Transatlantic telegraph cable
Cable telegráfico transatlántico
- Date
- 1858 / 1866 · confidence high
- Place
- Valentia (Ireland) - Heart's Content (Newfoundland); laid by the Great Eastern
- Credited to
- Cyrus Field, William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), Charles Bright
- People
- 👤 Charles Edward Bright1829–1915👤 Cyrus West Field1819–1892👤 William Thomson1825–1907
- Field
- Communication
What it is
A 3,200 km submarine cable between Ireland and Newfoundland; the 1858 cable worked for three weeks, and the 1866 one, laid by the Great Eastern, was permanent. It cut communication between Europe and America from ten days to minutes.
The 1858 failure was due to excessive voltage applied by Wildman Whitehouse; Kelvin's theory of signal transmission in cables solved the problem.
What it led to
- The British worldwide cable network (the 'All Red Line') and informational imperialism
- Global capital markets and price arbitrage
- Instant international journalism
- Submarine telephone and fibre-optic cables
Built on
- Commercial steamboat1807
- Ohm's law1827
- Electric telegraph1837
- Iron-hulled ship1821-1843
- Armoured submarine cable across the English Channel1850-1851
- SS Great Eastern (double hull and giant ship)1858-1859
- Gutta-percha as insulation (1843)
- Iron hull and the Great Eastern
- Dover-Calais cable (1851)
Made possible
- Kelvin's mirror galvanometer and siphon recorder
- Imperial telegraph network
- Pacific submarine cables