History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications from the first submarine cable of 1850 to the worldwide fiber optic network

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Atlantic Cables: 1857-1866

Master Index to articles on the first Atlantic Cables

The 1857-58 Atlantic Cable

History of the Atlantic Cable enterprise, 1850-1858

by Bill Glover

The 1858 cable history as it happened - reported by Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper

Atlantic Cables: 1856-2016

Master Timeline of all Atlantic Cables

Cyrus Field - A Contemporary Record

Cyrus Field Photographs and Portraits - the man behind the Atlantic Cable

Cyrus Field Medals and other cable medals and tokens

Cyrus Field’s Descendants - Diane Gravlee’s comprehensive list of Cyrus Field’s family and descendants, down to the seventh generation

The Brothers Field - Russell Carpenter’s history of the five brothers of the Field family who held among them a total of 10 academic and honorary degrees from Williams College.

Cyrus Field Family Portraits - images of paintings of Cyrus Field and his parents, wife, and sons, owned by Peter Christian Hall and Alix-Marie Hall, New York City-based siblings whose great-grandfather was Frederick Joseph Stone, Cyrus Field’s nephew

Cable Bibliography

Main Reference Bibliography - books and other printed material, films and videos on cable laying

Current Bibliography - books available for purchase, book reviews, recent magazine articles

Additional Bibliography - Gill Cookson’s Submarine Telegraphy Research Notes

Book Cover Images - from Cable and Telegraph Books

Atlantic Cable Sheet Music - popular songs and music inspired by the cable expeditions

Cable Pioneers

Cable Timeline - 1845 to 2018 by Bill Glover

Cable & Wireless

Bill Glover’s History of Cable & Wireless - a detailed history of the firm and its predecessor companies, illustrated with original telegrams, covers, and other documents.

Cable Ships

Cable Ships - illustrated articles on ships used for cable laying and repair, from 1850 to 2010

Cable Stories - 1850 to 1989

Cable Stamps and Covers

Submarine Cable Stamps and First Day Covers - includes Atlantic Cable 75th and 100th anniversary stamps and covers, Bill Glover’s extensive collection of cableship stamps and covers with information on each ship and the cables laid, and Bill’s history of Cable & Wireless, illustrated with original telegrams and covers.

Cable Artifacts, Ephemera, and Memorabilia

Early Cable Instruments - text and images of a talk given at the Antique Wireless Association Conference, August 2009

Memorabilia, Ephemera, and Promotional Material - Cable Watch Fob, 1858 Atlantic Cable Album, Cable Candlestick, Niagara Anchor, Cable Cane, Cable Snuff Box, Cable Earrings

1858 Cable Souvenir Advertisements - the short-lived frenzy in New York for all things cable after the successful expedition of 1858

Cables for Electrical Power

Research Requests - contributions welcome

Mystery Cable at Porthcurno Telegraph Museum by Allan Green. This landline cable may have been used as a telegraph connection, or in a radio application.

Special Feature Sections

Back Reflections - Stewart Ash's articles on many aspects of cable history and technology

Major Submarine System Suppliers (1850 -2012) - a diagram showing the evolution of undersea cable companies from the beginning of the industry until the present day, by Stewart Ash

The Atlantic Telegraph Cables Trail - an illustrated guide for visitors to the sites of the earliest Atlantic Cables in County Kerry, Ireland

Cable Manufacturing & Laying Companies and Cable Stations - illustrated articles on early cable companies and cable stations

Report on the IEEE Conference on the History of Telecommunications, St. John’s, Newfoundland, 25-27 July, 2001 - includes photographs of the Heart’s Content Cable Station Museum

"Online - 150 Years on the Net" - an overview of the special exhibition at the Danish Post & Tele Museum, Copenhagen (2 February to 19 September 2004)

150 Years Of Industry & Enterprise At Enderby’s Wharf - by Allan Green

The Atlantic Cable Medal of 1866 - article by Herman Blanton on the medals presented after the success of the 1866 cable

Distant Writing - The Telegraph Companies in Britain between 1838 and 1868 - website by Steven Roberts on British Telegraphy from 1838 to 1868, which includes considerable detail on the submarine cable companies working in this period.

