The Story of the Atlantic TelegraphField, Henry M. (Henry Martyn)
History
The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph
Field, Henry M. (Henry Martyn)
Transatlantic cables
"Sunday, July 22d.--Still success to record. A bright clear
day, with a fresh and invigorating breeze from the north-west.
Cable going out with unerring smoothness, at the rate of six
miles an hour. There has been great improvement in the
insulation. This remarkable improvement is attributable to the
greatly decreased temperature of, and pressure on, the cable in
the sea. This is a very satisfactory result to Mr. Willoughby
Smith. Signals, too, come every hour more distinctly. This
morning the breeze freshened. We are now about thirty miles to
the southward of the place where the cable parted on the second
of August, 1865, having then paid out one thousand two hundred
and thirteen miles. Captain Anderson read divine service in the
dining saloon.
"Monday.--Between six and seven P.M. yesterday, we passed over
the deepest part of our course. There was no additional strain
on the dynamometer, which indicated from ten to fourteen
hundred, the cable going out with its accustomed regularity.
The wind still fresh from the north-west. During the night it
went round to the southwest, and this morning there is a long
roll from the southward.
"At forty-six minutes past eleven A.M., Mr. Cyrus Field sent a
message to Valentia, requesting Mr. Glass to obtain the latest
news from Egypt, India, and China, and other distant countries,
so that on our arrival at Heart's Content we shall be able to
transmit it to the principal cities of the United States. In
just eight minutes he had a reply in these words: 'Your message
received, and is in London by this.' Outside the telegraph room
there is a placard put up, on which is posted the news shortly
after its arrival, and groups of the crew may be seen reading
it, just as we see a crowd at a newspaper office in London. Mr.
Dudley, the artist, has made a very spirited sketch of 'Jack'
reading the morning news, for he is supplied with the latest
intelligence from the seat of war twice a day![B] How he will
grumble when he gets ashore! He is not going to pay a pound a
word for news, but his newspapers will supply it to him, and he
does not know or care what it costs. But what a sum has been
spent in Atlantic telegraphs! It cannot now fall short of two
millions and a half of pounds, or over twelve millions of
dollars. More millions will be found if it shall be practically
proved that America can permanently talk to England, and
through her to the eastern hemisphere, and England to America
by this ocean wire. At a quarter to twelve to-day but two
hundred and fifteen miles of cable remained to be paid out of
the fore tank. To-morrow night we hope to see it empty--then,
for a small supply from the main tank, and then----but, hopeful
though we are, let us not anticipate.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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