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This article comes from the official account of Wechat: back to Park (ID:fanpu2019), by Yang Weifeng and Wang Feng

Today, we can no longer imagine what the world would be like without mobile communications and the Internet. Looking back at history, this is the result of the concerted efforts of generations of scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs. Many scientists have made history, and the construction of the industry is inseparable from the "operator or organizer of adventures"-this is the original meaning of entrepreneur. This article focuses on the legendary story of transatlantic communications construction (wireless communications will be introduced in the next article), paying tribute to the everlasting spirit of scientists and entrepreneurs.

Written by Yang Weifeng (radio management practitioner), Wang Feng (associate professor of Hebei normal University of Science and Technology)

Great ideas are often like the Arabian Nights. Since the 1860s, the industrial revolution initiated by Britain has greatly promoted the development of science and technology and the accumulation of wealth. With the development of electromagnetics and the application of cable Telegraph technology, by the middle of the 19th century, cable Telegraph lines had spread all over Eurasia and North America, which greatly reduced the cost of communication. Merchant ships from Europe to North America frequently commute between the east and west sides of the Atlantic. At that time, one-way voyage still takes about 10 days. Timely communication between the two sides of the strait is very necessary, and there are huge business opportunities for transatlantic communication business.

In January 1854, Frederick Newton Frederick Newton Gisborne laid a Telegraph cable to the United States in British Newfoundland. After the company went bankrupt due to lack of funds, he went to New York for support. He found Cyrus Westfield, a young American tycoon, and proposed to raise money for a Telegraph line between St. John's in Newfoundland and New York. But the ambitious Field believes that it is not cost-effective to invest in the project just to shorten the communication time of one day. If a cable was laid from Ireland to Newfoundland, the communication time would be shortened by more than a few days-the cable would connect Europe and North America, and the project would be of great significance. The idea of transatlantic Telegraph communication was thus put forward.

Field originally made his fortune in the paper industry and is an absolute amateur in the Telegraph industry. At first, he knew almost nothing about the science and technology involved in the project, which was his luck. In fact, it was because he didn't understand that he didn't give up this great idea-- in the eyes of others, it was a fantasy and an impossible task.

This unprecedented international cooperation project not only involves political, economic, military, diplomatic and many other factors, but also faces many scientific, technological, technological and material problems. At that time, the terrestrial Telegraph industry had begun to emerge, and several shorter submarine cables had been deployed in Europe and the United States. [note: in 1851, John Watkins Brett laid the first undersea cable in the English Channel, connecting Britain and the European continent. Among them, the longest submarine cable in operation is only 177 kilometers in length and no more than 550 meters in depth. The length of the transatlantic cable is more than 3200 kilometers, with a maximum depth of 4750 meters. The long distance of transatlantic cable poses some unique challenges to communication, especially because the transmission theory and cable design are still controversial. This difficulty is like organizing a team to explore the moon when someone saw the Soviet Union launch the first man-made earth satellite in 1957.

The lucky ones got valuable support for the inventor of Morse code and Samuel Morse, a pioneer in the construction of land Telegraph lines in the United States, who envisioned Telegraph lines across the Atlantic as early as 1843. When Field asked for his advice, he enthusiastically supported the idea. Although Morse has become famous in the Telegraph industry, he is actually a painter and his theoretical knowledge of electricity is not solid. Field also wrote to consult American oceanographer and naval officer Matthew Fontaine Morri (Matthew Fontaine Maury). Morri thought that the undersea plateau topography between Newfoundland and Ireland was very suitable for laying submarine cables and provided him with accurate ocean mapping data. This is like adding to the wings of a tiger for Field!

In 1854, the determined Field persuaded four other rich people to join the so-called "Cable Cabinet" (Cable Cabinet) made up of entrepreneurs, investors and engineers. The five men decided to raise $1.5 million for this great cause, which was a staggering sum at the time (the total federal spending that year was just over $58 million), but it turned out to be far from enough. They took over Newfoundland Telegraph from Gisborne, took on its debt of $50, 000 and founded the New York-Newfoundland-London Telegraph Company. The Newfoundland Parliament hoped that the project would boost Newfoundland's economic development, so it quickly granted them a concession for the company to operate Telegraph lines on Newfoundland for 50 years. In 1855, these investors founded AT & T and began to acquire other companies for integration. In October 1856, Field founded the Atlantic Telegraph Company (Atlantic Telegraph Company, ATC) in London. In 1857, after obtaining financing in the United Kingdom and the support of the governments of the United States and Britain, the company began to lay the first transatlantic Telegraph cable.

