The Trans-Atlantic Cable

Since the seventeenth century, messages going back and forth between America and Europe would take weeks to arrive, as the boats that the messages traveled on were quite slow. However, in 1858, the first telegraph cable between the United States and England was established, and it took only a matter of minutes to transmit the same message. The transatlantic cable was one of the most important inventions of the 19th century, uniting the world, broadening the knowledge of the common man, and paving the way for the future.

There were many earlier cables laid across shorter distances, such as the cable that was laid across the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the estuary for the Great Lakes. Some of the methods that were used in these short distance cable layings were used in the transatlantic laying. For example, a normal ship could not carry the thousands of pounds needed to hold the cable, so special ships with reinforced hulls were constructed in order to hold the cables. In the case of the Atlantic Ocean, two ships had to be used because of the greater distance (historymag.com).

Cyrus Field, an American businessman, had the idea to build on the shorter cables and create a cable across the entire Atlantic Ocean. In order to do so, he made his own company, the Atlantic Telegraph Company. He then hired Charles Tilston Bright as the chief engineer, who searched for a probable route between England and America. They raised funds for the project by selling shares from the Atlantic Telegraph Company and Cyrus Field, himself, funded about one fourth of the total expense (pbs.org).

The cable that was designed was specially made from copper wires bundled together, covered with several coats of gutta-percha, or a substance like vulcanized rubber, wound with tarred hemp, and finally covered with 126 strands of iron wire. These cables weighed a ton per mile, but were still flexible enough to move with the water and withstand underwater pressures of several tons (atlantic.com). Interestingly enough, it was the British Government that helped the most, even though Field was from America. They gave Field 1,400 pounds (English currency) a year and gave him ships on which to store and lay the cable. However, America was much less helpful, with aid from Congress just barely passing by a single vote, and some hostility even after the money was authorized. In the end however, two ships were used to lay the cable, the English HMS Agamemnon and the American USS Niagara.