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editThe Atlantic Telegraph Company was a company formed on 6 November 1856 to undertake and exploit a commercial telegraph cable across the Atlantic ocean, the first such telecommunications link.
History
editCyrus Field, American businessman and financier, set his sights on laying the first transatlantic underwater telegraph cable after having been contacted by Frederic Newton Gisborne who attempted to connect St. Johns, Newfoundland to New York City, but failed due to lack of funding[1]. After inquiring about the feasibility of a transatlantic underwater cable to Lieutenant Matthew Fontaine Maury of the U.S. Navy,[2] The project stemmed from an agreement between the American Cyrus Field and Field formed an agreement with the Englishmen John Watkins Brett and Charles Tilston Bright, and to create the Atlantic Telegraph Company. It was incorporated incorporated in December, 1856 with £350,000 capital, raised principally in London, Liverpool, Manchester, and Glasgow. The board of directors was composed of eighteen members from the United Kingdom, nine from the United States, and three from Canada. The original three projectors were joined by E.O.W. Whitehouse who oversaw the manufacturing of the cables[3] as chief electrician. Curtis M. Lampson served ably as vice-chairman for over a decade.
The board recruited the physicist William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin), who had publicly disputed some of Whitehouse's claims. The two enjoyed had a tense relationship before Whitehouse was dismissed when the first cable failed in 1858. Later that year, another attempt was made to connect North America and Europe. This attempt was completed on July 29, 1858 and was celebrated by an exchange of messages between Queen Victoria of England and President Buchanan of the United States using the new cable line.[4]
The next expedition in 1866 was a success, also succeeding in recovering the lost second cable. The service generated revenues of £1000 in its first day of operation. The approximate price to send a telegram was: one word, one mile (1.6 km)= $0.0003809.
Anglo-American Telegraph Company
editIn 1870, the Atlantic Telegraph Company merged with rivals the New York, Newfoundland and London Telegraph Company, and the French Atlantic Cable Company to form the Anglo-American Telegraph Company.
The Anglo-American Telegraph Company was founded after the failed attempt of laying a second cable by The Atlantic Telegraph Company in 1865. The new telegraph company took over the assets of the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company and later merged with The French Transatlantic Cable Company in 1869[5]. The new company set out to recover the lost cable using the CS Albany and CS Medway, working together with The Atlantic Telegraph Company until the two merged in 1873[5]. They then went on to lay two more cables in 1873 and 1874 from Hearts Content, Newfoundland to Valentia Island by CS Robert Lowe in 1873 and CS Minia in 1874.[5]
Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company works, at Enderbys Wharf, .
References
edit- ^ STEWART, JANE A. (1919). "GREAT AMERICANS OF THE PAST: CYRUS WEST FIELD". The Journal of Education. 90 (18 (2254)): 488–489. ISSN 0022-0574.
- ^ Starosielski, Nicole (2015-02-25). The Undersea Network. Duke University Press. doi:10.1215/9780822376224. ISBN 978-0-8223-7622-4.
- ^ Green, Allan (2012-01). "Dr Wildman Whitehouse and his 'Iron Oscillograph'; Electrical Measurements Relating to the First Transatlantic Cable". The International Journal for the History of Engineering & Technology. 82 (1): 68–92. doi:10.1179/175812111X13188557854008. ISSN 1758-1206.
{{cite journal}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Dobkin, Josephine C. (2006-01-01). "The Laying of the Atlantic Cable: Paintings, Watercolors, and Commemorative Objects Given to the Metropolitan Museum by Cyrus W. Field". Metropolitan Museum Journal. 41: 155–170. doi:10.1086/met.41.20320667. ISSN 0077-8958.
- ^ a b c "History of the Atlantic Cable & Submarine Telegraphy - The Anglo-American Telegraph Company". atlantic-cable.com. Retrieved 2022-11-01.