The
transatlantic telegraph cable was the first
cableA submarine communications cable is a cable laid beneath the sea to carry telecommunications between countries.The first submarine communications cables carried telegraphy traffic. Subsequent generations of cables carried first telephony traffic, then data communications traffic...
used for telegraph communications laid across the floor of the
Atlantic OceanThe Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres , it covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface and about one-quarter of its water surface area. The first part of its name refers to the Atlas of Greek...
. It crossed from
the Telegraph Field, Foilhommerum Bay,
Valentia IslandValentia Island is one of Europe's westernmost inhabited locations, lying off the Iveragh Peninsula in the southwest of County Kerry in Ireland. It is linked to the mainland by a bridge at Portmagee, as well as by a ferry which sails from Reenard Point to Knightstown, the island's main settlement...
, in western
IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
to
Heart's ContentHeart's Content an incorporated town in Trinity Bay on the Bay de Verde Peninsula of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The natural harbour that make up the town is located on the east side of Trinity Bay and it is built along the northeast side and the southeast base of this...
in eastern Newfoundland. The transatlantic
cableA cable is two or more wires or ropes running side by side and bonded, twisted or braided together to form a single assembly. In mechanics, cables are used for lifting and hauling; in electricity they are used to carry electrical currents....
bridged
North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
and
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
, and expedited communication between the two. Whereas it would normally take at least ten days to deliver a message by ship, it now took a matter of minutes by telegraph.
Five attempts to lay it were made over a nine-year period—in 1857, two in 1858, in 1865, and in 1866—before lasting connections were finally achieved by the
SS Great EasternThe SS Great Eastern was an iron sailing steam ship designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. She was by far the largest ship ever built at the time of her 1858 launch, and had the capacity to carry 4,000 passengers around the world without refueling...
captained by
Sir James AndersonSir James Anderson captained the SS Great Eastern on the laying of the Transatlantic telegraph cable.Anderson was educated in Dumfries in south west Scotland at the academy there....
with the 1866 cable and the repaired 1865 cable. Additional cables were laid between Foilhommerum and Heart's Content in 1873, 1874, 1880 and 1894. By the end of the 19th century, British-, French-, German- and American-owned cables linked Europe and North America in a sophisticated web of telegraphic communications.
Cyrus West FieldCyrus West Field was an American businessman and financier who led the Atlantic Telegraph Company, the company that successfully laid the first telegraph cable across the Atlantic Ocean in 1858...
was the force behind the first transatlantic telegraph cable, attempted unsuccessfully in 1857 and completed on August 5, 1858. Although not considered particularly successful or long-lasting, it was the first transatlantic cable project to yield practical results. The first official telegram to pass between two continents was a letter of congratulation from
Queen Victoria of the United KingdomVictoria was the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837, and the first Empress of India of the British Raj from 1 May 1876, until her death...
to the
President of the United StatesThe President of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States and is the highest political official in the United States by influence and recognition...
James BuchananJames Buchanan, Jr. was the 15th President of the United States from 1857–1861 and the last to be born in the 18th century...
on August 16. The cable was destroyed the following month when
Wildman WhitehouseEdward Orange Wildman Whitehouse was an English surgeon, better-known for his ultimately unsuccessful endeavours as chief electrician of the transatlantic telegraph cable for the Atlantic Telegraph Company.-Life:...
applied excessive voltage to it while trying to achieve faster telegraph operation. The shortness of the period of use undermined public and investor confidence in the project, and delayed efforts to restore a connection. A next attempt was undertaken in 1865 with much-improved material and, following some setbacks, a connection was completed and put into service on July 28, 1866. This time the connection was more durable, and increased public confidence resulted when the 1865 cable was repaired and put into service shortly afterwards.
Whereas previously communication could only happen over ship, the transatlantic cable sped up communication to within minutes, allowing an inquiry and a response within the same day. In the 1870s, duplex and quadruplex transmission and receiving systems were set up that could relay multiple messages over the cable. In cross-Atlantic currency trading, the pound sterling to US dollar exchange rate came to be referred as "cable" and this term is still in common usage today. . The great utility of the cable built on itself, and multiple cables were established soon afterward.
