Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

THE AFRICAN TRANSCONTINENTAL TELEGRAPH. BY HOWARD HENSMAN, Author of "A HISTORY OF RHODESIA” “ CECIL RHODES: A STUDY OF A CAREER” Etc. BRACKETING THE TELEGRAPH WIRE. andria in the north to Cape Town in the south, throwing out numerous branches on either side in order to open up communication with the vari- ous settlements on the east and west coasts. The scheme for the construction of this line originated with the late Mr. Cecil Rhodes, who saw in it, probably, a very useful pioneer Thp for his other and more 1 ne , ... . p Purpose of sunbitious scheme foi* T* a “ Cape to Cairo ” railway. When the British South Africa Company first received its charter, and took over the control of that huge tract of country which is known to-day as Rhodesia, it was almost immediately decided to con- nect the larger towns—such as Bula- wayo, Gwelo, Umtali, Salisbury, and Victoria—with each other by means of a telegraph wire, so as to provide a swift and easy means of communi- cation. This was to be done chiefly in order to facilitate the instant con- centration of the police and the white settlers at any given point where trouble threatened ; for it must be HAT has come to be known as the trans-African telegraph line may in reality be described as the middle link of a chain of telegraph systems destined, within the course of a very short time, to bridge the entire African continent from Alex- ei, 408) J 3 remembered that, though the war against King Lobengula and his impis had quelled the war- like Matabele tribe for a time, it had by no means subdued it, as subsequent events were to show. In those early days, however, it was only proposed to carry the wire as far as Salis-