History of the Atlantic Cable Submarine Telegraphy

Time 2021-08-21 07:05:46

Web Name: History of the Atlantic Cable Submarine Telegraphy

WebSite: http://atlantic-cable.com

ID:188685

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Research Material Needed The Atlantic Cable website is non-commercial, and its mission is to make available on line as much information as possible. You can help - if you have cable material, old or new, please contact me. Cable samples, instruments, documents, brochures, souvenir books, photographs, family stories, all are valuable to researchers and historians. If you have any cable-related items that you could photograph, copy, scan, loan, or sell, please email me: Bill Burns - [email protected] Cyrus Field s Descendants - Diane Gravlee s comprehensive list of Cyrus Field s family and descendants, down to the seventh generation The Brothers Field - Russell Carpenter s history of the five brothers of the Field family who held among them a total of 10 academic and honorary degrees from Williams College. Cyrus Field Family Portraits - images of paintings of Cyrus Field and his parents, wife, and sons, owned by Peter Christian Hall and Alix-Marie Hall, New York City-based siblings whose great-grandfather was Frederick Joseph Stone, Cyrus Field s nephew Main Reference Bibliography - books and other printed material, films and videos on cable laying Current Bibliography - books available for purchase, book reviews, recent magazine articles Additional Bibliography - Gill Cookson s Submarine Telegraphy Research Notes Atlantic Cable Sheet Music - popular songs and music inspired by the cable expeditions Bill Glover s History of Cable Wireless - a detailed history of the firm and its predecessor companies, illustrated with original telegrams, covers, and other documents. Cable Ships - illustrated articles on ships used for cable laying and repair, from 1850 to 2010 Submarine Cable Stamps and First Day Covers - includes Atlantic Cable 75th and 100th anniversary stamps and covers, Bill Glover s extensive collection of cableship stamps and covers with information on each ship and the cables laid, and Bill s history of Cable Wireless, illustrated with original telegrams and covers. Early Cable Instruments - text and images of a talk given at the Antique Wireless Association Conference, August 2009 Memorabilia, Ephemera, and Promotional Material - Cable Watch Fob, 1858 Atlantic Cable Album, Cable Candlestick, Niagara Anchor, Cable Cane, Cable Snuff Box, Cable Earrings 1858 Cable Souvenir Advertisements - the short-lived frenzy in New York for all things cable after the successful expedition of 1858 Mystery Cable at Porthcurno Telegraph Museum by Allan Green. This landline cable may have been used as a telegraph connection, or in a radio application. Back Reflections - Stewart Ash's articles on many aspects of cable history and technology Major Submarine System Suppliers (1850 -2012) - a diagram showing the evolution of undersea cable companies from the beginning of the industry until the present day, by Stewart Ash The Atlantic Telegraph Cables Trail - an illustrated guide for visitors to the sites of the earliest Atlantic Cables in County Kerry, Ireland Cable Manufacturing Laying Companies and Cable Stations - illustrated articles on early cable companies and cable stations Report on the IEEE Conference on the History of Telecommunications, St. John s, Newfoundland, 25-27 July, 2001 - includes photographs of the Heart s Content Cable Station Museum Online - 150 Years on the Net - an overview of the special exhibition at the Danish Post Tele Museum, Copenhagen (2 February to 19 September 2004) The Atlantic Cable Medal of 1866 - article by Herman Blanton on the medals presented after the success of the 1866 cable Distant Writing - The Telegraph Companies in Britain between 1838 and 1868 - website by Steven Roberts on British Telegraphy from 1838 to 1868, which includes considerable detail on the submarine cable companies working in this period. 1827 Precursor to the Electric Telegraph - article by Bill Glover on the Holyhead - Liverpool semaphore telegraph, established in 1827 and finally superseded by a cable/landline connection in 1861 1837-1860 Early Landline Telegraph Cables - 1978 article by Francis Celoria on the beginnings of the telegraph cable industry in Britain 1838-1868 Distant Writing - The Telegraph Companies in Britain between 1838 and 1868 - article by Steven Roberts on British Telegraphy which includes considerable detail on the submarine cable companies working in this period 1845-1857 On the Submarine Telegraph - John Watkins Brett on his involvement, together with his brother Jacob Brett, in the early cable enterprise 1845-1950 The Gutta Percha Company - insulation, and more; one of Telcon s predecessor companies Pre-1850 Wire Rope and the Submarine Cable Industry - the origins of cable-making technology 1850 The 