Timeline of the Atlantic Cable

tags:: #Memex2 #Atomic #AtlanticCable #Telegraph

Nollet ran experiments by sending signals through wires and found that it was extremely fast. He saw that this could replace traditional horse-borne messages in the future
Chappe built the first functional telegraph that consisted of black and white panels that could be seen from far away. They used a codebook to communicate with each other.
This led to the creation and widespread of telegraph stations. It provided military value and allowed a communication within a country such as France. The idea of a telegraph was set in place, and the addition of electricity came at a later day.
The telegraph built by Chappe was limited as it was expensive to install and required trained operators and having structures all over the region. It also was unable to be used at night or during misty days, and it was apparent that an electric telegraph would preform much better.

The galvanometer which could measure electricity and the voltaic battery were invented and both could be incorporated into an electrical telegraph
New inventors emerged such as Morse and Cooke who both wanted to build a telegraph for faster communication.
At this time Morse also began to design the language that these devices would use called Morse code.
Morse continued its research, making progress, and improved his code language. He believed that these devices would be revolutionary to communication.
There was much progress made throughout the world with land connections of telegraphs, and Europe began to become connected like never before.

As more countries were connected in Europe, the idea of a cable underwater was born. Britain wanted to connect to its colonies all across the globe. The problem was that there was no cable that was able to survive being underwater for long periods of time.
The task of creating this cable was given to a doctor who did not know too much about the engineering behind a submarine cable.
The cable design he came up with was extremely flawed. They began mass-producing it and were prepping to lay the cable.
The first attempt was a fail as the cable snapped. The second attempted, they tried to meet halfway to half the time it took, but the cable snapped. On the fourth attempt it was successful, and a connection was made between Europe and North America. The line was connected from Newfoundland to Ireland.
The cable only lasted for around a month and people were not happy, calling the whole operation a hoax.
Fields was tasked with laying the new cable, and the company's top priority was to fix and improve any flaws or mistakes the cable had.
Shortly after, the cable was connected, and the two continents were connected.