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1
378
The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph
·
Henry M. Field
72
"My
dear
Sir:
As
the
electrician
of
the
New
York,
Newfoundland,
and
London
Telegraph
Company,
it
is
with
the
highest
gratification
that
I
have
to
apprise
you
of
the
result
of
our
experiments
of
this
morning
upon
a
single
continuous
conductor
of
more
than
two
thousand
miles
in
extent,
a
distance
you
will
perceive
sufficient
to
cross
the
Atlantic
Ocean,
from
Newfoundland
to
Ireland.
"The
admirable
arrangements
made
at
the
Magnetic
Telegraph
Office
in
Old
Broad
street,
for
connecting
ten
subterranean
gutta-percha
insulated
conductors,
of
over
two
hundred
miles
each,
so
as
to
give
one
continuous
length
of
more
than
two
thousand
miles
during
the
hours
of
the
night,
when
the
telegraph
is
not
commercially
employed,
furnished
us
the
means
of
conclusively
settling,
by
actual
experiment,
the
question
of
the
practicability
as
well
as
the
practicality[A]
of
telegraphing
through
our
proposed
Atlantic
cable.
"This
result
had
been
thrown
into
some
doubt
by
the
discovery,
more
than
two
years
since,
of
certain
phenomena
upon
subterranean
and
submarine
conductors,
and
had
attracted
the
attention
of
electricians,
particularly
of
that
most
eminent
philosopher,
Professor
Faraday,
and
that
clear-sighted
investigator
of
electrical
phenomena,
Dr.
Whitehouse;
and
one
of
these
phenomena,
to
wit,
the
perceptible
retardation
of
the
electric
current,
threatened
to
perplex
our
operations,
and
required
careful
investigation
before
we
could
pronounce
with
certainty
the
commercial
practicability
of
the
Ocean
Telegraph.
"I
am
most
happy
to
inform
you
that,
as
a
crowning
result
of
a
long
series
of
experimental
investigation
and
inductive
reasoning
upon
this
subject,
the
experiments
under
the
direction
of
Dr.
Whitehouse
and
Mr.
Bright,
which
I
witnessed
this
morning--in
which
the
induction
coils
and
receiving
magnets,
as
modified
by
these
gentlemen,
were
made
to
actuate
one
of
my
recording
instruments--have
most
satisfactorily
resolved
all
doubts
of
the
practicability
as
well
as
practicality
of
operating
the
telegraph
from
Newfoundland
to
Ireland.
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