The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph

In London he sought at once Mr. Brett, with whom in his two former visits to England he had already discussed his project, and found in him a hearty cooperator. As we go on with our story, it is a melancholy satisfaction to refer to one and another worker in this enterprise, who lived not to see its last and greatest triumph. Mr. Brett, like Berryman, is dead. But he did not go to his grave till after a life of usefulness and honor. He was one of the men of the new era--of the school of Stephenson and Brunel--who believed in the marvellous achievements yet to be wrought by human invention, turning to the service of man the wonders of scientific discovery. He was one of the first to see the boundless possibilities of the telegraph, and to believe that what had passed over the land might pass under the sea. He was the first to lay a cable across the British Channel, and thus to bring into instantaneous communication the two great capitals of Europe--an achievement which, though small compared with what has since been done, was then so marvellous, that the intelligence of its success was received with surprise and incredulity. Many could not and would not believe it. Even after messages were received in London from Paris, there were those who declared that it was an imposition on the public, with as much proud scorn as some a few years later scouted the very idea that a message had ever passed over the Atlantic Telegraph!