Transatlantic telegraph cable

undersea cable

A transatlantic telegraph cable is a cable running under the Atlantic Ocean. It was used for telegraph communications. The first was laid across the bottom of the Atlantic from Ireland to Newfoundland.[1] The first message was sent on August 16, 1858. It was from Queen Victoria to President James Buchanan.[2] The cables reduced the communication time between North America and Europe from ten days (by ship) to a matter of minutes. The first cable lasted only three weeks.[3] Transatlantic telegraph cables have been replaced by transatlantic telecommunications cables.

Transatlantic telegraph monument, Heart's Content, Newfoundland and Labrador

References change

  1. Roland Wenzlhuemer, Connecting the Nineteenth-Century World: The Telegraph and Globalization (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013), p. 48
  2. Stephen C. Thierauf, Understanding Signal Integrity (Boston: Artech House, 2011), p. 1
  3. Anton A. Huurdeman, The Worldwide History of Telecommunications (New York: J. Wiley, 2003), p. 602