In May 1895, Daniel Huntington Daniel Huntington, a famous American portrait painter, painted "the Planner of Atlantic Cable" for the New York State Chamber of Commerce (second from right is Cyrus W. Field). The size of the canvas is 87 inches by 108 inches. Photo: collection of the State Museum of New York. Failure is the mother of success. Field's firm determination and strong execution are the core elements of his success, but hasty construction has become the biggest mistake of the whole project. At that time, electrical engineers and theorists were divided on this unprecedented project and could not reach a consensus. It should have passed the feasibility test before construction, but the company directors' decisions are mainly based on time and speed.

Because the sea water is conductive, when the Telegraph cable is immersed in the sea water, its capacitance will be increased by about 20 times, and the signal transmission speed will be significantly reduced, resulting in communication delay. Those represented by Morse, British physicist Michael Faraday and the company's initial chief electrical technician, Edward Whitehouse, argue that the wires of submarine cables should be as thin as possible to limit signal delay. The thicker the cable, the more power is needed to fill it up. This is similar to a water pipe, which must be filled before water can flow out from the other end.

The other school of design is represented by William William Thomson. Through the study of the instantaneous current, he obtained the "square law", that is, the signal delay is inversely proportional to the square of the cable length. Thomson recommends using a large-diameter cable core made of the purest copper to reduce resistance. His view won the approval of chief engineer Charles Charles Bright. But the cable design is much heavier than the Morse-Faraday scheme (metal cores and gutta glue insulators should weigh 392 pounds per nautical mile) and more expensive, which Atlantic Telegraph did not adopt. The copper core of the resulting cable weighs only 107 pounds per nautical mile, far short of the 392 pounds required by Thomson and Bright. After Thomson conducted a local test of the cable, he was even more appalled: the purity of copper used in the cable core is far from enough, the conductivity is very uneven, and some parts are twice as conductive as others.

William Thomson 1902 Photo Source: the diameter of the cable completed by Photos.com/ Thinkstock is only as thick as a human index finger. The cable core consists of seven copper wires, which are wrapped in three layers of gutta glue. Outside the glue layer, the sheath of 18 strands of steel strands (7 wires per share) is wound into a tight spiral using linen cloth impregnated with a mixture of asphalt, tar, flaxseed oil and wax oil. this kind of cable can withstand thousands of newtons of tension. Thomson deeply studied the stress problem of cable, established a set of stress theory of submarine cable, and published a related paper in Engineer magazine.

To celebrate the opening of the first transatlantic cable, the remaining cables were cut into small sections and made into various souvenirs. Photo: Division of WorK&Industry / National Museum of American History / Smithsonian Institution.1857, Atlantic Telegraph Company began laying the first transatlantic Telegraph cable after obtaining financing in the UK and support from the governments of the United States and Britain. Ireland and Newfoundland at both ends of the cable are about 3200 kilometers apart, which is the shortest distance in Europe and the United States. At that time, no ship in the world could carry 2500 tons of undersea cables to sail long distances in the Atlantic Ocean, so two ships could only be hired to connect part of the cables at a certain location (after the failure of the first scheme to lay the cables from Ireland to Newfoundland, the two ships converged at the central point of the ocean and then laid the cables in the opposite direction). The British royal warship Agamemnon and the American warship Niagara each carry half of the cables for laying tasks. Unfortunately, the project failed twice and the cable was suddenly broken and lost during the ship's transportation. On August 4, 1858, the third attempt finally succeeded.

On August 16, 1858, Queen Victoria sent a message in Morse code to US President James Buchanan (James Buchanan). Although the speed was slow-98 words sent a congratulatory message for 16 and a half hours-the success made New Yorkers celebrate. However, the signal of the cable became so weak that it was completely cut off, and it was completely cut off after three weeks. As a result, Field changed from a "hero" to a "liar" overnight and almost went bankrupt.

In order to investigate the reasons for the failure of this major project, the British Economic Commission and the Atlantic Telegraph Company each appointed four members to form a "commission of inquiry." These include electrical experts Charles Wheatstone (Charles Wheatstone) and William Cook (William Cooke), who obtained British patents for Telegraph technology as early as 1837. This famous and numerous report makes an in-depth analysis of the reasons for the failure, and the lessons learned from it have led to the rapid development of submarine Telegraph technology and even electronic engineering technology.

