Telegraph Tapestry

Telegraph TapestryBefore radio, satellites, and instant messaging, a message could cross an ocean through a thin cable resting on the seafloor.During the late nineteenth-century expansion of European empires in Africa, telegraph networks transformed the speed at which governments, companies, military authorities, and colonial administrations could communicate. Behind these machines were operators—many of them women—whose technical skill helped keep this new information network moving.Telegraph Tapestry explores the overlooked history of female telegraph operators, submarine cables, colonial communications, and the race to control information during the Scramble for Africa.From telegraph offices and cable stations to the great communications routes linking Europe and Africa, this book reveals how Morse code, electrical technology, and human hands became part of a rapidly changing imperial world.It is a story of technology and empire, but also of women entering a technical profession at a time when their working lives were sharply restricted.The cables carried the messages. The operators gave them a voice.