Cyrus West Field and the Atlantic Telegraph…

Cyrus West Field and the Atlantic Telegraph Company are behind the construction of the first transatlantic telegraph cable.

The project, which had begun in 1857, had been completed on August 5, 1858.

The cable had functioned for only three weeks, but it was the first such project to yield practical results.

The first official telegram to pass between two continents had been a letter of congratulation from Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom to the President of the United States James Buchanan on August 16.

Signal quality had declined rapidly, slowing transmission to an almost unusable speed.

The cable had been destroyed the following month when Wildman Whitehouse applied excessive voltage to it while trying to achieve faster operation. (It has been argued that the faulty manufacture, storage and handling of the 1858 cable would have led to premature failure in any case.)

The cable's rapid failure had undermined public and investor confidence and delayed efforts to restore a connection.

On the failure of the expedition, despite much-improved material, to lay the second cable in 1865, a third company had been formed to raise the capital for a further attempt, the Anglo-American Telegraph Company.

The next expedition in 1866 is a success, also succeeding in recovering the lost second cable when, on his return to Newfoundland, Field grapples the cable he had attempted to lay the previous year and which had parted in mid-ocean, and reattaches it to new wire, thus allowing for a second, backup wire for communication.

The completed connection is put into service on July 28, 1866, and generates revenues of £1000 in its first day of operation.

The approximate price to send a telegram is: one word, one mile (1.6 km)= $0.0003809.

This cable will prove more durable.