1850 Dover-Calais Cable - articles from Scientific American and The Living Age on the first cross-Channel cable 1850-1858 The First Atlantic Cable - history of the early attempts to lay the cable 1850-1851 The Submarine Telegraph Company - the company which laid the first cross-Channel cables 1852-1866 Anglo-Irish Cables - article on these important early lines by Steven Roberts 1855 European Sub-Marine Telegraph - article from Scientific American on the Crimea cable 1856 Marshall Lefferts at the American Geographical and Statistical Society - speaking on The Electric Telegraph; its Influence and Geographical Distribution 1857 Laying the Atlantic Telegraph Cable from Ship to Shore - a portfolio of eight lithographs together with a description of landing the shore end of the 1857 cable at Valentia, Ireland, by John R. Isaac. 1857 Professor Hall s Floating Telegraph Stations - an alternative to a single span cable across the Atlantic 1858 On Submerging Telegraphic Cables - report on a paper presented to the Institution of Civil Engineers (London) 1858 The Northern Land Route - Tal Shaffner s alternative to the Atlantic Cable 1858 Henry Field s Summer Pictures - a brief account of the meeting of the Field brothers in Plymouth just before the sailing of the expedition 1858 The Cable History as it happened - reported by Frank Leslie s Illustrated Newspaper 1858 Speech by David Dudley Field - at the Crystal Palace, the Cable Celebration in New York City 1858 Robert Merry s Museum - articles on the cable from a children s magazine 1860 On the Maintenance and Durability of Submarine Cables in Shallow Waters - paper presented by William Henry Preece to the Institution of Civil Engineers 1861 Deep-Sea Telegraphs - George Saward examines the failures to date and proposes remedies 1863 Cyrus Field at the New-York Chamber of Commerce - A Meeting Called to Further the Enterprise of The Atlantic Telegraph 1865 Russell: The Atlantic Telegraph - high resolution scans of the cover, title page, and the tinted lithographs from the book recording the events of the 1865 Great Eastern cable expedition 1865 Original letter from Sir Daniel Gooch describing the loss of the cable on the 1865 Great Eastern expedition 1865 Letter from Sir Robert Peel to John C. Deane, later Secretary of the Anglo-American Telegraph Company, concerning the loss of the 1865 cable 1865 Paper by William Thomson on The Forces Concerned in the Laying and Lifting of Deep-sea Cables. 1866 The Recovery of the Cable - detailed description of the recovery of the 1865 cable, from Henry Field s book 1872 Sir James Anderson on Submarine Cables - their design and construction, and reasons for their failure 1877 The Laying of the Ocean Cable - Peter Cooper s story of the Atlantic Cable 1879 25th Anniversary Celebration Invitation - the anniversary of Field s first involvement with the cable project 1879 The Second French Cable - including photographs from the French Cable Station Museum at Orleans, Massachusetts 1882 Facts and Observations Relating to the Invention of the Submarine Cable by R.S. Newall. In which Newall sets the record straight on who did what in the early days of cable laying. 1884 On The Causes Of Failure Of Deep-Sea Cables by James Graves. Article on the failure of the 1865 Atlantic cable from the Journal of the Society of Telegraph-Engineers and Electricians, No. 51, Vol. XIII, 1884. The author was a cable engineer who supervised the manufacture of the 1865 cable and was later superintendent of the Valentia cable station where the recovered 1865 cable terminated. 1886 Government Telegraphy - article by Cyrus W. Field in The North American Review 1886-95 Captain Basil Combe - a firsthand account of life on the cableships 1892 Cyrus Field s Will - has details on the many awards and souvenirs which Field collected in his long association with the cable industry 1892 The Submarine Cables of the World - cable system survey article from Manufacturer Builder 1892 Cables Under The Ocean - cable system survey article from the New York Times 1894 Summary of the Progress of Submarine Telegraphy - 1894 article from The Electrician on 25 years of telegraphy to the Far East 1894 Submarine Telegraph Enterprise - article from Engineering on the cost of laying and maintaining cables 1895 Nerves of the World - article on submarine cables by J. Munro, author of Heroes of the Telegraph 1898 Cable-Cutting At Cienfuegos - article by Lieutenant Cameron McR. Winslow on the US Navy expedition to cut Cuba s submarine cables during the Spanish-American War 1898 Submarine Cable Laying - Strand Magazine article by Archer Philip Crouch, C.E. 1898 Submarine Telegraph Lines - article by Ewing Matheson which includes costs for laying and maintaining cables 1899 Telegraph Cables - article by C.J. Cooke including details of his work with Hooper s Telegraph Company laying cables on the west coast of South America in the 1870s 1902 