The report points out that one of the important reasons is the lack of a uniform unit for measuring basic quantities such as current and resistance, and even these terms have not been standardized. In 1861, the British Association for the Advancement of Science (British Association for the Advancementof Science) set up an Electrical Standards Committee (Committee of Electrical Standards of the British Association) on the suggestion of Thomson, Bright and others to establish a unified standard for electrical units. Many years later, at the International Electrical Congress held in Chicago in 1893, Thomson proposed the use of volts, amperes, farads and ohms as the basic units of electricity. these international standards were formally adopted and are still in use today.

The mirror galvanometer produced by WJ George in England in 1900s. Photo: collection of Science Museum of Tsinghua University. Another lesson is that the cable should be tested as a whole to test its conductivity and overall insulation before laying. The survey concluded that the company produced and laid cables too hastily in 1857, mainly due to Field. Impulse and drive are not only his strengths, but also his weaknesses as an entrepreneur.

Whitehouse's stubbornness is also one of the direct causes of failure. He removed Thomson's delicate and flexible mirror galvanometer and installed a relay that he invented and patented. He also insisted on using huge induction coils that could generate thousands of volts instead of batteries that could produce more moderate voltages that could be measured with a mirror galvanometer. The Commission of Inquiry believes that the huge impedance of the 3200-kilometer submarine cable seriously attenuated and delayed the signal, and Whitehouse raised the voltage beyond the cable's bearing range, burning out the cable. Whitehouse defended himself fiercely at the hearing, citing evidence that Field did not give him time to experiment.

In the face of public questioning, abuse and slander, Field was not knocked down. In 1865 he raised money again and continued to fight for his ideals. At this time, the research of cable Telegraph is more mature. For example, the mirror galvanometer invented by Thomson can read a signal that attenuates 1000 times through the fine rotation (optical amplification) of a small lens on the wire, which solves the problem of serious signal attenuation in the previous submarine cable. According to the advice of Thomson and others, the company replaced thicker cables to reduce the impedance of the cable core. In addition, the Great Eastern, the world's largest ship, has been built and happens to be idle. With new Telegraph technology, cable technology and this huge ship with a displacement of 22,000 tons, previously extremely difficult things have become much easier. On July 23, the Great Oriental set sail and began another attempt by Field, but the cable suddenly broke two days before the voyage to North America, and the fourth attempt failed again.

In the manufacturer's sample boxes of Atlantic cables in 1858, 1865 and 1866, the cables gradually thickened. Photo Source: Photographed April 2009, Science Museum, London. (https://atlantic-cable.com) 's successful happiness finally arrived. On July 27, 1866, good luck finally arrived. The Great Oriental successfully completed the laying of the ship from Valentia, Ireland, to Heart's Content, Newfoundland. The new cable performs better, providing almost transatlantic instant messaging. Later, the previously lost cable was picked up and relaid to make the Atlantic cable double-wire, 50 times faster than it was in 1858. Thomson was knighted by the British government in 1866 because of his meritorious service in laying Atlantic submarine cables. In 1892, in recognition of his outstanding achievements and scientific contributions in cable engineering and Telegraph technology, Queen Victoria personally crowned him as the first First Baron Kelvin, Lord Kelvin (Lord Kelvin).

In 1867, Field won a gold medal from the U.S. Congress and a special prize at the International Fair in Paris for his contribution to the laying of transatlantic cables.

"the old and new worlds are connected into a common world... the earth seems to be beating with a heart." in his book "when the Stars shine", the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig regards the laying of Atlantic cables as one of the 14 moments affecting the process of human civilization and highly praises the indomitable will of the entrepreneur Field.

The signal transmission speed of Atlantic Telegraph cable was a few words per hour in 1858 and reached 6-8 words per minute in 1866. By the end of the 19th century, Britain, France, Germany and the United States connected the cables they owned to form a Telegraph communication network, and the world became smaller.

System map of Eastern Telegraph Company in 1901. (A.B.C. Telegraphic Code 5th Edition) people's desire for communication is endless. With the upgrading of communication technology, optical fiber with faster transmission speed and larger capacity appears and gradually replaces cable. There is also a key technological development in the history of communications-radio communication, which is also a great contribution of scientists and entrepreneurs, which we will talk about in the next article.

Main references

[1] John Steele Gordon. A Thread across the Ocean:the Heroic Story of the Transatlantic Cable [M]. NewYork:Harper Perennial,2003:46,53102-110180-192.

[2] History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications (from the first submarine cable of 1850 to the worldwide fiber optic network) see:

Https://atlantic-cable.com/

[3] The First Transatlantic Telegraph Cable Was a Bold, Beautiful Failure see:

Https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-first-transatlantic-telegraph-cable-was-a-bold-beautiful-failure

[4] Historical figures of the IEC. See: https://www.iec.ch/ history

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