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1
281
Heroes of the Telegraph
·
John Munro
66
The
following
year
Mr.
John
Watkins
Brett
laid
the
first
line
across
the
Channel.
It
was
simply
a
copper
wire
coated
with
gutta-percha,
without
any
other
protection.
The
core
was
payed
out
from
a
reel
mounted
behind
the
funnel
of
a
steam
tug,
the
Goliath,
and
sunk
by
means
of
lead
weights
attached
to
it
every
sixteenth
of
a
mile.
She
left
Dover
about
ten
o'clock
on
the
morning
of
August
28,
1850,
with
some
thirty
men
on
board
and
a
day's
provisions.
The
route
she
was
to
follow
was
marked
by
a
line
of
buoys
and
flags.
By
eight
o'clock
in
the
evening
she
arrived
at
Cape
Grisnez,
and
came
to
anchor
near
the
shore.
Mr.
Brett
watched
the
operations
through
a
glass
at
Dover.
'The
declining
sun,'
he
says,
'enabled
me
to
discern
the
moving
shadow
of
the
steamer's
smoke
on
the
white
cliff;
thus
indicating
her
progress.
At
length
the
shadow
ceased
to
move.
The
vessel
had
evidently
come
to
an
anchor.
We
gave
them
half
an
hour
to
convey
the
end
of
the
wire
to
shore
and
attach
the
type-printing
instrument,
and
then
I
sent
the
first
electrical
message
across
the
Channel.
This
was
reserved
for
Louis
Napoleon.'
According
to
Mr.
F.
C.
Webb,
however,
the
first
of
the
signals
were
a
mere
jumble
of
letters,
which
were
torn
up.
He
saved
a
specimen
of
the
slip
on
which
they
were
printed,
and
it
was
afterwards
presented
to
the
Duke
of
Wellington.
Next
morning
this
pioneer
line
was
broken
down
at
a
point
about
200
Yards
from
Cape
Grisnez,
and
it
turned
out
that
a
Boulogne
fisherman
had
raised
it
on
his
trawl
and
cut
a
piece
away,
thinking
he
had
found
a
rare
species
of
tangle
with
gold
in
its
heart.
This
misfortune
suggested
the
propriety
of
arming
the
core
against
mechanical
injury
by
sheathing
it
in
a
cable
of
hemp
and
iron
wires.
The
experiment
served
to
keep
alive
the
concession,
and
the
next
year,
on
November
13,
1851,
a
protected
core
or
true
cable
was
laid
from
a
Government
hulk,
the
Blazer,
which
was
towed
across
the
Channel.
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