In 1656 the English traveler John Tradescant brought sample of tobacco chili pepper, maize, tea among many others including Gutta Percha. Although Gutta Percha long remained a curiosity for almost two centuries, in 1832 the Scottish physician William Montgomery, learned about its qualities from a Malay laborer. During the second half of the 19th century, gutta-percha was used for medical, domestic and industrial purposes,[2] and it became a household word. Most importantly, it used as insulation for underwater telegraph cables, This was because it provided good insulation for the wires allowing them to be laid in the sea base. The underwater telegraph candles redefined the physical boundaries of communication hence connecting the furthest outposts of the empire to the imperial metropolis, through hundreds of thousands of cable lines. By the 1880s Malta was connected to Alexandria, France was connected to Newfoundland, India, Hong Kong, china, and japan, and Australia to the outside world. Overall, there were about 650,000 miles of telegraph wire been laid or strung across land, and more than 100,000 miles of undersea cable. Additionally the telegraph was used for pollical and military processes such as increasing control on outposts, organisation the colonised subjects and in the face of rebellious activates supressing them. Although cable laying was considered was a complex process, extracting Gutta gum from the Gutta tree was based on primitive labour methods.