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KD5NJR > TECH 27.08.16 04:36l 89 Lines 4333 Bytes #-3422 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Re:The Atlantic Cable
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Sent: 160827/0320Z 43447@AE5ME.#NEOK.OK.USA.NOAM BPQ1.4.65
http://atlantic-cable.com/#Changes
http://atlantic-cable.com/bibliography.htm
http://boingboing.net/2011/06/15/map-of-undersea-cabl.html
----- Message from kf5jrv@kb0wsa.mo.usa.na sent 2016/07/23 11:27 -----
Message ID: 6496_KF5JRV
Date: 2016/07/23 11:27
From: kf5jrv@kb0wsa.mo.usa.na
To: tech@ww
Source: AE5ME
Subject: The Atlantic Cable
R:160723/1127Z 41738@AE5ME.#NEOK.OK.USA.NOAM BPQ1.4.65
R:160723/1127Z 6496@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQK1.4.65
Cyrus Field and the Three Attempts to Lay the Atlantic Cable
In New York in 1854 entrepreneur and promoter Cyrus Field organized the New
York, Newfoundland, and London Electric Telegraph Company with the intention
of laying an Atlantic Cable. Working with Samuel Morse and the Brett brothers,
the company laid a cable from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia to Cape Ray on the west
coast of Newfoundland in 1855. The next challenge was to lay a 400 mile cable
across Newfoundland to St John?s on its east coast. This was completed in
1856. At the end of this cable was a telegraph station at Trinity Bay.
In 1856 Field in New York and Charles Bright, John Brett, and Jacob Brett in
England formed The Atlantic Telegraph Company to lay and exploit commercially
a telegraph cable across the Atlantic ocean.
"The project stemmed from an agreement between the American Cyrus Field and
the Englishmen John Watkins Brett and Charles Tilston Bright, and was
incorporated in December 1856 with £350,000 capital, raised principally in
London, Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow. The board of directors was
composed of eighteen members from the UK, nine from the U.S. and three from
Canada. The original three projectors were joined by E.O.W. Whitehouse as
chief electrician. Curtis M. Lampson served ably as vice-chairman for over a
decade.
"The board recruited the physicist William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin), who
had publicly disputed some of Whitehouse's claims. The two enjoyed a tense
relationship before Whitehouse was dismissed when the first cable failed in
1858".
The first attempt to lay the Atlantic Cable used the American navy vessel
Niagara and the British steam and sail powered battleship HMS Agamemnon. The
Niagara was then the largest navy ship in the world: 345 feet long, 55 feet
wide and 5,800 tons. On August 11, 1857 the cable snapped.and an inquiry was
held on August 20 to assess the causes of failure. One conclusion arising from
this was that any future expedition should commence mid-ocean with the two
ships splicing their respective halves of the Atlantic cable before sailing in
opposite directions towards Newfoundland and Ireland.
On August 16, 1858 communication was established on the Atlantic Cable. The
first message sent from Cyrus Station, Valentia Island, Ireland,
to the Directors Atlantic Co, New York read as follows:
"Europe and America United by Telegraph! Glory to God in the Highest! On earth
peace and good will to men!"
In 23 days of operation a total of 271 messages, totalling 14,168 letters,
were sent from Newfoundland to Valentia Island and 129 messages totalling
7,253 letters were sent from Valentia Island to Newfoundland. However, on the
18th September 1858 the cable failed.
On March 4-5, 2014 Christie's in New York auctioned the original transcript of
the first telegraph message to be sent across the Atlantic Cable. According to
their description, the message was sent to director Watts Sherman (1812-1865).
Sherman, a prominent New York banker and co-founder of Duncan, Sherman & Co.,
was among the Honorary Directors, who also included luminaries such as August
Belmont and Peter Cooper.
Using the steamship Great Eastern, the attempt to lay the second Atlantic
Cable was undertaken in July 1865. The cable snapped after twelve hundred
miles.
On July 27, 1866, twelve years after the project began, the Great Eastern laid
the third and successful Atlantic Cable, connecting the cable at Heart?s
Content, a fishing village in Newfoundland, with the Telegraph Field (also
known as Longitude Field) Foilhommerum Bay,Valentia Island, in western Ireland.
Communication by electric telegraph between Europe and America was finally
established on a permanent basis. The first message sent over the cable was
?A treaty of peace has been signed between Austria and Prussia."
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