Cables, Undersea

The first successful transatlantic telegraph cable (1866) transformed the global reporting of news, greatly speeding up the pace of transmission between Europe and North America. News that had taken weeks to travel by ship could now be sent in minutes or hours, making (as many noted both at the time and since) the world seem smaller. Development of the first transatlantic telephone cable (1956) added a new, albeit briefly very expensive, means of reporting. Today's fiber-optic cables span the Northern Hemisphere, putting most major cities within seconds of each other for transmission of audio, visual, and data news communication.

The idea of expanding beyond land telegraphy by laying a telegraph cable under water was delayed for years by two technical factors. The first was the search for an efficient means of insulating the cable from seawater, and the second involved determining the correct amount of power to transmit a message over several thousand miles. A successful telegraph cable was laid under the English Channel in the early 1850s, greatly speeding news communication between London and Paris, but the far greater Atlantic distances delayed [Page 241]attempts there until late in the decade. An 1858 expedition did complete a cable, but it operated for only about a month before fading into silence, providing a fleeting and tantalizing example of what could be accomplished with such a connection. Though never determined for sure, the cable probably failed due to the excessive power used, which probably weakened the cable's insulation. The American Civil War (1861–65) delayed renewed efforts until 1865, when another attempt failed, the cable breaking shortly before completion of the voyage. Finally, in 1866, a cable was successfully deployed, and soon many others followed across the Atlantic and other seas, including the Indian Ocean by 1870 and all the way to Hong Kong a few years later. British and American transPacific cables entered service only in 1903, the long delay after the Atlantic cables owing to the great distances involved and relative lack of intermediate landing points. Political factors also played a part—the British wanted their empire communication routes based in and relying only on colonial posts where London could maintain control.

Each of the trans-oceanic telegraph cables were developed and operated by major telegraph companies, usually aided by a substantial government subsidy. That subsidy came with the requirement that government and military communications always took priority. Since there was no effective competition (surface ship transport could vary from one week to many, depending on distance), cable charges were at first very high ($10 per word—well over 15 times that in early-twenty-first century values). Only with the development of multiple competing cables and slowly improving technology did costs begin to come down. By the late 1860s, the Associated Press (AP) was moving up to 35,000 words a day by cable. The inception of wireless telegraphy in the early twentieth century, however, offered the first real competition to undersea cables. Even so, the AP was still spending upwards of half a million dollars a year on cable charges during World War I. The major powers fighting in that war also censored all messages, news included, that moved by cable.

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