The Transatlantic Telegraph Cable: Foundations of Global Communication
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I had a fascinating experience recently, which many might find ordinary. I joined a chat group and instantly connected with individuals from around the globe, seeing their faces on webcams, enjoying music together, and communicating in real-time.
Participants hailed from the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, the Philippines, Europe, and Brazil. The vast distances seemed to vanish, as if they were physically present in the same room.
In today's world, this may not seem remarkable—it's just the internet. Rapid communication is as commonplace as turning on a tap to get water. However, the mechanics behind this connectivity are often overlooked.
It's a network, but not in the way we typically think of the term.
When you glance at your smartphone, it receives data wirelessly. Yet, the diverse countries mentioned above communicate through an intricate web of underwater fiber-optic cables.
It may sound outdated, but even the most advanced processors and modems rely on wires laid by ships to connect continents. This isn’t a single cable but an elaborate network resembling tangled spaghetti scattered across the ocean floor.
But how did we arrive at this point?
How did we transition from sending physical letters to transmitting messages through underwater networks spanning the globe? It all began with the World Wide Web 1.0: the Transatlantic Telegraph Cable.
To understand this, we need to trace back a bit.
Information at the Speed of Energy
> “The speed at which a message could travel determined how big an area one authority could govern.” > > — Tamim Ansary, The Invention of Yesterday
Tamim Ansary reminds us that communication often influences the extent of empires. For instance, if a messenger took two days to deliver a message, the response would take an equal amount of time, resulting in a four-day gap. A lot could happen in that time frame, reducing a leader's control.
Horseback riders expedited the process. During the height of the Mongol Empire, their Yam postal system could deliver letters over a hundred miles a day. This allowed for a larger realm than that of the Akkad Empire, though limits still existed.
Keep this in mind; we will return to it shortly.
In the early 1830s, Samuel Morse became intrigued by sending messages via wire. Building on prior inventions, he devised a system of dots and dashes to represent a language through this medium. By 1837, he secured a patent for the “electromagnetic telegraph.”
In 1843, the U.S. government funded a Morse project that connected Washington, D.C., to Baltimore with wire. The message “What hath God wrought” traveled the thirty-five miles almost instantly. A new means of communication was born.
This success inspired other ambitious innovators. If wires could connect cities, what else could they facilitate?
Wires Across an Ocean
The Science Museum of London notes that by the 1850s, networks of telegraph cables spanned the Atlantic. A cable had also been laid across the English Channel, linking England and France, igniting the imagination.
What if a cable could bridge the Old and New Worlds across the Atlantic?
Cyrus West Field, an American entrepreneur, retired from the paper business with a substantial fortune. Like Elon Musk transitioning from PayPal to space travel, Field invested his wealth in a new venture: connecting the world through wire.
He established the Atlantic Telegraph Company. However, there was one significant hurdle: no one knew if signals could travel the necessary distances to make such a cable feasible. Some experiments had shown promise.
In his History of Technology, Donard de Cogan recounts how engineer Charles Tilston Bright and retired doctor Edward Orange Wildman Whitehouse managed to transmit signals through 2,000 miles of cable. Both were recruited by the Atlantic Telegraph Company.
However, they disagreed on the most effective transmission methods. Whitehouse believed messages could be sent efficiently over long distances using a thin wire with high voltage, while Bright disagreed.
A scientist and director of the new telegraph company, William Thomson, conducted experiments on sending currents through long-distance telegraph lines. He discovered resistance within the lines and advocated for thicker wires, a view supported by Bright.
Though thicker wires were more expensive, Whitehouse's proposal was adopted, and cables were ordered according to his specifications. Their manufacturing was expedited to allow for a quick launch. Within six months, two manufacturers delivered the cable.
Laying the cable proved challenging, requiring multiple attempts and different strategies. Adverse weather and inexperience hampered efforts. In the final attempt, two ships, loaned by the British and American governments, met in the ocean's center, laying their respective loads of wire toward the shore.
To the world’s delight, the cable successfully transmitted messages—well, somewhat successfully.
Failure and Improvement
Allison Marsh, writing for IEEE Spectrum, details that the first official message sent across the ocean in 1858 was a communication between Queen Victoria and American President James Buchanan. The Queen’s initial ninety-eight-word message took sixteen hours to transmit. While it was quicker than a ten-day ocean voyage, it fell short of expectations.
Within weeks, the cable deteriorated and failed. However, it served as a proof-of-concept—an expensive one at that.
Though Cyrus West Field nearly faced ruin after this first venture, he managed to gather more funds for another attempt in 1865. This time, he used a thicker wire and a specially designed ship for cable laying.
Donald E. Kimberlin from the International Cable Protection Committee notes that this endeavor also ended in failure. Nevertheless, Field persevered, forming a new company and acquiring even better cable. This final attempt succeeded, and they even managed to recover the previously broken line after thirty attempts, reestablishing the connection.
By 1866, two operational lines spanned the Atlantic.
According to Kimberlin, transmission speeds were around eight words per minute. Sending twenty words or less cost $150, with an additional $7.50 for each word beyond that. For context, that $150 would be about $2700 today.
Tamim Ansary notes that newspapers formed consortiums to share the costs of these expensive wiring services, one of which became known as The Associated Press. Information began to transform into a commodity—an expensive one at that.
But there’s still one more aspect of the World Wide Web 1.0 to discuss.
Bigger Empires and Influence by Quicker Messages
Ansary previously mentioned that the speed of messages limited an authority's governance. What occurs when messages travel at the speed of electricity?
By 1911, Great Britain had completed what became known as the All Red Line, linking the British Empire via telegraph cable. The communication network of the Mongol Empire required days via horse and a continuous landmass. In contrast, the British could now communicate in mere minutes.
This advancement allowed for a far-reaching empire spanning continents, enabling rapid communication across vast distances.
As the cables and systems improved, corporations and businesses could also extend their reach across continents, facilitating seamless communication among dispersed employees.
These cables also fostered friendships, job opportunities, and knowledge sharing across oceans. This all culminates in your present author, comfortably participating in a web chat with individuals around the globe.
While we often perceive these global web services as mere facets of “Wi-Fi” technology, they fundamentally rely on cables stretching deep beneath the ocean surface.
None of this would have been feasible without the foundational World Wide Web 1.0: the Transatlantic Telegraph Cable.