Cable History: Original Articles and Reprints of Early Material

1827 Precursor to the Electric Telegraph - article by Bill Glover on the Holyhead - Liverpool semaphore telegraph, established in 1827 and finally superseded by a cable/landline connection in 1861

1837-1860 Early Landline Telegraph Cables - 1978 article by Francis Celoria on the beginnings of the telegraph cable industry in Britain

1838-1868 Distant Writing - The Telegraph Companies in Britain between 1838 and 1868 - article by Steven Roberts on British Telegraphy which includes considerable detail on the submarine cable companies working in this period

1842-1853 Cyrus Field, Paper Merchant - how Field made his fortune

1845-1857 On the Submarine Telegraph - John Watkins Brett on his involvement, together with his brother Jacob Brett, in the early cable enterprise

1845-1950 The Gutta Percha Company - insulation, and more; one of Telcon’s predecessor companies

1849 Early British Experiments in Submarine Telegraphy - by Charles V. Walker

1849 Horatio Hubbell and his claim to be the originator of the Atlantic Cable - a forgotten pioneer

1849 Joseph Hyppolyte Pulte and the land route to Europe - another forgotten visionary

Pre-1850 Wire Rope and the Submarine Cable Industry - the origins of cable-making technology

1850 The 1850 Dover-Calais Cable - articles from Scientific American and The Living Age on the first cross-Channel cable

1850-1858 The First Atlantic Cable - history of the early attempts to lay the cable

1850-1851 The Submarine Telegraph Company - the company which laid the first cross-Channel cables

1850-1851 1850 & 1851 Dover-Calais Cables - from Willoughby Smith’s book

1852-1866 Anglo-Irish Cables - article on these important early lines by Steven Roberts

1852 The Electric Telegraph - a poem on the wonders of telegraphy

1854 The Atlantic Cable Projectors - how it all began

1855 European Sub-Marine Telegraph - article from Scientific American on the Crimea cable

1856 Marshall Lefferts at the American Geographical and Statistical Society - speaking on The Electric Telegraph; its Influence and Geographical Distribution

1857 Laying the Atlantic Telegraph Cable from Ship to Shore - a portfolio of eight lithographs together with a description of landing the shore end of the 1857 cable at Valentia, Ireland, by John R. Isaac.

1857 Professor Hall’s Floating Telegraph Stations - an alternative to a single span cable across the Atlantic

1858 On Submerging Telegraphic Cables - report on a paper presented to the Institution of Civil Engineers (London)

1858 The Northern Land Route - Tal Shaffner’s alternative to the Atlantic Cable

1858 Henry Field’s Summer Pictures - a brief account of the meeting of the Field brothers in Plymouth just before the sailing of the expedition

1858 The Cable History as it happened - reported by Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper

1858 The Cable Celebration in New York City - contemporary illustrations and text

1858 Speech by David Dudley Field - at the Crystal Palace, the Cable Celebration in New York City

1858 Robert Merry’s Museum - articles on the cable from a children’s magazine

1860 On the Maintenance and Durability of Submarine Cables in Shallow Waters - paper presented by William Henry Preece to the Institution of Civil Engineers

1861 Deep-Sea Telegraphs - George Saward examines the failures to date and proposes remedies

1861 Henry O’Rielly and the Russo-American Telegraph - another unsuccessful proposal

1862 Cyrus Field at the American Geographical and Statistical Society - speaking on Prospects of the Atlantic Telegraph

1863 Cyrus Field at the New-York Chamber of Commerce - A Meeting Called to Further the Enterprise of The Atlantic Telegraph

1865 Russell: The Atlantic Telegraph - high resolution scans of the cover, title page, and the tinted lithographs from the book recording the events of the 1865 Great Eastern cable expedition

