Office to India Office, 22 March 1864; India Office to Foreign Office, 3 June 1864; Erksine to Lord Russell, Constantinople, 6 January 1864; and India Office to Foreign Office, 22 April 1864, TEL3.
69. "Convention between her Majesty and the Sultan, for the Establishment of Telegraphic Communication between India and the Ottoman Territory; signed at Constantinople, 3 September 1864 (Ratification exchanged at Constantinople, 31 October 1864," Parliamentary Papers, 1865, [7 February-6 July 1865], vol. 57, pp. 1-6 [487-95].
70. Stewart to Lord Russell, Therapia, 25 October 1864, TEL3. For the British debate on this frontier dispute, see "Correspondence respecting the Demarcation of the Frontier between Turkey and Persia,Parliamentary Papers, 1865 [7 February-6 July 1865], pp. 1-15 [829-47].
71. Kemball to Stewart, 21 September 1864, TEL3.
72. "A General Memorandum," Stewart to Ali Pasha, Therapia, 19 October 1864.TEL3.
73. "A Memorandum on the Cost of the Indo-European Telegraph," Stewart to Ali Pasha, Therapia, 25 October 1864, TEL3.
74. For the agreement, see Stewart to Foreign Office, Therapia, 10 October 1864; Stewart to Lord Russell, Therapia, 1 November 1864, TEL3. In the meantime, Stewart's health was rapidly declining. He died and was buried in Istanbul shortly before the opening.
75. For example, Frank Ives Scudamore, a major figure in the post and telegraph reforms in Britain, entered the Ottoman service in 1875, when his position in the British Post Office ended, to organize the postal and telegraph services. The sultan conferred on him the order of the Mejidiye in 1877. See Kieve (n. 4 above), 128-89. As early as 1857 Edward James Smith was employed to improve local posts, simplify postage, labels, etc. The R. S. Boumphrey Collection in the Durham University Archives, 104/9 1857-1859, includes letters to and from Smith describing his work and life.
76. A. Baha, Telgrafçilikta Ana Dilimiz ve Mustafa Effendi (Istanbul, 1933), 14.
77. I.H. 7417, 2 January 1857, Ottoman Archives.
78. I.D. 30560, 9 August 1860; and I.H. 12094, 22 October 1864, Ottoman Archives; Kaçar (n. 34 above), 49-51; Nesimi Yazici, "Tanzimat Döneminde Osmanli Posta Örgütü," in Tanzimat'tan Cumhuriyet'e Türkiye Ansiklopedisi, 6:1652. Roderick Davison asserts that many young Ottomans in the telegraph service were Freemasons and had modernizing tendencies; see Essays in Ottoman and Turkish History, 1774-1923: The Impact of the West (Austin, Tex., 1990), 153. Davison devotes one essay in this volume to "The Advent of the Electric Telegraph in the Ottoman Empire."
79. I.D. 30560, 9 August 1860; and I.H. 12094, 22 October 1864, Ottoman Archives; Kaçar (n. 34 above), 49-51; Nesimi Yazici, "Tanzimat Döneminde Osmanli Posta Örgütü," in Tanzimat'tan Cumhuriyet'e Türkiye Ansiklopedisi, 6:1652. Roderick Davison asserts that many young Ottomans in the telegraph service were Freemasons and had modernizing tendencies; see Essays in Ottoman and Turkish History, 1774-1923: The Impact of the West (Austin, Tex., 1990), 153. Davison devotes one essay in this volume to "The Advent of the Electric Telegraph in the Ottoman Empire."
80. I.D. 30560, 9 August 1860; and I.H. 12094, 22 October 1864, Ottoman Archives; Kaçar (n. 34 above), 49-51; Nesimi Yazici, "Tanzimat Döneminde Osmanli Posta Örgütü," in Tanzimat'tan Cumhuriyet'e Türkiye Ansiklopedisi, 6:1652. Roderick Davison asserts that many young Ottomans in the telegraph service were Freemasons and had modernizing tendencies; see Essays in Ottoman and Turkish History, 1774-1923: The Impact of the West (Austin, Tex., 1990), 153. Davison devotes one essay in this volume to "The Advent of the Electric Telegraph in the Ottoman Empire."
81. Nesimi Yazici, "Osmanli Telgraf Fabrikasi," Türk Dünya Araştirmalari 22 (1983): 70-81.
82. Newspaper clipping, n.d., no title, Morse Papers, reel 34, Printed Matter, 1823-1944, Library of Congress; "Telgrafin Tarihçesi," n.d., n.a., Postal Museum (PTT Müzesi), Ankara. I thank Hatice Şaban and Şerife Ekşi for this latter reference. David Edward Hughes (1831-1900), an Anglo-American, invented, among the other things, a printing telegraph instrument, which he patented in the United States in 1856. Lacking enough support there, Hughes took it to Europe, as Morse had done earlier. Following its adoption by the French government in 1861, after a year's trial, the Hughes printing telegraph came into widespread use in Europe. Between 1862 and 1869 all the major European countries adopted it and conferred upon Hughes many honors.
