The Story of the Atlantic TelegraphField, Henry M. (Henry Martyn)
History
The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph
Field, Henry M. (Henry Martyn)
Transatlantic cables
"I am most happy to inform you that, as a crowning result of a
long series of experimental investigation and inductive
reasoning upon this subject, the experiments under the
direction of Dr. Whitehouse and Mr. Bright, which I witnessed
this morning--in which the induction coils and receiving
magnets, as modified by these gentlemen, were made to actuate
one of my recording instruments--have most satisfactorily
resolved all doubts of the practicability as well as
practicality of operating the telegraph from Newfoundland to
Ireland.
"Although we telegraphed signals at the rate of two hundred and
ten, two hundred and forty-one, and, according to the count at
one time, even of two hundred and seventy per minute upon my
telegraphic register, (which speed, you will perceive, is at a
rate commercially advantageous,) these results were
accomplished notwithstanding many disadvantages in our
arrangements of a temporary and local character--disadvantages
which will not occur in the use of our submarine cable.
"Having passed the whole night with my active and agreeable
collaborators, Dr. Whitehouse and Mr. Bright, without sleep,
you will excuse the hurried and brief character of this note,
which I could not refrain from sending you, since our
experiments this morning settle the scientific and commercial
points of our enterprise satisfactorily.
"With respect and esteem, your obedient servant,
"Samuel F. B. Morse."
A week later, he wrote again, confirming his former impressions, thus:
"London, October 10, 1856.
"My dear Sir: After having given the deepest consideration to
the subject of our successful experiments the other night, when
we signalled clearly and rapidly through an unbroken circuit of
subterranean conducting wire, over two thousand miles in
length, I sit down to give you the result of my reflections and
calculations.
"There can be no question but that, with a cable containing a
single conducting wire, of a size not exceeding that through
which we worked, and with equal insulation, it would be easy to
telegraph from Ireland to Newfoundland at a speed of at least
from eight to ten words per minute; nay, more: the varying
rates of speed at which we worked, depending as they did upon
differences in the arrangement of the apparatus employed, do of
themselves prove that even a higher rate than this is
attainable. Take it, however, at ten words in the minute, and
allowing ten words for name and address, we can safely
calculate upon the transmission of a twenty-word message in
three minutes;
"Twenty such messages in the hour;
"Four hundred and eighty in the twenty-four hours, or fourteen
thousand four hundred words per day.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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