1865 Original letter from Sir Daniel Gooch describing the loss of the cable on the 1865 Great Eastern expedition

1865 The 1865 Atlantic Cable - companies involved in its manufacture

1865 John C. Deane’s Diary of the 1865 Great Eastern expedition

1865 Letter from Sir Robert Peel to John C. Deane, later Secretary of the Anglo-American Telegraph Company, concerning the loss of the 1865 cable

1865 Paper by William Thomson on The Forces Concerned in the Laying and Lifting of Deep-sea Cables.

1866 The Recovery of the Cable - detailed description of the recovery of the 1865 cable, from Henry Field’s book

1867 Submarine Telegraphy at the Paris Universal Exhibition - survey and review by Robert Sabine

1869 The First French Atlantic Cable - illustrated by stereoviews

1870-74 James Nicol: cableship voyages - life on board ship

1871 Remarks of Mr Cyrus W. Field at the International Telegraphic Conference - Rome, December 28th 1871

1872 Sir James Anderson on Submarine Cables - their design and construction, and reasons for their failure

1877 The Laying of the Ocean Cable - Peter Cooper’s story of the Atlantic Cable

1879 25th Anniversary Celebration Invitation - the anniversary of Field’s first involvement with the cable project

1879 Speech by David Dudley Field - at the 25th Anniversary Reception

1879 The Second French Cable - including photographs from the French Cable Station Museum at Orleans, Massachusetts

1882 Facts and Observations Relating to the Invention of the Submarine Cable by R.S. Newall. In which Newall sets the record straight on who did what in the early days of cable laying.

1884 On The Causes Of Failure Of Deep-Sea Cables by James Graves. Article on the failure of the 1865 Atlantic cable from the Journal of the Society of Telegraph-Engineers and Electricians, No. 51, Vol. XIII, 1884. The author was a cable engineer who supervised the manufacture of the 1865 cable and was later superintendent of the Valentia cable station where the recovered 1865 cable terminated.

1884 A Visit to the Works of Messrs. Siemens Bros. - article from The Telegraphist

1885 Life on the Atlantic Telegraph Company’s Valentia Cable Station - article from The Telegraphist

1886 Government Telegraphy - article by Cyrus W. Field in The North American Review

1886-95 Captain Basil Combe - a firsthand account of life on the cableships

1887 The India-rubber, Gutta-percha, and Telegraph Works Company, Limited (Silvertown) - article from The Telegraphist

1887 The Submarine Cables Trust

1890 CS Westmeath Cable Survey - detailed report of a survey expedition

1890 With a Cable Expedition - article by Herbert Laws Webb

1891 The Submarine Telegraphs of the World - article by George Walter Niven

1892 Cyrus Field’s Will - has details on the many awards and souvenirs which Field collected in his long association with the cable industry

1892 The Submarine Cables of the World - cable system survey article from Manufacturer & Builder

1892 Cables Under The Ocean - cable system survey article from the New York Times

1894 Summary of the Progress of Submarine Telegraphy - 1894 article from The Electrician on 25 years of telegraphy to the Far East

1894 Submarine Telegraph Enterprise - article from Engineering on the cost of laying and maintaining cables

1895 Nerves of the World - article on submarine cables by J. Munro, author of Heroes of the Telegraph

1895 At an Atlantic Cable Station - article by Roland Belfort

1896 Repairing a Break - book extract

1896 The Making and Laying of an Atlantic Cable - article by Henry Muir

1897 Making and Laying an Atlantic Cable - article by Roland Belfort

1898 Cable-Cutting At Cienfuegos - article by Lieutenant Cameron McR. Winslow on the US Navy expedition to cut Cuba’s submarine cables during the Spanish-American War

1898 Submarine Cable Laying - Strand Magazine article by Archer Philip Crouch, C.E.

1898 Submarine Telegraph Lines - article by Ewing Matheson which includes costs for laying and maintaining cables

1899 Telegraph Cables - article by C.J. Cooke including details of his work with Hooper’s Telegraph Company laying cables on the west coast of South America in the 1870s

1900 The Projected Cable-Line to the Philippines - article in The National Review by Chandler Hale

1902 How Cables Unite The World - article from The World’s Work giving a good overview of the cable industry at the beginning of the 20th century

