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The first telegraph cable across the Atlantic carried its first official message in August 1858: greetings from Queen Victoria to the US President, James Buchanan. The 98 words took about 16 hours to send, but no ship had to carry them. Within a month the cable had failed; a lasting link followed in 1866.

Cyrus Field and the Atlantic Telegraph Company, 1858

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The project was driven by the American businessman Cyrus Field and his Atlantic Telegraph Company, which laid the cable on the seabed between Ireland and Newfoundland. Over such a distance the signal arrived faint and blurred, which is why sending was so slow. The company's electrician, Wildman Whitehouse, tried to force messages through faster with very high voltages, up to about 2,000 volts, and damaged the cable's insulation; it stopped working after about three weeks. Field kept going. In 1866 the giant steamship Great Eastern laid a better-made cable, which reached Heart's Content in Newfoundland on 27 July. It carried about eight words a minute, some 80 times faster than the first.

Türkçe oku
Atlantik'i aşan ilk telgraf kablosu, ilk resmî mesajını Ağustos 1858'de taşıdı: Kraliçe Victoria'nın ABD Başkanı James Buchanan'a gönderdiği bir tebrik. 98 kelimelik mesajın iletilmesi 16 saat kadar sürdü, ama okyanusu gemiyle geçmesi gerekmedi. Kablo bir ay dolmadan bozuldu; kalıcı bağlantı 1866'da kuruldu.

Projenin arkasında Amerikalı iş insanı Cyrus Field ve onun Atlantic Telegraph Company adlı şirketi vardı. Kablo, İrlanda ile Newfoundland arasında deniz tabanına döşendi. Bu kadar uzun bir kablodan geçen sinyal karşı tarafa zayıf ve bulanık ulaşıyordu; iletimin bu kadar yavaş olmasının nedeni buydu. Şirketin elektrik uzmanı Wildman Whitehouse, mesajları daha hızlı geçirmek için 2.000 volta varan çok yüksek gerilimler uyguladı ve kablonun yalıtımını bozdu; kablo üç hafta kadar sonra çalışmaz oldu. Field vazgeçmedi. 1866'da dev buharlı gemi Great Eastern çok daha sağlam yapılmış yeni bir kablo döşedi; kablo 27 Temmuz'da Newfoundland'daki Heart's Content'e ulaştı. Yeni hat dakikada sekiz kelime kadar iletebiliyordu; bu, ilk kablodan yaklaşık 80 kat hızlıydı.

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Background reading: Transatlantic telegraph cable
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