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1
378
The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph
·
Henry M. Field
336
While
this
scene
is
going
on
on
board
ship,
we
may
turn
to
the
other
end
of
the
line.
It
may
be
well
supposed
that
the
result
of
this
attempt
was
watched
with
deep
interest
at
Valentia.
How
they
looked
for
the
first
signal
from
the
deep,
and
how
the
tidings
came,
is
thus
told
in
the
London
Spectator:
"Night
and
day,
for
a
whole
year,
an
electrician
has
always
been
on
duty,
watching
the
tiny
ray
of
light
through
which
signals
are
given,
and
twice
every
day
the
whole
length
of
wire--one
thousand
two
hundred
and
forty
miles--has
been
tested
for
conductivity
and
insulation....
The
object
of
observing
the
ray
of
light
was
of
course
not
any
expectation
of
a
message,
but
simply
to
keep
an
accurate
record
of
the
condition
of
the
wire.
Sometimes,
indeed,
wild,
incoherent
messages
from
the
deep
did
come,
but
these
were
merely
the
results
of
magnetic
storms
and
earth-currents,
which
deflected
the
galvanometer
rapidly,
and
spelt
the
most
extraordinary
words,
and
sometimes
even
sentences
of
nonsense.
Suddenly,
last
Sunday
morning,
at
a
quarter
to
six
o'clock,
while
the
light
was
being
watched
by
Mr.
May,[B]
he
observed
a
peculiar
indication
about
it,
which
showed
at
once
to
his
experienced
eye
that
a
message
was
at
hand.
In
a
few
minutes
afterward
the
unsteady
flickering
was
changed
to
coherency,
if
we
may
use
such
a
term,
and
at
once
the
cable
began
to
speak,
to
transmit,
that
is,
at
regular
intervals,
the
appointed
signals
which
indicated
human
purpose
and
method
at
the
other
end,
instead
of
the
hurried
signs,
broken
speech,
and
inarticulate
cries
of
the
illiterate
Atlantic.
After
the
long
interval
in
which
it
had
brought
us
nothing
but
the
moody
and
often
delirious
mutterings
of
the
sea,
stammering
over
its
alphabet
in
vain,
the
words
'Canning
to
Glass'
must
have
seemed
like
the
first
rational
word
uttered
by
a
high-fevered
patient,
when
the
ravings
have
ceased
and
his
consciousness
returns."
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