William Thomas Henley (1814–1882) was a pioneer in the manufacture of telegraph cables.[1][2] He was working as a porter inCheapside in 1830, leaving after disputes with his employer, and working at theSt Katherine Docks for six years. During those years he was determined to learn a trade and used money from an aunt to purchase a lathe, vice and lumber with which he made a work bench. With those tools he taught himself to turn wood and brass and began to experiment, including with electricity.[2]
Henley designed and built a machine in 1837 for covering wires with silk or cotton thread which is now in theLondon Science Museum (Object Number: 1939-139). The machine may have been Henley's original prototype.[3] Around 1858 Henley developed a needle galvanometer that was installed at theValentia Island, Ireland shore end of the 1858transatlantic telegraph cable to receive the first signal from the North American terminus atHeart's Content Cable Station, Newfoundland. That instrument is also in the collection of the museum.[4]
He set up as asubmarine cable maker in 1857 and by 1859 he had his own factory beside theThames atNorth Woolwich. Cable cores, the electrical component and its insulation, were obtained fromStephen William Silver andHugh Adams Silver'sIndia Rubber, Gutta Percha and Telegraph Works Company orWilliam Hooper's company.[note 1] He went on to manufacture the shore ends of the secondTransatlantic cable in 1865.[1][2] The firm eventually extended operations to manufacturinggutta-percha and rubber core as well as cable laying and repair.[5]
W.T. Henley's Telegraph Works Co., Ltd acquired cable ships for cables it would lay as well as manufacture. One,CS La Plata, was chartered bySiemens Brothers Ltd. to lay cable between Rio de Janeiro, Brazil andChuy, Uruguay after theCS Gomos foundered while laying the cable with loss of 204 nmi (235 mi; 378 km) of cable.La Plata foundered en route to complete the lay on 29 November 1874 in theBay of Biscay with loss of 58 crew and the cable.[6][7] Other company cable ships wereCS Africa,CS Caroline. andCS Westmeath.[8][9][10]
W. T. Henley Ltd. was acquired byAEI in 1959, and later became part ofGEC following its takeover of AEI in 1967. The company was sold toTT electronics in 1997. Today the company is a division ofSICAME UK Limited and relocated to a brand new factory atHoo (nearRochester) in July 2018.[1][2]
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