Origins of the idea
After
William CookeSir William Fothergill Cooke was, with Charles Wheatstone, the co-inventor of the Cooke-Wheatstone electrical telegraph, which was patented in May 1837...
and
Charles WheatstoneSir Charles Wheatstone FRS , was a British scientist and inventor of many scientific breakthroughs of the Victorian era, including the English concertina, the stereoscope , and the Playfair cipher...
introduced their working telegraph in 1839, the idea of a submarine line across the
Atlantic OceanThe Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres , it covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface and about one-quarter of its water surface area. The first part of its name refers to the Atlas of Greek...
began to be thought of as a possible triumph of the future.
Samuel F. B. MorseSamuel Finley Breese Morse was the American inventor of a single-wire telegraph system and Morse code and a painter of historic scenes.-Birth and education:Samuel F.B...
proclaimed his faith in it as early as the year 1840 and the following decade saw a period of experimentation and growth of knowledge in underwater telegraph cables culminating in the 1850 link between
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
. That same year, Bishop
John T. MullockJohn Thomas Mullock was Roman Catholic bishop of St. John's, Newfoundland and did much to establish and develop the church in the region. Born in Limerick, Co. Limerick, Ireland, he died in St. John's and is buried in the crypt of the Basilica of St. John the Baptist.Mullock became a Franciscan in...
, head of the
Roman Catholic ChurchThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
in Newfoundland, proposed a line of telegraph through the forest from St. John's to
Cape RayCape Ray is a headland located at the southwestern extremity of the island of Newfoundland in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador....
, and cables across the mouth of the St. Lawrence River from Cape Ray to Nova Scotia across the
Cabot StraitCabot Strait is a strait in eastern Canada approximately 110 kilometres wide between Cape Ray, Newfoundland and Cape North, Cape Breton Island. It is the widest of the three outlets for the Gulf of Saint Lawrence into the Atlantic Ocean, the others being the Strait of Belle Isle and Strait of Canso...
.
At about the same time, a similar plan occurred to
Frederick Newton GisborneFrederick Newton Gisborne was a Canadian inventor and electrician.Born in Broughton, Preston, Lancashire, England, he left England in 1842 for a trip around the world, finally settling in Canada in 1845...
, a telegraph engineer in
Nova ScotiaNova Scotia is a Canadian province located on Canada's southeastern coast. It is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. Its capital, Halifax, is a major economic centre of the region. Nova Scotia is the second-smallest province in Canada with an area of...
. In the spring of 1851, Gisborne procured a grant from the legislature of Newfoundland, and having formed a company, began the construction of the landline. However, in 1853 his company collapsed. He was arrested for debt and lost everything. The following year, he was introduced to
Cyrus West FieldCyrus West Field was an American businessman and financier who led the Atlantic Telegraph Company, the company that successfully laid the first telegraph cable across the Atlantic Ocean in 1858...
. Field invited Gisborne to his house to discuss the project. From his visitor, Field extended the idea that the telegraph to Newfoundland might be extended across the Atlantic Ocean.
Field was ignorant of submarine cables and the deep sea. He consulted Morse as well as Lieutenant Matthew Maury, an authority on
oceanographyOceanography , also called oceanology or marine science, is the branch of Earth science that studies the ocean...
. Field adopted Gisborne's scheme as a preliminary step to the bigger undertaking, and promoted the
New York, Newfoundland and London Telegraph CompanyThe New York, Newfoundland and London Telegraph Company was a company in a series of conglomerations of several companies that eventually laid the first Trans-Atlantic cable....
to establish a telegraph line between America and Europe.
St. John's to Nova Scotia
The first step was to finish the line between St. John's and Nova Scotia, and in 1855 an attempt was made to lay a cable across the
Cabot StraitCabot Strait is a strait in eastern Canada approximately 110 kilometres wide between Cape Ray, Newfoundland and Cape North, Cape Breton Island. It is the widest of the three outlets for the Gulf of Saint Lawrence into the Atlantic Ocean, the others being the Strait of Belle Isle and Strait of Canso...
in the
Gulf of Saint LawrenceThe Gulf of Saint Lawrence , the world's largest estuary, is the outlet of North America's Great Lakes via the Saint Lawrence River into the Atlantic Ocean. It is a semi–enclosed sea, covering an area of about 236 000 km2 and containing 35000 km3 of water...
