Back Reflection Images courtesy of Atlantic-Cable.com
Other Atlantic Telegraph Cables Aficionados of the history of our industry will probably be familiar with the famous story of the Atlantic Telegraph. This traditionally covers the period from the initial attempts in 1857-58 to the finally successful 1865 and 1866 cables. However, this was by no means the end of the story. In 1866, the two working transatlantic telegraph cables were owned and operated by the Anglo-American Telegraph company, which had bought out the New York, Newfoundland and London Telegraph Company in 1864. It had a working relationship with the Atlantic Telegraph Company up until the two companies merged in 1873. For a few years they enjoyed a monopoly over trans-Atlantic telegraphy and with it a virtual license to print money.
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by Stewart Ash
In France, thoughts quickly turned to direct communication with the USA. Frédéric Emile Baron d’Erlanger (18321911) and Paul Julius Freiherr von Reuter (1816-99), backed by British finance, launched a new company, the French Atlantic Telegraph Company (La Société du Câble Translantique Française), in 1869. This company laid a cable between Brest and St Pierre (a French territory off of Newfoundland), with an extension to Cape Cod, Massachusetts. This cable was manufactured and installed by the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company (Telcon). In 1873, the French Company was absorbed by Anglo-American. At the time of the take-over, the French Company already had another transAtlantic cable on order from Telcon, it was intended for Brest to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Anglo-American diverted this
to a Hearts Content to Valentia cable, and Telcon laid it in 1873. This left a residue from the original order of approximately 1,000nm of cable and so a further order for 976nm was placed with Telcon and a new NewfoundlandValentia cable was laid in 1874. In 1873, John Pender (1816-96), with significant support from Siemens Brothers set up The Direct United States Cable Company with the intention of directly linking the UK and the USA. However, it soon became clear that, with the available technology, the transmission speed would be too slow to compete with existing cables and so the direct route was abandoned. An intermediate landing was essential and so, in 1874, the Faraday, on its maiden voyage, laid the cable from Rye Beach, USA to Tor Bay, Nova Scotia and on to Ballinskelligs in Ireland. John