Wednesday, February 11, 2009

A map of undersea cables from 1901

Related to the post with the internet undersea map is this map of transatlantic telegraph cables from 1901.
"The transatlantic telegraph cable was the first cable used for telegraph communications laid across the floor of the Atlantic Ocean.Whereas it would normally take at least ten days to deliver a message by ship, it now took a matter of minutes by telegraph.

Five attempts to lay it were made over a nine year period—in 1857, two in 1858, 1865, and 1866—before lasting connections were finally achieved by the SS Great Eastern (see pic below) with the 1866 cable and the repaired 1865 cable. Additional cables were laid between Foilhommerum and Heart's Content in 1873, 1874, 1880 and 1894. By the end of the 19th century, British-, French-, German- and American-owned cables linked Europe and North America in a sophisticated web of telegraphic communications." ~wiki

1 comment:

cybrbeast said...

Wow, that's a big ship.