. It was laid out from a
barqueA barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel.- History of the term :The word barc appears to have come from the Greek word baris, a term for an Egyptian boat. This entered Latin as barca, which gave rise to the French words barge and barque...
in tow of a steamer. When half was laid a gale rose and, to keep the barque from sinking, the line was cut away. Next summer a steamboat was fitted out for the purpose and the link from
Cape RayCape Ray is a headland located at the southwestern extremity of the island of Newfoundland in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador....
, Newfoundland to Aspy Bay, Nova Scotia was successfully laid.
Transatlantic
Field then directed the efforts to the transoceanic section with
Charles Tilston BrightSir Charles Tilston Bright was a British electrical engineer who oversaw the laying of the first transatlantic telegraph cable in 1858, for which work he was knighted.Born on 8 June 1832 in Wanstead, Essex...
as chief engineer. A special survey was made along the proposed route of the cable and revealed that the proposed route was possible. Funds were raised from both American and British sources by selling shares in the
Atlantic Telegraph CompanyThe Atlantic Telegraph Company was a company formed in 1856 to undertake and exploit a commercial telegraph cable across the Atlantic ocean, the first such telecommunications link....
. Field himself supplied a quarter of the needed capital.
The cable consisted of seven copper wires, each weighing 26 kg/km (107
poundThe pound or pound-mass is a unit of mass used in the imperial, United States customary and other systems of measurement...
s per
nautical mileThe nautical mile is a unit of length corresponding approximately to one minute of arc of latitude along any meridian....
), covered with three coats of
gutta-perchaGutta-percha is a genus of tropical trees native to Southeast Asia and northern Australasia, from Taiwan south to the Malay Peninsula and east to the Solomon Islands. It is also an inelastic natural latex produced from the sap of these trees, particularly from the species Palaquium gutta...
, weighing 64 kg/km (261 pounds/nautical mile) and wound with tarred
hempHemp is the name of the soft, durable fiber that is cultivated from plants of the Cannabis genus, cultivated only for industrial use....
, over which a sheath of eighteen strands, each of seven iron wires, was laid in a close spiral. It weighed nearly 550 kg/km (1.1 tons per nautical mile), was relatively flexible and able to withstand a pull of several tens of kilonewtons (several tons). It was made jointly by two English firms—Glass, Elliot & Co., of
GreenwichGreenwich is a district in south-east London, England, on the south bank of the River Thames in the London Borough of Greenwich. It is best known for its maritime history and as giving its name to the Greenwich Meridian and Greenwich Mean Time.The town became the site of a Royal palace, the...
, and R. S. Newall & Co., of Liverpool.
The British Government gave Field a subsidy of £1,400 a year and loaned the ships to lay the cable. Field solicited aid from the United States Congress; the vote was very close with a number of anglophobe senators opposing any grant. The Bill was passed by a single vote. In the House of Representatives it encountered a similar hostility, but was ultimately signed by President
Franklin PierceFranklin Pierce was the 14th President of the United States, serving from 1853 to 1857, an American politician and lawyer. To date, he is the only President from New Hampshire....
.
The first attempt, in 1857, was a failure. The cable-laying vessels were the converted warships
HMS AgamemnonHMS Agamemnon was a Royal Navy 91-gun battleship ordered by the Admiralty in 1849 in response to the perceived threat from France by their possession of ships of the Napoleon class...
and
USS NiagaraThe second USS Niagara was a steam frigate in the United States Navy.Niagara was launched by New York Navy Yard on 23 February 1855; sponsored by Miss Annie C. O'Donnell; and commissioned on 6 April 1857, Captain William L...
. The cable was started at the white strand near
Ballycarbery CastleBallycarbery Castle is a castle 3km from Caherciveen, County Kerry. The castle faces the sea and is a short distance from Cahergall Fort and Leacanabuile Fort.- History :...
County KerryCounty Kerry is one of the traditional counties of Ireland. It is located within the province of Munster. Kerry is the fifth largest of Ireland’s 32 counties in area and 14th largest in terms of population...
, the southwest coast of
IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
, on August 5, 1857. The cable broke on the first day, but was grappled and repaired; it broke again over the 'telegraph plateau,' nearly 3,200 m (2 statute miles) deep, and the operation was abandoned for the year.
The following summer the
Agamemnon and
Niagara, after experiments in the
Bay of BiscayThe Bay of Biscay or the Cantabrian Sea is a gulf of the northeast Atlantic Ocean located south of the Celtic Sea...
