Latest By Telegraph by Kristian Nielsen
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Tuesday, August 5th marked the 150th anniversary of the first transatlantic communications cable being laid. I had the distinctive opportunity to attend Hibernia Atlantic’s celebration of the event, held at the New York City Historical Society on September 8th. It was an evening full of history, dignitaries from Hibernia, and key-note speakers, most memorable of which was a direct descendant of Cyrus West Field, Cyrus Field IV. He gave an insightful address, one that only could have been inspired by stories passed down through the years. Standing in the hall, surrounded by an assortment of old stereopictures, scribbled on maps, faded letters, and ancient cable cuttings, we listened to the old family stories. I wandered around the hall, literally soaking up the palpable history there. Looking at the original maps where the cable was plotted, pictures taken during the celebration when the cable first carried human thought, and old correspondences between engineers on how to deal issues that may arise during the laying of the cable, I realized that I knew very little about where this industry actually started. Like so many conveniences that you’ve grown up with, you rarely think
of where it came from, how it was originally made, and the people who sacrificed to make it happen. Standing amidst the antique cable cross-sections and yellowed parchments, I decided to discover for myself what led up to this historic event. As with any good story, you must begin at the beginning. With telecommunications, the beginning is pretty far in the past, so, with respect to the reader, I will skip past throwing, shouting, messages in bottles, and twin laden African or European swallows. Let’s, instead, skip straight ahead to the mid-1820s where the groundwork for the telegraph is being laid by a man named Baron Powel Lwowitsch Schilling von Constatt. Already an accomplished innovator in the electrical field, Schilling took advantage of Schweigger’s Multiplier to move a needle that was attached to a paper disk, black on one side and white on the other. With multiples of this instrument, Schilling was able to create a series of paper disks which could be representative of the alphabet, the first of its kind. Blast ahead to 1837, where Edward Davey has conceptually come the closest to a modern, working telegraph system for