83. On these schools and their programs, see Tanrikul (n. 6 above), 572-75; Yazici, "Tanzimat Döneminde," 1649-1650; Kaçar, 111-13.
84. On these schools and their programs, see Tanrikul (n. 6 above), 572-75; Yazici, "Tanzimat Döneminde," 1649-1650; Kaçar, 111-13.
85. Davison, 133-65; Tanrikut, 572.
86. Davison, 133-65; Tanrikut, 572.
87. Electrical Review, 13 October 1882, 286.
88. S. Eyice, "Istanbul'da Ilk Telegraphane-i Amire'nin Projesi, 1855," Tarih Dergisi 34 (1984): 61-72.
89. For instance, see Coates and Finn (n. 40 above), esp. 120-55; Colin Hempstead, "Representations of Transatlantic Telegraphy," Engineering Science and Education Journal (December 1995): 17-25; David Hochfelder, "Taming the Lightning: American Telegraphy as a Revolutionary Technology, 1832-1860" (Ph.D. diss., Case Western Reserve University, 1999), esp. 273-324.
90. For instance, see Coates and Finn (n. 40 above), esp. 120-55; Colin Hempstead, "Representations of Transatlantic Telegraphy," Engineering Science and Education Journal (December 1995): 17-25; David Hochfelder, "Taming the Lightning: American Telegraphy as a Revolutionary Technology, 1832-1860" (Ph.D. diss., Case Western Reserve University, 1999), esp. 273-324.
91. For instance, see Coates and Finn (n. 40 above), esp. 120-55; Colin Hempstead, "Representations of Transatlantic Telegraphy," Engineering Science and Education Journal (December 1995): 17-25; David Hochfelder, "Taming the Lightning: American Telegraphy as a Revolutionary Technology, 1832-1860" (Ph.D. diss., Case Western Reserve University, 1999), esp. 273-324.
92. Stephenson (n. 28 above); W. P. Andrew, Our Scientific Frontier (London, 1880); Bektas, "The British Technological Crusade" (n. 28 above).
93. Stephenson (n. 28 above); W. P. Andrew, Our Scientific Frontier (London, 1880); Bektas, "The British Technological Crusade" (n. 28 above).
94. Tanrikut, 583-84; Yazici, "Osmanli Telgraf Fabrikasi," (n. 65 above), 71.
95. Tanrikut, 583-84; Yazici, "Osmanli Telgraf Fabrikasi," (n. 65 above), 71.
96. Andrew to Hammond, 18 September 1857, TEL1.
97. Electrician, 2 January 1863, 104. Sir Joshua Jebb (1793-1863) reformed the British penal system. "Ticket-of-leave men" were what we would call parolees.
98. Ainsworth to Andrew, 13 August 1856, TEL3.
99. Quoted in Tanrikut (n. 6 above), 599.
100. Such incidents were reported in, for example, "Correspondence respecting the Establishment of Telegraphic Communication in the Mediterranean, and with India" (n. 19 above), 1-368 [289-670], and in Goldsmid (n. 42 above), 418.
101. Thomas Stevens, "Telegraph Operators in Persia," Electrical Review, 18 August 1888, 7; C. Marvin, When Old Technologies Were New (Oxford, 1988), 140.
102. Thomas Stevens, "Telegraph Operators in Persia," Electrical Review, 18 August 1888, 7; C. Marvin, When Old Technologies Were New (Oxford, 1988), 140.
103. Ainsworth to Andrew, 13 August 1856, TEL1.
104. Kemball to Lord Russell, Kifri, 24 April 1861, TEL2.
105. "Proposition for Maintaining the Security of the Telegraphic Line in the Kerkuk District from the Zab Su to Kashka being 72 Hours as Concerted between Ismail Pasha and Kemball," by Kemball, 24 April, 1861, TEL2. A similar subsidy was later granted to some farmers and heads of secluded villages by the Meiji government in Japan to keep the wires in good working order, and as a result disturbances greatly diminished. See Takahashi (n. 9 above), 72. I thank Tadaaki Kimoto for this reference.
106. I.H 7417, 10 February 1857, and I.D. 8805, 8 February 1857, Ottoman Archives.
107. I.H. 5446, 5 July 1854, Ottoman Archives. Kaçar (n. 34 above), 57, gives the number of these cavalrymen as 675.
108. Goldsmid describes them as "telegraph inspectors," but they were responsible primarily for the security of the lines; see Goldsmid (n. 42 above), 106.
109. Charles Eliot, Turkey in Europe (London, 1900), 99; also quoted in Davison (n. 64 above), 139.
110. Charles Eliot, Turkey in Europe (London, 1900), 99; also quoted in Davison (n. 64 above), 139.
111. Some of these reactions are discussed in Rudolph Peters, "Religious Attitudes Towards Modernization in the Ottoman Empire: A Nineteenth Century Pious Text on Steamships, Factories and Telegraphy," Die Welt des Islams 26 (1986): 75-105. The reactions of the Ottoman clergy, which often constituted the center of opposition to European innovations, are beyond the scope of this paper and await further research.