, tried again. The vessels were to meet in the middle of the Atlantic, where the two halves of the cable were to be spliced together, and while the
Agamemnon paid out eastwards to Valentia Island the
Niagara was to pay out westward to Newfoundland. On June 26, the middle splice was made and the cable was dropped. Again the cable broke, the first time after less than 5.5 km (three nautical miles), again after some 100 km (54 nautical miles) and for a third time when about 370 km (200 nautical miles) of cable had run out of each vessel.
The expedition returned to Queenstown and set out again on July 17 with little enthusiasm amongst the crews. The middle splice was finished on July 29, 1858. The cable ran easily this time. The
Niagara arrived in
Trinity Bay, NewfoundlandTrinity Bay is a large bay on the northeastern coast of Newfoundland in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.Major fishing communities include Trinity and Heart's Content.-Industry:...
on August 4 and the next morning the shore end was landed. The
Agamemnon made an equally successful run. On August 5, the
Agamemnon arrived at Valentia Island, and the shore end was landed at Knightstown and then laid to the nearby cable house.
First contact
On August 16, the first message sent across the cable was, "Glory to God in the highest; on earth, peace and good will toward men." Then Queen
VictoriaVictoria was the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837, and the first Empress of India of the British Raj from 1 May 1876, until her death...
sent a telegram of congratulation to President
James BuchananJames Buchanan, Jr. was the 15th President of the United States from 1857–1861 and the last to be born in the 18th century...
through the line, and expressed a hope that it would prove "an additional link between the nations whose friendship is founded on their common interest and reciprocal esteem." The President responded that, "it is a triumph more glorious, because far more useful to mankind, than was ever won by conqueror on the field of battle. May the Atlantic telegraph, under the blessing of heaven, prove to be a bond of perpetual peace and friendship between the kindred nations, and an instrument destined by Divine Providence to diffuse religion, civilization, liberty, and law throughout the world."
These messages were the signal for an outburst of enthusiasm. Next morning a grand salute of 100 guns resounded in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
, the streets were decorated with flags, the bells of the churches rung, and at night the city was illuminated . The Atlantic cable was a theme for innumerable sermons and a prodigious quantity of
doggerelDoggerel is a derogatory term for verse considered of little literary value. The word probably derives from dog, suggesting either ugliness, or unpalatability .Doggerel might have any or all of the following failings:...
.
Disappointment in great ideas
However, in September, after several days of progressive deterioration of the insulation, the cable failed. The reaction to this news was no suprise to the masses of detractors that said the project was "doomed to fail". Some writers even hinted that the line was a mere hoax, and others pronounced it a stock exchange speculation.
Field was undaunted by the failure. He was eager to renew the work, but the public had lost confidence in the scheme, and his efforts to revive the company were futile. It was not until 1864 that with the assistance of
Thomas BrasseyThomas Brassey was an English civil engineering contractor and manufacturer of building materials who was responsible for building much of the world's railways in the 19th century. By 1847, he had built about one-third of the railways in Britain, and by time of his death in 1870 he had built one...
and
John PenderSir John Pender , British Submarine communications cable pioneer, was born in the Vale of Leven, Scotland, and after attending school in Glasgow became a successful merchant in textile fabrics in that city and in Manchester; where he had a warehouse in Peter street near The Great Northern Warehouse...
that he succeeded in raising the necessary capital. The Glass, Elliot and Gutta-Percha Companies were united to form the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company (Telcon, later part of
BICCBritish Insulated Callender's Cables was a 20th century British cable manufacturer and construction company, now renamed after former subsidiary Balfour Beatty.-History:...
), which undertook to manufacture and lay the new cable. C.F. Varley replaced Whitehouse as chief electrician.
Much experience had been gained in the meantime. Long cables had been submerged in the Mediterranean and the
Red SeaThe Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez,...
. With this experience an improved cable was designed. The core consisted of seven twisted strands of very pure copper weighing 300 lb per nautical mile (73 kg/km), coated with
Chatterton's compoundChatterton’s compound was an adhesive waterproof insulating compound that was used in early submarine telegraph cables.Its constitution is as follows:*3 parts gutta-percha*1 part rosin*1 part Stockholm tar...