How Cables Unite The World - article from The World s Work giving a good overview of the cable industry at the beginning of the 20th century 1906 Auction Sale of Cyrus Field s Correspondence and Papers - many interesting and unusual items from Field s library 1914 Walter Claypoole - Far Rockaway and Canso stations of the Commercial Cable Company at the beginning of World War I. 1914 The Battle of Cocos - in which the Germans destroy the cable station on Direction Island, and the aftermath 1923 Electrical Communications - a survey by John J. Carty of AT T of radio and cable communications between the USA and the rest of the world at an interesting turning point in technology 1934-39 Post Office Green Papers include one on cables and others on telegraph history 1942 The Future of Transoceanic Telephony - article by Dr. Oliver E. Buckley,President of Bell Telephone Laboratories. Early discussion of repeatered telephone cables across the Atlantic 1943 Theirs the Job to Keep the Cables Mended - newspaper article on cable laying and repair in wartime 1944 Cable Station RM - Cal Sheckler s account of diverting the 1926 Azores-Emden German cable into Normany for use by the Allied Forces after D-Day 1959 Salient Features In Cable Design Since 1850 - a timeline of cable technical developments from 1850 to 1959 by Submarine Cables Ltd. 1968 Undersea Cable- an overview of repeatered telephone cable systems 1970 Undersea Cable Systems - A Survey (or: Explanation to an Unknown Lady in Philadelphia) - article by Robert L. Easton 1974 Tiffany Cable Samples - if you ve ever wondered about the source of all those Tiffany-marked samples of the 1858 cable which show up on eBay every few weeks, and whether or not they are genuine, here s the story. (The cable samples are genuine; the certificates and boxes are vintage 1974, although authentic 1858 certificates are occasionally found). 2001 The Transatlantic Cable Stations - An Irish Perspective - paper by Cornelia Connolly, presented at the IEEE Conference on the History of Telecommunications, St. John s, Newfoundland, July 2001 1867 Modern Telegraphy: some errors of dates of events and of statement in the history of telegraphy exposed and rectified / by Samuel F.B. Morse. Paris, June 1867. The link is to the Biblioth que National de France; the text may be read on screen there, or downloaded. 1871 London And North Western Railway Telegraph Rules And Regulations - complete scan of the 1871 employee handbook, with instructions on using the Single Needle telegraph Lords of Lightning - telegraph history research resources, with many useful links to archives, museums, and historical newspapers Aronsson s Telecom History Timeline - a detailed timeline of communications history from 15,000 BC through September 2001 [archived copy] Ascension Island Heritage Society - includes a history of the Eastern Telegraph Company and Cable Wireless on Ascension, with period photographs The Atlantic Cable - by Bern Dibner, 1959. The Smithsonian website has full-page images of the entire text of Dibner s book, an important and comprehensive reference to the history of the cable. Atlantic Sentinel - a book by Donald R. Tarrant on the history of transatlantic communications in Newfoundland Bamfield Cable Station - the site in British Columbia of the Pacific Cable Board Cable Station, which served as the eastern terminus of the trans-pacific telegraph cable from 1901 to 1959. The facility is now the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre Bay Roberts Cable Station - the 1910 cable station building in Newfoundland is now a local history museum. The museum s website has many historic cable images. Canso Cable Station - the Commercial Cable Rehabilitation Society had been revitalizing the former Commercial Cable trans-Atlantic relay station in Hazel Hill, Nova Scotia, but the building was demolished in 2017. The Chapin Library at Williams College has an archive of Field family papers which includes material from Cyrus W. Field. Some images are on line, and the page also has links to other sources Connecting the Continent [2010 archived copy] - Australian site which includes material on the Overland Telegraph Gill Cookson s History Today article - a short overview of the laying of the first Atlantic Cables Donard de Cogan s Papers - original research on aspects of cable and telegraph history Distant Writing - The Telegraph Companies in Britain between 1838 and 1868 - a comprehensive website by Steven Roberts on British Telegraphy from 1838 to 1868, which includes considerable detail on the submarine cable companies working in this period. Early Submarine Telegraphy Companies [archived copy] - detailed information on the first cables via Nova Scotia and Newfoundland The Electromagnetic Telegraph [2007 archived copy] - J.B. Calvert s website includes some useful information on submarine telegraphy and cable codes Engaging with Communications - University of Salford website by Professor Nigel Linge, which promotes the importance of telecommunications and its impact on society French Cable Station Museum - in Orleans, Massachusetts. One of the few surviving 19th century cable stations, now a museum. The website has details of the museum and information for visitors. The Great Transatlantic Cable - a documentary on Cyrus Field and the Atlantic Cable, first broadcast 11 April 2005 on PBS TV stations (USA) as part of the American Experience series. DVD available from Amazon. Greg s Cable Map - an interactive map of present-day working cables The Greenwich Industrial History Society - back issues of the Society s newsletter have some material on the cable industry at Greenwich. Robert Halpin and Tinakilly House - information on the captain of the Great Eastern in her cable-laying days and his Irish home. ICPC - The International Cable Protection Committee. Links to submarine cable companies and suppliers; historical material in the Information section of the site. See also this page on ICPC souvenir items. IEEE History Center - the (American) Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers website devoted to the preservation of electrical engineering history. IET (formerly IEE) Archives - the archive of the (British) Institution of Engineering Technology (The IET), which holds much material on early telegraphy, including the scrapbook of cable pioneer Jacob Brett, the papers of Sir Francis Ronalds, WF Cooke, Oliver Heaviside, and WH Preece, and a collection of drawings by EW Cooke on the 1858 Atlantic telegraph expedition. The archive website has a research guide to submarine telegraphy. Direct link to IET archives search. The IET History of Technology Network page sometimes has information on cable-related books, websites, conferences, and exhibits. Indicator Loops - specialized versions of undersea cables used to detect the approach of submarines Samuel Morse Historic Site at Locust Grove, Poughkeepsie - the house and grounds owned by Morse from 1851 to 1872, now a National Historic Landmark. The Morse Exhibit in the Visitor Center displays a number of Morse s paintings, together with some telegraph and cable artifacts. Guided house tours are available, and there is free admission to the 150 acres of grounds running down to the Hudson River. Mother Earth Mother Board - Neal Stephenson s 1996 Wired Magazine article in which he follows the installation of a modern fiber optic cable over three continents and incidentally presents the history of communications cables. Note that not all researchers agree with his comments on Wildman Whitehouse. Mumford Books in the UK has an excellent selection of technical and industrial books, plus prints and photographs, and can often locate material on submarine cables and telegraphy. N7CFO Homepage - Lynn Burlingame s site; a great resource for telegraph collectors and historians New Wireless Pioneers - Jim Kreuzer has supplied images of a number of rare items for the Atlantic Cable site. Now his own site is open, listing many books in the field of radio and telegraph history, and including regular catalog updates. The Old Cable House - a Bed Breakfast in Waterville, Ireland, housed in an original Commercial Cable Company building. The site has an interesting cable history section. Porthcurno Telegraph Museum in Porthcurno, Cornwall, England. A major research resource, with an on-line catalog of the extensive archive of cable material from Cable Wireless, many photographs, and information on visiting the museum. CS Restorer - Dirk van Oudenol s comprehensive website on the operations of this cable ship from 1902-1951, now hosted on this site. Scientific Use of Fiber-Optic Submarine Telecommunications Cable Systems - a paper presented in 2003 with details of Atlantic cables TAT-8 through TAT-11 and Pacific cables HAW-4, TPC-3, and GPT (8MB PDF) Shipping Wonders of the World - John Clarke s site on this 1930s publication has a number of pages on cable ships SubmarineCableSystems.com - a directory site for the telecommunications, submarine cable system, and offshore service industries. Provides a good overview of the services available to the modern cable industry. Submarine Telecoms Forum - publishes a bi-monthly on-line magazine (PDF) about the cable industry. The website has frequent news updates on current cables and events. The TCI Library - the on-line library of Telephone Collectors International, with many downloadable documents, as well as a detailed index (with links to archive copies) for the Bell System Technical Journal Telecom Digest - a comprehensive site on all aspects of telecom history, with a searchable archive. Telecommunications and the Natural History of S o Tom and Pr ncipe [2007 archived copy] - some interesting notes on the interaction of Gulf of Guinea cable staff and natural history scientists in the 1800s. The Telecommunications