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1
378
The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph
·
Henry M. Field
215
"London,
13th
July,
1863.
"We,
the
undersigned,
members
of
the
Committee,
who
were
appointed
by
the
Board
of
Trade,
in
1859,
to
investigate
the
question
of
submarine
telegraphy,
and
whose
investigation
continued
from
that
time
to
April,
1861,
do
hereby
state,
as
the
result
of
our
deliberations,
that
a
well-insulated
cable,
properly
protected,
of
suitable
specific
gravity,
made
with
care,
and
tested
under
water
throughout
its
progress
with
the
best
known
apparatus,
and
paid
into
the
ocean
with
the
most
improved
machinery,
possesses
every
prospect
of
not
only
being
successfully
laid
in
the
first
instance,
but
may
reasonably
be
relied
upon
to
continue
for
many
years
in
an
efficient
state
for
the
transmission
of
signals.
Douglas
Galton,
C.
Wheatstone,
Wm.
Fairbairn,
Geo.
P.
Bidder,
Cromwell
F.
Varley,
Latimer
Clark,
Edwin
Clark,
Geo.
Saward."
Thus
the
years
which
followed
the
failure
of
1858--though
they
saw
no
attempt
to
lay
another
ocean
cable--were
not
years
of
idleness.
They
were
rather
years
of
experiment
and
of
preparation,
clearing
the
way
for
new
efforts
and
final
victory.
The
Atlantic
Telegraph
itself
had
been
a
grand
experiment.
It
had
taught
many
important
truths
which
could
be
learned
in
no
other
way.
Not
only
had
it
demonstrated
the
possibility
of
telegraphing
from
continent
to
continent,
but
it
had
been
useful
even
in
exposing
its
own
defects,
as
it
taught
how
to
avoid
them
in
the
future.
For
example,
in
working
the
first
cable,
the
electricians
had
thought
it
necessary
to
use
a
very
strong
battery.
They
did
not
suppose
they
could
reach
across
the
whole
breadth
of
the
Atlantic,
and
touch
the
Western
hemisphere,
unless
they
sent
an
electric
current
that
was
almost
like
a
stroke
of
lightning;
and
that,
in
fact,
endangered
the
safety
of
the
conducting
wire.
But
they
soon
found
that
this
was
unnecessary.
God
was
not
in
the
whirlwind,
but
in
the
still,
small
voice.
A
soft
touch
could
send
a
thrill
along
that
iron
nerve.
It
seemed
as
if
the
deep
were
a
vast
whispering
gallery,
and
that
a
gentle
voice
murmured
in
the
ocean
caves,
like
a
whisper
in
a
sea-shell,
might
be
caught,
so
wonderful
are
the
harmonies
of
nature,
by
listening
ears
on
remote
continents;
a
miracle
of
science,
that
could
give
a
literal
meaning
to
Milton's
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