ATLANTIC CABLES

a reference to the Atlantic Telegraph Company, an organization established in 1854 by American businessman Cyrus W. Field (1819-1892). This company executed a project to lay permanent underwater cables under the Atlantic Ocean to transmit telegraph messages between North America and Europe. The project took more than twelve years to complete. The first two cables broke, a third was initially successful but failed after four weeks of service, and the fourth broke when almost completed. For the fifth attempt, Field laid the cable from Ireland to Newfoundland along a route where the ocean bed was muddy and fairly level and by 1866 the cable was in successful operation.