Can You Hear Me Now · Episode 5 of 14 · 18 min
The Wire Under the Sea
In August 1858 Queen Victoria's ninety-eight-word message took about sixteen hours to cross the first Atlantic cable, which died within weeks. Eight more years, a physicist's theory of long-wire signals and the giant Great Eastern produced a cable that lasted. The episode follows the imperial cable network, the Krakatoa news of 1883, and today's seabed cables increasingly owned by internet companies.
Who's who
- Cyrus West FieldNew York paper merchant who drove the Atlantic cable project
- William Thomson, 1st Baron KelvinPhysicist who explained slow long-cable signals and engineered the 1866 success
- Wildman WhitehouseChief electrician in 1858, blamed for the high voltages
- Charles Tilston BrightChief engineer of the 1858 expedition
- John PenderFounding chairman of the Eastern Telegraph Company
- Charles ToddBuilt the Overland Telegraph from Adelaide to Darwin
- Simon Winchester+1 more episodeWriter who calls the Krakatoa eruption the first global news event
Where it happens
- Valentia, IrelandIrish landing and departure point for the Atlantic cables
- Trinity Bay, NewfoundlandNorth American landing of the 1858 cable
- Heart's Content, NewfoundlandWhere the lasting 1866 cable was landed
- Anjer, JavaTelegraph office sent a running log of the Krakatoa eruption
- Batavia, Dutch East IndiesColonial capital linked by cable to Singapore
- Krakatoa, Sunda StraitVolcano that erupted in August 1883
Timeline
- August 16, 1858Queen Victoria's message to President Buchanan crosses the Atlantic cable in about sixteen hours
- September 1858The first Atlantic cable fails and is never restored
- 1861An inquiry blames Whitehouse's high-voltage coil for the failure
- July 27, 1866The Great Eastern's cable is landed at Heart's Content and works
- October 22, 1872First message sent directly from London to Adelaide
- 26 to August 27, 1883Krakatoa erupts and the telegraph carries the news worldwide
Still debated
Historians disagree on whether Whitehouse deserved the blame for 1858 or was partly a scapegoat for a flawed cable. Krakatoa as the first global news event is Winchester's framing. Whether internet-company ownership of cables is a risk or a strength is argued both ways.