1906 Auction Sale of Cyrus Field’s Correspondence and Papers - many interesting and unusual items from Field’s library

1914 Walter Claypoole - Far Rockaway and Canso stations of the Commercial Cable Company at the beginning of World War I.

1914 The Battle of Cocos - in which the Germans destroy the cable station on Direction Island, and the aftermath

1915 How submarine cables are made, laid, operated and repaired - article by the Commercial Cable Company

1922 Submarine Telegraph Cables - article by Lt.-Col. C. deF. Chandler

1923 Laying a Deep-Sea Cable Line Delicate and Dangerous Job - New York Times article

1923 Electrical Communications - a survey by John J. Carty of AT&T of radio and cable communications between the USA and the rest of the world at an interesting turning point in technology

1925 On Board the Cable Ship - article by George W. Gray

1926 Cable Chess Match between London and Chicago

1934-39 Post Office Green Papers include one on cables and others on telegraph history

1942 The Future of Transoceanic Telephony - article by Dr. Oliver E. Buckley, President of Bell Telephone Laboratories. Early discussion of repeatered telephone cables across the Atlantic

1943 Theirs the Job to Keep the Cables Mended - newspaper article on cable laying and repair in wartime

1944 Cable Station RM - Cal Sheckler’s account of diverting the 1926 Azores-Emden German cable into Normany for use by the Allied Forces after D-Day

1944 Cable & Wireless - Communications Old And New - book illustrations by C.F. Tunnicliffe

1959 Salient Features In Cable Design Since 1850 - a timeline of cable technical developments from 1850 to 1959 by Submarine Cables Ltd.

1968 Undersea Cable- an overview of repeatered telephone cable systems

1970 Undersea Cable Systems - A Survey (or: Explanation to an Unknown Lady in Philadelphia) - article by Robert L. Easton

1974 Tiffany Cable Samples - if you’ve ever wondered about the source of all those Tiffany-marked samples of the 1858 cable which show up on eBay every few weeks, and whether or not they are genuine, here’s the story. (The cable samples are genuine; the certificates and boxes are vintage 1974, although authentic 1858 certificates are occasionally found).

2001 The Transatlantic Cable Stations - An Irish Perspective - paper by Cornelia Connolly, presented at the IEEE Conference on the History of Telecommunications, St. John’s, Newfoundland, July 2001

Landline Telegraphy

1867 Modern Telegraphy : some errors of dates of events and of statement in the history of telegraphy exposed and rectified / by Samuel F.B. Morse. Paris, June 1867. The link is to the Bibliothèque National de France; the text may be read on screen there, or downloaded.

1871 London And North Western Railway Telegraph Rules And Regulations - complete scan of the 1871 employee handbook, with instructions on using the Single Needle telegraph

Links to Other Sites

Lords of Lightning - telegraph history research resources, with many useful links to archives, museums, and historical newspapers

Find Latitude and Longitude - locate positions at sea for recovered cables

HMTS Alert (2) website by Charlie Voss [archived copy]

Les Amis Des Câbles Sous-Marin - French cable history site

Aronsson’s Telecom History Timeline - a detailed timeline of communications history from 15,000 BC through September 2001 [archived copy]

Ascension Island Heritage Society - includes a history of the Eastern Telegraph Company and Cable & Wireless on Ascension, with period photographs

The Atlantic Cable - by Bern Dibner, 1959. The Smithsonian website has full-page images of the entire text of Dibner’s book, an important and comprehensive reference to the history of the cable.

Atlantic Cable Souvenirs - Mary Addyman's page on cable souvenirs in the Cuming Museum (Southwark) collection

Atlantic Sentinel - a book by Donald R. Tarrant on the history of transatlantic communications in Newfoundland

Bamfield Cable Station - the site in British Columbia of the Pacific Cable Board Cable Station, which served as the eastern terminus of the trans-pacific telegraph cable from 1901 to 1959. The facility is now the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre

Bay Roberts Cable Station - the 1910 cable station building in Newfoundland is now a local history museum. The museum’s website has many historic cable images.