, then covered with four layers of gutta-percha, alternating with four thin layers of the compound cementing the whole, and bringing the weight of the insulator to 400 lb/nmi (98 kg/km). This core was covered with hemp saturated in a preservative solution, and on the hemp were spirally wound eighteen single wires of soft steel, each covered with fine strands of
manilaManila hemp, also known as manilla, is a type of fiber obtained from the leaves of the abacá , a relative of the banana. It is mostly used for pulping for a range of uses, including speciality papers. It was once used mainly to make Manila rope, but this is now of minor importance...
yarn steeped in the preservative. The weight of the new cable was 35.75 long
hundredweightCentum weight or hundredweight is a unit of mass with two definitions: the Imperial hundredweight, equal to 51 kilograms, and the U.S...
(4000 lb) per nautical mile (980 kg/km), or nearly twice the weight of the old.
The Great Eastern
The new cable was laid by the ship
Great EasternThe SS Great Eastern was an iron sailing steam ship designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. She was by far the largest ship ever built at the time of her 1858 launch, and had the capacity to carry 4,000 passengers around the world without refueling...
captained by
Sir James AndersonSir James Anderson captained the SS Great Eastern on the laying of the Transatlantic telegraph cable.Anderson was educated in Dumfries in south west Scotland at the academy there....
. Her immense hull was fitted with three iron tanks for the reception of 2,300 nautical miles (4260 km) of cable, and her decks furnished with the paying-out gear. At noon on July 15, 1865, the
Great Eastern left the Nore for Foilhommerum Bay, Valentia Island, where the shore end was laid by the
Caroline. This attempt failed on July 31 when, after 1,062 miles (1968 km) had been paid out, the cable snapped near the stern of the ship, and the end was lost.
The
Great Eastern steamed back to England, where Field issued another prospectus, and formed the
Anglo-American Telegraph Company, to lay a new cable and complete the broken one. On July 13, 1866 the
Great Eastern started paying out once more. Despite problems with the weather on the evening of Friday, July 27, the expedition made the entrance of Trinity Bay in a thick fog. The next morning at 9 a.m. a message from England cited these words from the
leaderEditorials are featured in many newspapers and magazines, usually written by the senior editorial staff or publisher of the publication. Additionally, most print publications feature an editorial, or letter from the editor, sometimes followed by a Letters to the Editor section...
in
The TimesThe Times is a daily national newspaper published in the United Kingdom since 1785 when it was known as The Daily Universal Register....
: "It is a great work, a glory to our age and nation, and the men who have achieved it deserve to be honoured among the benefactors of their race." "Treaty of peace signed between Prussia and Austria." The shore end was landed during the day by the
Medway. Congratulations poured in, and friendly telegrams were again exchanged between Queen Victoria and the United States.
On August 9 the
Great Eastern put to sea again in order to grapple the lost cable of 1865, and complete it to Newfoundland. They were determined to find it. There were some who thought it hopeless to try, declaring that to locate a cable two-and-a-half miles down would be like looking for a small needle in a large haystack. For days, the
Great Eastern moved slowly here and there, "fishing" for the lost cable with a grapnel at the end of a stout rope. Suddenly, the cable was "caught" and brought to the surface, but while the men cheered it slipped from the grapnel's hold and vanished again. It was not until a fortnight later that it was once more fished up; then it took 26 hours to get it safely on board the
Great Eastern. The cable was carried to the electrician's room where it was determined that the cable was connected. All on the ship cheered or wept as rockets were sent up into the sky to light the sea. The recovered cable was then spliced to a fresh cable in her hold, and paid out to
Heart's Content, NewfoundlandHeart's Content an incorporated town in Trinity Bay on the Bay de Verde Peninsula of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The natural harbour that make up the town is located on the east side of Trinity Bay and it is built along the northeast side and the southeast base of this...
, where she arrived on Saturday, September 7. There were now two working telegraph lines.
Communication speeds
Initially messages were sent by an operator sending
Morse codeMorse code is a type of character encoding that transmits telegraphic information using rhythm. Morse code uses a standardized sequence of short and long elements to represent the letters, numerals, punctuation and special characters of a given message...
, a series of dots and dashes. The reception was very bad on the 1858 cable, and it took 2 minutes to transmit just one character (a single letter or a single number), which translates to about 0.1
words per minuteWords per minute, commonly abbreviated wpm, is a measure of input or output speed.For the purposes of WPM measurement a word is standardized to five characters or keystrokes. So, "eliot" counts as one word, but "rhinoceros" counts as two...