112. Babazade Mustafa, "Müslimanlik Ilmi ve Fenni bir Dindir," Sebil-ur Reşad 207 (1912), quoted in Niyazi Berkes, The Development of Secularism in Turkey (Montreal, 1964), 362-63.
113. Babazade Mustafa, "Müslimanlik Ilmi ve Fenni bir Dindir," Sebil-ur Reşad 207 (1912), quoted in Niyazi Berkes, The Development of Secularism in Turkey (Montreal, 1964), 362-63.
114. Necdet Sakaoǧlu, Amasra'nin Üç Bin Yili (Zonguldak, 1987), 144; Orhan Koloǧlu, "Yeni Haberleşme ve Ulaşim Tekniklerinin Osmanli Toplumunu Etkileyişi," in Çaǧini Yakalayan Osmanli, ed. E. Ihsanoǧlu and M. Kaçar (Istanbul, 1995), 597-608.
115. Necdet Sakaoǧlu, Amasra'nin Üç Bin Yili (Zonguldak, 1987), 144; Orhan Koloǧlu, "Yeni Haberleşme ve Ulaşim Tekniklerinin Osmanli Toplumunu Etkileyişi," in Çaǧini Yakalayan Osmanli, ed. E. Ihsanoǧlu and M. Kaçar (Istanbul, 1995), 597-608.
116. Goldsmid (n. 42 above), 83-84.
117. E. Z. Karal, Osmanli Tarihi (Ankara, 1983), 7:273; Yazici, "Tanzimat Döneminde" (n. 64 above), 1649.
118. E. Z. Karal, Osmanli Tarihi (Ankara, 1983), 7:273; Yazici, "Tanzimat Döneminde" (n. 64 above), 1649.
119. H. H. Jessup, Fifty-three Years in Syria (New York, 1900), 2:438.
120. Electrical Review, 29 April 1882, 304.
121. Orhan Koloǧlu, Abdulhamit Gerçeǧi (Istanbul, 1987), 337-38.
122. The political exploitation of the telegraph by the sultan and his government has not yet been explored. The case of the Ottoman railways is discussed in Jacob M. Landau, The Hejaz Railway and the Muslim Pilgrimage: A Case of Ottoman Political Propaganda (Detroit, 1971), and in F. R. Maunsell, "Hejaz Railway," Geographical Journal 32 (1908): 570-85. For a perceptive analysis of policies of authority and control during Abdul Hamid's reign, see Selim Deringil, The Well-Protected Domains: Ideology and the Legitimation of Power in the Ottoman Empire, 1876-1909 (London, 1998). Deringil does not refer to Western technological systems such as telegraphy and railways, or to the sultan's efforts to exploit them as instruments of power.
123. The political exploitation of the telegraph by the sultan and his government has not yet been explored. The case of the Ottoman railways is discussed in Jacob M. Landau, The Hejaz Railway and the Muslim Pilgrimage: A Case of Ottoman Political Propaganda (Detroit, 1971), and in F. R. Maunsell, "Hejaz Railway," Geographical Journal 32 (1908): 570-85. For a perceptive analysis of policies of authority and control during Abdul Hamid's reign, see Selim Deringil, The Well-Protected Domains: Ideology and the Legitimation of Power in the Ottoman Empire, 1876-1909 (London, 1998). Deringil does not refer to Western technological systems such as telegraphy and railways, or to the sultan's efforts to exploit them as instruments of power.
124. The political exploitation of the telegraph by the sultan and his government has not yet been explored. The case of the Ottoman railways is discussed in Jacob M. Landau, The Hejaz Railway and the Muslim Pilgrimage: A Case of Ottoman Political Propaganda (Detroit, 1971), and in F. R. Maunsell, "Hejaz Railway," Geographical Journal 32 (1908): 570-85. For a perceptive analysis of policies of authority and control during Abdul Hamid's reign, see Selim Deringil, The Well-Protected Domains: Ideology and the Legitimation of Power in the Ottoman Empire, 1876-1909 (London, 1998). Deringil does not refer to Western technological systems such as telegraphy and railways, or to the sultan's efforts to exploit them as instruments of power.
125. For example, Talat Pasha (1874-1921), a leading figure of the Young Turk Revolution, who became minister of interior and grand vizier (1917-18), was formerly a mere telegraph clerk at Edirne and later at Salonika. The telegraph enabled him to organize and spread the movement in spite of the sultan's spies. Davison rightly points out that the effective use of the telegraph was also a key to the success of Kemal Atatürk, the founding father of the Republic of Turkey; see Davison (n. 64 above), 157-58. It is also ironic that the British, who initially supported the extension of the telegraphic network in the Ottoman Empire, were most hostile to its installations during World War I. Ottoman telegraph and railway networks in Arabia were the primary targets of British imperial agents (such as T. E. Lawrence) who provoked the Arabs to rebel against Ottoman rule during the war.