Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

BY CHARLES BRIGHT, F.R.S.(Edin.), M.I.E.E. PART I. THE PIONEER LINE. Inception and Projection. THE story of pioneer submarine teleg- raphy is so closely associated with the early Atlantic Ocean cables that the latter may practically be taken as sym- bolic of the former ; and as we have just commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of the Atlantic cable, the present time is a peculiarly suitable one for dealing with the subject. The idea of spanning the North Atlantic Ocean by means of a submarine telegraph between Europe and America—aptly char- acterized at the time as “ the great feat of the century ”—began to take shape in the year 1853. At that period there were no applicable data to go upon for solving the problem of laying some 2,000 miles of cable, in one con- tinuous length, across an open ocean, at a depth of three miles for a great part of the distance. The impetus on our side originated with the Magnetic Telegraph Company, whose land lines extended throughout the United Kingdom to the seaboard of Ireland. The brothers Charles and Edward Bright, respectively the engineer and general manager to this com- pany, had, for some time past, been conduct- ing a number of electrical experiments and investigations, which led them to the conclu- sion that a transatlantic telegraph cable was practicable. On the other side of the ocean Mr. F. N. Gisborne, an English engineer of distinction, had obtained an exclusive concession for connecting St. Jolin’s, Newfoundland, with Cape Ray, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, by an overhead telegraph line, with a view to “ tap- ping ” steamers coming from this country, and thus passing messages by the land wire and carrier pigeons to Cape Breton, whence there was to be a short cable to the mainland at New Brunswick. When in New York, after erecting the land wire across Newfoundland, Gisborne met Mr.