The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph

It is a long night which has no morning. At last the day is breaking. While weary eyes are watching the East, daylight comes over the sea. Five years have passed away, and thoug...

In these pages we have led our readers through twelve long years, and have had to tell many a tale of disaster and defeat. It is now our privilege to tell of triumphant success....

It is the clear shining after rain. The storms that swept the sea, have blown themselves out, and all is tranquil on the face of the deep. The cable is lying in its ocean bed un...

Scarcely was the business with the American Government completed, before Mr. Field was recalled to England. Once more upon the waves, he forgot the long delay and the vexatious...

Though the Great Eastern was still lying in the little harbor of Heart's Content, casting her mighty shadow on its tranquil waters, she was not "content" with her amazing victor...

A bold decision needs to be followed by prompt action, lest the spirit that inspired it be weakened by delay. When once it had been fixed that there was to be another attempt to...

Whoever shall write the history of popular enthusiasms, must give a large space to the Atlantic Telegraph. Never did the tidings of any great achievement--whether in peace or wa...

The expedition of 1857 was little more than an experiment on a grand scale. As such it had its use; but its abrupt ending within three hundred miles of the Irish coast was a sev...

Up to this time the Telegraph, which was destined to pass the sea, had been purely an American enterprise. It had been begun, and for over two years had been carried on, wholly...

When Mr. Field reached home from abroad, he hoped for a brief respite. He had had a pretty hard campaign during the summer and autumn in England, and needed at least a few weeks...

When a landsman, born far away among the mountains, comes down to the coast, and stands for the first time on the shore of the sea, it excites in him a feeling of awe and wonder...

The Atlantic cable was dead! That word fell heavy as a stone on the hearts of those who had staked so much upon it. What a bitter disappointment to their hopes! In all the exper...

When Columbus sailed from the shores of Spain, it was not in search of a New World, but only to find a nearer path to the East. He sought a western passage to India. He had adop...

And so the young New York merchant set out to carry a telegraph across the Atlantic Ocean! The design had in it at least the merit of audacity. But whether the end was to be sub...

There is nothing in the world easier than to build a line of railroad, or of telegraph, _on paper_. You have only to take the map, and mark the points to be connected, and then...

The expedition of 1865, though not an immediate success, had the moral effect of a victory, as it confirmed the most sanguine expectations of all who embarked in it. The great e...

It takes a long time to recover from a great disaster. When at last the friends of the Atlantic Telegraph were obliged to confess that the cable had ceased to work; when all the...

Mr. Gisborne left Halifax and came to New York in January, 1854. Here he took counsel with his friend Tebbets and others; but they could give him no relief. It was while in this...

Preparations for an Expedition in 1858. Mr. Field is made the General Manager of the Company. The Squadron assemble at Plymouth, and put to Sea, June 10. New Method of laying Ca...

Discovery of the New World by Columbus. Relative Position of the Two Hemispheres. Nearest Points--The Outlying Islands, Ireland and Newfoundland. Shorter Route to Europe suggest...

Mr. Gisborne comes to New York. Is introduced to Cyrus W. Field, who conceives the Idea of a Telegraph across the Atlantic Ocean. Is it Practicable? Two Elements to be mastered,...

Attempts to revive the Company. The Government asked for Aid, but declines to give an Unconditional Guarantee. Failure of the Red Sea Telegraph. Scientific Experiments. Cables l...

The Land-Line in Newfoundland. Four Hundred Miles of Road to be built, a Work of Two Years. Attempt to lay a Cable across the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in 1855, fails. A Second Atte...

The Afterglow. Honors conferred in England and America. Commercial Revolution wrought by the Cable. Mr. Field and the Elevated Railroads in New York City. Tour round the World....

Deep-Sea Soundings by Lieutenant Berryman in the Dolphin in 1853, and the Arctic in 1856, and by Commander Dayman, of the British Navy, in the Cyclops, in 1857. The Bed of the A...