| |
KF5JRV > TODAY 05.08.19 13:46l 46 Lines 2581 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 11876_KF5JRV
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Aug 05
Path: IZ3LSV<IQ2LB<IQ5KG<I0OJJ<GB7CIP<N3HYM<KF5JRV
Sent: 190805/1144Z 11876@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQK6.0.18
After several unsuccessful attempts, the first telegraph line across the
Atlantic Ocean is completed, a feat accomplished largely through the
efforts of American merchant Cyrus West Field.
The telegraph was first developed by Samuel F. B. Morse, an
artist-turned-inventor who conceived of the idea of the electric
telegraph in 1832. Several European inventors had proposed such a
device, but Morse worked independently and by the mid 1830s had built a
working telegraph instrument. In the late 1830s, he perfected Morse
Code, a set of signals that could represent language in telegraph
messages. In May 1844, Morse inaugurated the world’s first commercial
telegraph line with the message “What hath God wrought,ö sent from the
U.S. Capitol to a railroad station in Baltimore. Within a decade, more
than 20,000 miles of telegraph cable crisscrossed the country. The rapid
communication it made possible greatly aided American expansion, making
railroad travel safer as it provided a boost to business conducted
across the great distances of a growing United States.
In 1854, Cyrus West Field conceived the idea of the telegraph cable and
secured a charter to lay a well-insulated line across the floor of the
Atlantic Ocean. Obtaining the aid of British and American naval ships,
he made four unsuccessful attempts, beginning in 1857. In July 1858,
four British and American vessels–the Agamemnon, the Valorous, the
Niagara, and the Gorgon–met in mid-ocean for the fifth attempt. On July
29, the Niagara and the Gorgon, with their load of cable, departed for
Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, while the Agamemnon and the Valorous embarked
for Valentia, Ireland. By August 5, the cable had been successfully
laid, stretching nearly 2,000 miles across the Atlantic at a depth often
of more than two miles. On August 16, President James Buchanan and Queen
Victoria exchanged formal introductory and complimentary messages.
Unfortunately, the cable proved weak and the current insufficient and by
the beginning of September had ceased functioning.
Field later raised new funds and made new arrangements. In 1866, the
British ship Great Eastern succeeded in laying the first permanent
telegraph line across the Atlantic Ocean. Cyrus West Field was the
object of much praise on both sides of the Atlantic for his persistence
in accomplishing what many thought to be an impossible undertaking. He
later promoted other oceanic cables, including telegraph lines that
stretched from Hawaii to Asia and Australia.
73, Scott KF5JRV
Pmail: KF5JRV @ KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
Email: KF5JRV@GMAIL.com
Read previous mail | Read next mail
| |