Heritage Group - a British organization dedicated to the history of all forms of telecommunication. Telecommunications Technology and History [2016 archived copy] - Don Kimberlin s site has some interesting articles and links to other early communications sites TeleGeography s cable map- a regularly updated interactive map of present-day working cables. Telegraph Equipment - Brooke Clarke s page; a good reference for the history of landline telegraphy instruments and patents The Telegraph Field [2014 archived copy] - a small site on the telegraph history of Valentia Island Telegraph-History - John Casale s site focuses on US telegraph history and includes much early documentation Telegraphic Codes and Message Practice - John McVey s site examines in detail the use of telegraphic codes to reduce the cost of messages over cables and also increase their security to some extent Thomas Anderssen s Telegraphic Key Collection - includes many rare Finnish Morse keys and other equipment, as well as one or two cable instruments UK Cable Locations [2013 archived copy] - Kingfisher Information Service interactive map and downloadable charts showing cable routes and landing sites around the British Isles Valentia Heritage Centre - a local history museum on the Irish island where the Atlantic Cable project began, with much information on cable history. Webster Horsfall - supplied the steel armouring wire for the 1865 and 1866 Atlantic cables. Link to archive copy of the page. A Wire Around the World - BBC radio documentary on the history of submarine cables. Listen to the full programme, or read the transcript. Note: Stewart Ash and I have conducted extensive archive research in the past year, which has resulted in updates and additions throughout the site. Bill Burns, January 2021 12 August Added link in the Other Sites section to the Connected Earth display at Amberley Museum (Sussex, England) 10 August Added new Transatlantic Cable 2021 stamp to the broadsides page 27 July Added photographs of CS Ren Descartes at Victoria, BC, Canada 17 April Added new photographs and information to the CANTAT-1 page 16 November Added details of Francis Herbert Trethewey's employment with the Eastern Telegraph Company (1902-1945) and his service on CS Sherard Osborn 5 November Added further details to the page on Jacques Babinet, who believed that the Atlantic cable would never work 20 September Added page From Sheerness to Valentia - reporting on the first part of the 1866 Great Eastern expedition, by J.C. Parkinson, Special Correspondent of the London Daily News 19 July Added the true story of the 1850 Dover-Calais cable purportedly hauled up by a French fisherman and described as rare seaweed, with its centre filled with gold 20 June Added Jeffrey Kieve's 1973 book The Electric Telegraph: A Social and Economic History. This key history of the British telegraph industry is now available as a free PDF download courtesy of Mr Kieve s family. 29 May Added transcription of part two of John Deane s diary of the 1866 Atlantic Telegraph expedition. This describes the landing of the shore end of the 1866 cable at Heart s Content, and the recovery and completion of the lost 1865 cable. 25 May Added a detailed list and directory of documents published on board Great Eastern during the 1865 and 1866 Atlantic cable expeditions, 186 pages of documents in all. 5 May Added St. John's, Newfoundland, as a Port of Callfor Transatlantic Steamers: A pamphlet published by Cyrus Field in February 1856 to provide a financial analysis of the benefits to transatlantic shipping of making port at St John's, where telegraph messages could be sent between Newfoundland and New York over the new Cabot Strait cable. I continue to extend special thanks to Bill Glover, who has been contributing time and material to the project for much of that time, and to Stewart Ash, a cable consultant who is involved in both modern technology and historical research, for his many contributions. Thanks also to Jim Jones, a cable industry veteran of many years, who has not only provided much of his own material, has also tracked down former colleagues and other cable workers for contributions to the site. And to the late Steven Roberts, an invaluable source of research help, who contributed number of important articles to the site. Steve s Distant Writing - The Telegraph Companies in Britain between 1838 and 1868 was first published on-line with the encouragement of this website. And finally, thanks to all contributors and correspondents for their help making the site a major resource for communications history research. Contributors are credited on their individual pages; all uncredited material is by site owner and webmaster Bill Burns. The background image on this page is taken from the front cover ofW.H. Russell s The Atlantic Telegraph, and shows a section of the 1865 cable.

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