Of late I have really enjoyed reading the stories behind various monumental construction and engineering feats that today we often take for granted. Feats like the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, the digging of the Panama Canal, and the planning and construction of the Hoover Dam all make not only fascinating tales of technology and design in action but also give credit (and sometimes blame) to the remarkable people who not only dream these massive undertakings but then find ways to attempt and actually complete them.
John Gordon's A Thread Across the Ocean is a compelling read for its treatment of the daunting technological challenges of laying a telegraph cable across the Atlantic Ocean as well as vivid descriptions of the courage and tenacity of those who never gave up trying until the project was complete. I am amazed to read about individuals who had such courage of their convictions that they continued to work doggedly through so many problems and set backs with a determination that is truly inspiring.
If you ever think a problem is too big to handle, just imagine being out in the middle of the ocean, dragging a thousand miles of cable behind you with hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in your project. only to watch helplessly while your cable ignominiously snaps and disappears into thousands of feet of water. And with no other choice than to turn around, head back to land, build new cable. and start all over again, that's what these stubborn fellows did. . .more than once!
After reading of this amazing project and the tenacity of those who saw it through to completion, I will never let my little challenges stop me.
This is truly an inspiring story of invention, determination, and the potentially spectacular results of dreaming large. I recommend it highly. ( )

A popular and easy-reading history of the transatlantic cable. As befits an author, John Steele Gordon, who writes business history, the central figure is Cyrus Field, the American who didn’t know anything about telegraphy or cable-laying or electrical technology, but knew a good idea when he heard one and knew how to raise money. Since I’m more interested in the technical aspect of things, I was prepared for disappointment; but the story of Mr. Field’s adventures among the world’s bankers and industrialists trying to raise cash are well told. And the other characters are there – Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who built the Great Eastern, a ship that was never a success as an ocean liner but proved excellent at laying cable; William Thomson, later Lord Kelvin; and many other minor but still interesting personalities.


Field’s first attempts at laying the cable were failures – it parted or was lost off the stern when the brakes failed. Finally, in 1857, he got a cable across – from Ireland to Newfoundland. The fist message was from Queen Victoria to President Franklin Pierce. Joy was unrestrained; newspapers trumpeted that the cable would put an end to war because countries could communicate rapidly, and so forth. The cable lasted a week before going dead. (In a interesting footnote, Gordon points out that a number of people thought the whole thing was a fraud - a conspiracy to sell shares in the cable company – and compares this to people who think the Apollo landings were a hoax).


However, in the one week the cable was operating, the British Government used the cable to countermand orders for two regiments to board ship at Halifax and sail for India. The savings were estimated to be between £50000 and £60000. This was about one-seventh the cost of laying the cable. Thus that one week of operation was enough to demonstrate a cable’s utility.


Unfortunately, before Field could raise enough money to try again, things got a little unsettled in the United States and a second attempt, with a better insulated and more heavily armored cable, couldn’t be made until 1865. This time the Great Eastern was within 600 miles of Newfoundland when the cable snapped and disappeared into the Atlantic. The Great Eastern had five miles of wire rope on board, and it was decided to try and grapple the cable. Rather surprisingly, this was successful – at least the grapple hooked something believed to be the cable. Unfortunately the wire was not continuous but spliced from hundred-fathom links, and each time the cable was lifted one of the splices parted. Finally when there was not enough wire left to try again the Great Eastern had to head for home.

Field plunged into the breach once more, trying to get enough funding for another attempt in 1866 – and he did. This time everything went smoothly and the cable was hauled ashore in Newfoundland (well, not everything went smoothly; it turned out that the cable from Newfoundland to Nova Scotia had snapped after fouling a anchor, so that one had to be lifted and repaired before the news could be telegraphed to New York). Finally, the Great Eastern headed back out to sea, successfully grappled and lifted the 1865 cable, spliced it, and landed it back in Newfoundland as well. Thus there were now two working Atlantic cables.


It took a while before the cables became successful; the initial rate was $10/word with a ten word minimum (that’s about $500 a word in current money). However, once competition from a French company started, rates began to drop. By 1870, Wall Street and London brokers were each spending about $1M/year on cable charges.


Quite entertaining and informative and a quick read – took me 1 day worth a bus commuting. I now want to read more about the Great Eastern. ( )

I read this many years ago to expand upon what I had read in the Victorian Internet. It provides an interesting overview of the challenges for laying the first undersea cables ( )

Imagine a world in which news crosses the Atlantic Ocean several weeks after the fact; kings die, wars begin, and nobody knows. The electrical telegraph, invented in the 1830s, began to change this situation, and cables were rapidly strung across continents. A cable was laid across the Rhine in the 1840s, and across the English Channel in the 1850s, but the Atlantic Ocean was dauntingly vast, and it was not at all certain that a cable could be laid, let alone function.

Enter Cyrus Field, New York businessman from a prominent Massachusetts family, who enlisted a who’s who of 19th century technology (e.g. Peter Cooper of Cooper Union, Samuel Morse of Morse Code, William Thomson / Lord Kelvin of thermodynamics) in his mission to link Europe with North America with a trans-Atlantic telegraph cable, as well as negotiating with governments and persuading investors. He began with recognition of the shortest path, from Ireland to Newfoundland, and set the stage in 1854 by connecting Newfoundland to Nova Scotia and thus to the mainland, a learning experience. The first effort to cross the Atlantic in 1857 failed, another and very expensive learning experience that dampened enthusiasm for the project. 2000+ miles of cable is heavy; it had to be coiled onto and fed gradually off ships that couldn’t hold the full length, so two sections had to be spliced, and oops, the direction of the twist was not in the specs so two manufacturers made different decisions; it had to be tested continuously for a signal and if the signal ceased then there was no other way for the ships to communicate; if pulled or pushed or turned too sharply it snapped and fell to the bottom and had to be fished out; ships were vulnerable to storms and less able to maneuver when loaded with the heavy and precious cables and machinery; the volume of metal and insulation affected worldwide supplies and prices. Success did occur with the second effort in 1866, but was not at all guaranteed. This is a short book, but engaging and informative and a reminder not to take the modern world for granted.

(read 4 Dec 2013)

This is an engaging little book about the construction of the first transatlantic cable. The book skillfully walks the tightrope between too much background so the story gets lost, and not enough so the reader doesn't understand the issues. Readers who find themselves saying, "let's get to the job!" in books about construction of critical historical projects should not have that sense in this book. Nonetheless, the author provides a compelling portrait of the times and of the key personalities involved, so that I never lost interest. There is some glossing over the opposition to this project, but it will serve as a great introduction to this fascinating period in which the world instantaneously got much smaller. ( )