Cabot Strait Telegraph Cable 1856 - an early link in the first Atlantic cable

Canso Cable Station - the Commercial Cable Rehabilitation Society had been revitalizing the former Commercial Cable trans-Atlantic relay station in Hazel Hill, Nova Scotia, but the building was demolished in 2017.

The Chapin Library at Williams College has an archive of Field family papers which includes material from Cyrus W. Field. Some images are on line, and the page also has links to other sources

Gustavo Coll’s Signa Telegraph Collection - has some interesting cable instruments and samples

Connecting the Continent [2010 archived copy] - Australian site which includes material on the Overland Telegraph

Gill Cookson’s History Today article - a short overview of the laying of the first Atlantic Cables

County Kerry Transatlantic Cable Stations - Ireland, where it all began

Donard de Cogan’s Papers - original research on aspects of cable and telegraph history

Distant Writing - The Telegraph Companies in Britain between 1838 and 1868 - a comprehensive website by Steven Roberts on British Telegraphy from 1838 to 1868, which includes considerable detail on the submarine cable companies working in this period.

Early Submarine Telegraphy Companies [archived copy] - detailed information on the first cables via Nova Scotia and Newfoundland

The Electromagnetic Telegraph [2007 archived copy] - J.B. Calvert’s website includes some useful information on submarine telegraphy and cable codes

Engaging with Communications - University of Salford website by Professor Nigel Linge, which promotes the importance of telecommunications and its impact on society

French Cable Station Museum - in Orleans, Massachusetts. One of the few surviving 19th century cable stations, now a museum. The website has details of the museum and information for visitors.

The Great Transatlantic Cable - a documentary on Cyrus Field and the Atlantic Cable, first broadcast 11 April 2005 on PBS TV stations (USA) as part of the American Experience series. DVD available from Amazon.

Greg’s Cable Map - an interactive map of present-day working cables

The Greenwich Industrial History Society - back issues of the Society’s newsletter have some material on the cable industry at Greenwich.

Robert Halpin and Tinakilly House - information on the captain of the Great Eastern in her cable-laying days and his Irish home.

A History of the Telegraph in Jersey - Graeme Marett’s research, 48-page PDF (285KB)

ICPC - The International Cable Protection Committee. Links to submarine cable companies and suppliers; historical material in the Information section of the site. See also this page on ICPC souvenir items.

IEEE History Center - the (American) Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers website devoted to the preservation of electrical engineering history.

IET (formerly IEE) Archives - the archive of the (British) Institution of Engineering & Technology (The IET), which holds much material on early telegraphy, including the scrapbook of cable pioneer Jacob Brett, the papers of Sir Francis Ronalds, WF Cooke, Oliver Heaviside, and WH Preece, and a collection of drawings by EW Cooke on the 1858 Atlantic telegraph expedition. The archive website has a research guide to submarine telegraphy. Direct link to IET archives search. The IET History of Technology Network page sometimes has information on cable-related books, websites, conferences, and exhibits.

Indicator Loops - specialized versions of undersea cables used to detect the approach of submarines

Industrial research at the Eastern Telegraph Company, 1872–1929 - article by Richard Noakes on R&D at the company in the early 20th century (behind paywall)

Samuel Morse Historic Site at Locust Grove, Poughkeepsie - the house and grounds owned by Morse from 1851 to 1872, now a National Historic Landmark. The Morse Exhibit in the Visitor Center displays a number of Morse’s paintings, together with some telegraph and cable artifacts. Guided house tours are available, and there is free admission to the 150 acres of grounds running down to the Hudson River.

Morsemad - John Snell’s site on Morse telegraphy

Mother Earth Mother Board - Neal Stephenson’s 1996 Wired Magazine article in which he follows the installation of a modern fiber optic cable over three continents and incidentally presents the history of communications cables. Note that not all researchers agree with his comments on Wildman Whitehouse.

Mumford Books in the UK has an excellent selection of technical and industrial books, plus prints and photographs, and can often locate material on submarine cables and telegraphy.

