BACK REFLECTION: CABLE BY JOSÉ CHESNOY
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oreword The story below highlights the way the industrial framework of submarine cables was built in Europe in years 1900, and let some lessons that are still quite relevant. Saint-Tropez, on the French Riviera is better known for its leisure holidays beaches and villas than for industrial activities. In fact in years 1900, two important French industries were born there, one for torpedoes in 1912 that still exist, and the other in 1892 that was devoted to manufacture of submarine cables and put in place by Alexandre Grammont, already owner of copper cable terrestrial cables in France close to Lyon city.
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This submarine cable factory was closed in 1925, and its memory sank in 1943 when the mother company sold the rest of its activity with very few archives left. By chance Daniel Faget had done in 2010 a thesis on this history and it becomes possible to understand the reasons explaining the creation of this factory and overall why it did not survive. The present paper is mostly based on the book by Daniel Faget (Reference 1) with some photos are from l’Association des Amis des Cables Sous-Marins (AACSM, reference 2). An overall review of the historical developments of submarine cables is included in Reference 3.
BUILDING THE FACTORY
Submarine cables were already a 30 years story in years 1890, after the launching the first Calais-Dover link in 1850. The French administration was frustrated that despite the concept of telegraphic submarine cables was born in Paris, Great Britain was a well-established industry and not France. French Post & Telecommunication ministry had recognized late that this business was quite strategic, especially in the context of communication with the French colonies, and it decided to support the national industry to recover against British leadership. The decision was to support two industry deployments, one in the north of France in Calais that is still running presently