The Story of the Atlantic CableBright, Charles, Sir
History
The Story of the Atlantic Cable
Bright, Charles, Sir
Transatlantic cables
In Newfoundland, Mr. Field, together with Mr. Bright's assistant
engineers, Messrs. Everett and Woodhouse, and the electricians,
Messrs, de Sauty and Laws, received the heartiest congratulations
and welcome from the Governor and Legislative Council of the
colony. While acknowledging these congratulations, Mr. Field
remarked. "We have had many difficulties to surmount, many
discouragements to bear, and some enemies to overcome, whose very
opposition has stimulated us to greater exertion."[43]
It was a curious coincidence that the cable was successfully completed
to Valentia on the same day in 1858 on which the shore end had been
landed the year before. Moreover, it was exactly one hundred and eleven
years since Dr. (afterward Sir William) Watson had astonished the
scientific world by sending an electric current through a wire two miles
long, using the earth as a return circuit. It is also worthy of note
that the first feat of telegraphy was executed by order of King
"Agamemnon" to his queen, announcing the fall of Troy, 1,084 years
before the birth of Christ, and that the great feat which we have
narrated was carried out by the great ship Agamemnon, as has been here
shown.
Mr. Bright and Messrs. Canning and Clifford and the rest of the staff,
as well as Professor Thomson and the electricians, were absolutely
exhausted with the incessant watching and almost unbearable anxiety
attending their arduous travail. Valentia proved a haven of rest indeed
for these "toilers of the deep"--completely knocked up with their
experiences on the Atlantic, not to mention their previous trials and
disappointments.
Then came a series of banquets, which had to be gone through. Soon after
his duties at Valentia were over, Bright made his way to Dublin. Here he
was entertained by the Lord Mayor and civic authorities of that capital
on Wednesday, September 1st. On this occasion Cardinal Wiseman, who was
present, made an eloquent speech; and the following account of the
proceedings from the Morning Post may be suitably quoted:
The banquet given on Wednesday, the 1st, by the Lord Mayor of
Dublin, to Mr. C. T. Bright, Engineer-in-Chief to the Atlantic
Telegraph Company, was a great success. The assemblage embraced the
highest names in the metropolis--civil, military, and official.
Cardinal Wiseman was present in full cardinalite costume. The usual
toasts were given, and received with all honors.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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