. This is despite the use of a highly sensitive
mirror galvanometerthumb|right|200px|A mirror galvanometerA mirror galvanometer is a mechanical meter that senses electric current, except that instead of moving a needle, it moves a mirror. The mirror reflects a beam of light, which projects onto a meter, and acts as a long, weightless, massless pointer...
, a new invention of the time.
The first message on the 1858 cable took over 17 hours to transmit. For the 1866 cable, the methods of cable manufacture, as well as sending messages, had been vastly improved. The 1866 cable could transmit eight words a minute —over 50 times faster than the 1858 cable. Heaviside and Mihajlo Idvorski Pupin in later decades understood that the problem was an imbalance between capacitive and inductive reactance, to be solved by iron tape or by load coils. It was not until the 20th century that message transmission speeds over transatlantic cables would reach even 120 words per minute. Despite this, London had become the world centre in telecommunications. Eventually, no fewer than 11 cables radiated from
PorthcurnoPorthcurno is a small village in the parish of St. Levan located in a valley on the south coast of Cornwall, England, UK. It is approximately 9 miles to the west of the market town of Penzance and about 3 miles from Land's End, the most westerly point of the English mainland...
Cable Station near
Land's EndLand's End is a headland on the Penwith peninsula, located near Penzance in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is the most westerly point of the English mainland; the westernmost point of the island of Great Britain as a whole is Corrachadh Mòr, Ardnamurchan, Scotland which is farther west...
and formed with their Commonwealth links a "live" girdle around the world.
Relays
The original cables were not fitted with
relayA relay is an electrically operated switch. Electric current through the coil of the relay creates a magnetic field which attracts a lever and changes the switch contacts...
s, which would have amplified the signal along the way. This was because there was no practical way to power the relays. As technology advanced, intermediate relays became possible.
In fiction
- The cable is one of the many underwater landmarks observed by the Nautilus
The Nautilus is the fictional submarine featured in Jules Verne's novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island . Verne named the Nautilus after Robert Fulton's real-life submarine Nautilus...
in Jules VerneJules Gabriel Verne was a French author who helped pioneer the science-fiction genre. He is best known for his novels A Journey to the Center of the Earth , From the Earth to the Moon , Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea , Around the World in Eighty Days and The Mysterious Island...
’s “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the SeaTwenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is a classic science fiction novel by French writer Jules Verne published in 1870. It tells the story of Captain Nemo and his submarine Nautilus as seen from the perspective of Professor Pierre Aronnax...
”
- The novel Signal & Noise, by John Griesemer, tells a fictionalized story of the project, including many incidents from real life.
- The novel Thunderstruck by Erik Larson discusses the transatlantic cable as part of the story of Marconi and the invention of wireless telegraphy.
See also
- Robert Halpin
Robert Charles Halpin, Master Mariner, born Robert Charles Halpin, Master Mariner, born Robert Charles Halpin, Master Mariner, born (February 16, 1836 at the Bridge Tavern Wicklow, Ireland – January 20, 1894 and died at Tinakilly, Wicklow. He captained the Brunel-designed leviathan SS Great Eastern...
—Captain of the Great Eastern
- Transatlantic telephone cable
A transatlantic telephone cable is a submarine communications cable that carries telephone traffic under the Atlantic Ocean.When the first transatlantic telegraph cable was laid in 1858 by businessman Cyrus West Field, it operated for only a month; subsequent attempts in 1865 and 1866 were more...
- Western Union Telegraph Expedition—overland alternative via Russia
- 1929 Grand Banks earthquake
The 1929 Grand Banks earthquake, also called the Laurentian Slope earthquake and the South Shore Disaster, was a magnitude 7.2 earthquake that occurred on November 18, 1929 in the Atlantic Ocean off the south coast of Newfoundland....
Further reading
- Rozwadowski, Helen. Fathoming the Ocean (2005). Devotes a good deal of space to the description of cable-laying.
- Standage, Tom. The Victorian Internet (1998). ISBN 0-75380-703-3. The story of the men and women who were the earliest pioneers of the on-line frontier, and the global network they created—a network that was, in effect, the Victorian Internet.
External links