Today, less than 5% of the ocean has been explored and yet, to some extent, it was conquered by an eclectic team of our forebears, lead by a businessman with determination and an engineering dream. A telegraph cable snaking its way across the floor of the Atlantic Ocean was connected in 1858 to establish the first instantaneous and accurate communication system linking the European continent with the Americas.
By the 1850s efficient land telegraphy had been established.
(In the early 1800s Samuel Morse and several European inventors proposed the electric telegraph. Morse, however, teaming his telegraph instrument and famous code, inaugurated the world’s first commercial telegraph line. Within decades more than 20,000 miles of telegraph cable crossed the United States of America, contributing to her rapid expansion.)
At this time too, underwater cables were capable of covering short distances, such as the one from Dover to Calais, across the English Channel. Unfortunately, when it came to communication between Britain and the United States, however, it was still up to the sluggish mail steamship.
An entrepreneurial American named Cyrus Field took up the challenge – a challenge considered fanciful by many. He was, however, well placed to give it a go – by 33 years of age he had made a fortune in the wholesale paper business.
In August 1857, after many false starts, two ships met in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, they joined two sections of cable together and then proceeded in opposite directions – one to Ireland and one to Newfoundland. In August 1958 the connection was made, ultimately linking New York and London. Queen Victoria and the American President, James Buchanan, exchanged messages in celebration.
It was a remarkable achievement and was extoled as such then too, some even claiming that it was the most significant achievement of the century. A journalist from the Herald in New York wrote about the achievement a little flamboyantly, “the cable is undoubtedly the Angel in the Book of Revelation with one foot on sea and one foot on land, proclaiming Time is no longer."
Souvenirs from the expedition were popular. Tiffany, the jewellery company, showing foresight, bought up the remainder of the cable from one of the ships and turned it into four-inch souvenir pieces. The Powerhouse Museum has one of these, in its original wooden box, with a letter signed by Cyrus Field authenticating it.
Unfortunately the elation was short-lived. In a matter of weeks the cable deteriorated and then fell silent. Two main issues made it falter; it was too narrow across its diameter and thus too weak and it ran under high voltage, but with insufficient current – errors that would have been foreseen today.
Fortunately Cyrus Field’s dream and purse were both robust. He started again with William Thomson as advisor – a judicious pairing. Thomson was a mathematical physicist and engineer with extensive maritime interests. He had also worked on the mathematical analysis of electricity and on the formulation of the laws of thermodynamics. For more information on this gentleman, go to this Wikipedia link: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Thomson,_1st_Baron_Kelvin).
Thomson helped design a new cable and select a suitable galvanometer to detect signals from the ‘far side’.
Field then requisitioned and converted the passenger liner, the SS Great Eastern – the largest ship afloat. The entire length of cable was coiled into her hold. In the briefest of paragraphs his achievement unfolds, and yet Field drove the project for twelve long years. (Bear in mind he was never one to waste time - when traveling abroad, the first word he learned in each new language was "faster").
During these years he crossed the Atlantic more than 30 times to raise money, solve problems and make his cable a reality. And on the 27th July in 1866, Valencia Bay in Ireland and Heart’s Content, Trinity Bay in Newfoundland were connected. The cable was successfully laid allowing for swift and stable communication across the Atlantic.
The consequences were profound for both politics and commerce. For example, news of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865 took 12 days to reach the British press whereas President James Garfield’s demise, in 1881, reached the public across the Atlantic in a matter of hours.
Cyrus Field was most certainly a visionary, but also a man of emotion, hard-working and driven. During one of his failed attempts he was heard to say, "When I thought of all that we had passed through, of the hopes thus far disappointed, of the friends saddened by our reverses.... I felt a load at my heart almost too heavy to bear." He wasn't ready to give up, though: "My confidence was firm and my determination fixed."
After his seemingly illusive goal was achieved Field later promoted other oceanic cables, including telegraph lines from Hawaii to Asia and Australia.
Cyrus Field, the Father of the Transatlantic Cable, died at the age of 72 (having lost his fortune to Wall Street). His achievement was immense, yet the epitaph on his gravestone although succinct, is rather simple: “Cyrus West Field, To whose courage, energy and perseverance, the world owes the Atlantic telegraph.”
Another historical event is worthy of note. It occurred years later, but in the same month. In parallel they reveal the often complex and ironic nature of Man. The building of the Berlin Wall in Germany occurred some years after the end of World War II, in 1961. But rather than to connect its aim was to disconnect the Soviet-controlled communist East and the Allied-controlled capitalist West. (The wall was built despite the inevitable splitting of German families and the potentially contradictory allegiances of people located on either side).
Man will communicate, network, interact and connect, however - it is inevitable! The ‘Wall’ is down and the speed and growth of the World Wide Web reveals this in all its glory (both negatively and positively). But is ‘the sky still the limit’? Certainly not! Just as Cyrus Field navigated the ocean floor and Apollo 11 the boundaries of the skies, engineers will continue to push parameters in an effort to find solutions.
Thanks to the following sites for assistance in the writing of this article:
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-transatlantic-telegraph-cable-completed
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/cable/peopleevents/p_field.html
Article presented by Claude Everton - VE2YI, Senior Advisor RF Spectrum, Systems & Service, Accès Communications
(source: IDC Technologies)
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