N7CFO Homepage - Lynn Burlingame’s site; a great resource for telegraph collectors and historians

New Wireless Pioneers - Jim Kreuzer has supplied images of a number of rare items for the Atlantic Cable site. Now his own site is open, listing many books in the field of radio and telegraph history, and including regular catalog updates.

The Old Cable House - a Bed & Breakfast in Waterville, Ireland, housed in an original Commercial Cable Company building. The site has an interesting cable history section.

The Pickering Family History [2011 archived copy] - a personal connection to the first cable

Porthcurno Telegraph Museum in Porthcurno, Cornwall, England. A major research resource, with an on-line catalog of the extensive archive of cable material from Cable & Wireless, many photographs, and information on visiting the museum.

CS Restorer - Dirk van Oudenol’s comprehensive website on the operations of this cable ship from 1902-1951, now hosted on this site.

Scientific Use of Fiber-Optic Submarine Telecommunications Cable Systems - a paper presented in 2003 with details of Atlantic cables TAT-8 through TAT-11 and Pacific cables HAW-4, TPC-3, and GPT (8MB PDF)

Shipping Wonders of the World - John Clarke’s site on this 1930s publication has a number of pages on cable ships

Smithsonian Online Exhibition: Underwater Web: Cabling the Seas

Smithsonian Curator Emeritus Bernard Finn on the 2016 exhibit for the 150th anniversary of the 1866 Atlantic cable

Straight CW-Corner - Claudio Ruggieri’s site on telegraph keys has an extensive section on submarine cable apparatus (automatic translation from the Italian original)

SubmarineCableSystems.com - a directory site for the telecommunications, submarine cable system, and offshore service industries. Provides a good overview of the services available to the modern cable industry.

Submarine Cable Telegraphy Demo - From the Sparks Telegraph Key Review site, a graphical demo of how polarity reversal was used to improve the speed of submarine cables

Submarine Telecoms Forum - publishes a bi-monthly on-line magazine (PDF) about the cable industry. The website has frequent news updates on current cables and events.

Telecom Digest - a comprehensive site on all aspects of telecom history, with a searchable archive.

Telecommunications and the Natural History of São Tomé and Príncipe [2007 archived copy] - some interesting notes on the interaction of Gulf of Guinea cable staff and natural history scientists in the 1800s.

The Telecommunications Heritage Group - a British organization dedicated to the history of all forms of telecommunication.

Telecommunications Technology and History [2016 archived copy] - Don Kimberlin’s site has some interesting articles and links to other early communications sites

TeleGeography’s cable map- a regularly updated interactive map of present-day working cables.

Telegraph Equipment - Brooke Clarke’s page; a good reference for the history of landline telegraphy instruments and patents

The Telegraph Field [2014 archived copy] - a small site on the telegraph history of Valentia Island

Telegraph-History - John Casale’s site focuses on US telegraph history and includes much early documentation

TelegraphKeys.com - Doug Palmer's site has a section showing cable instruments

Telegraph Lore - Greg Raven’s site covers all aspects of telegraphy and includes a photo gallery of Fons Vanden Berghen’s extensive collection of rare instruments

Fons’ own Telegraphy - Vanden Berghen site has more photographs and articles.

The Telegraph Office - Neal McEwen’s site has an excellent submarine telegraphy section.

UK Cable Locations [2013 archived copy] - Kingfisher Information Service interactive map and downloadable charts showing cable routes and landing sites around the British Isles

UK Submarine Cable Landings & Cable Stations - a site with information on a variety of 20th century cable installations

Valentia Heritage Centre - a local history museum on the Irish island where the Atlantic Cable project began, with much information on cable history.

Valentia Transatlantic Cable Station - Background information and details on the World Heritage Site proposal

Valentia World Heritage Site project - December 2015 article at the Silicon Republic website on this important effort.

Webster & Horsfall - supplied the steel armouring wire for the 1865 and 1866 Atlantic cables. Link to archive copy of the page.

Weston-super-Mare and the Commercial Cable Company - John Crellin’s site on cable history in this English town now presents the cable station archive of the North Somerset Museum (Feb 2003)