Issue 26, Spring 2004

William A. McEachern, Editor

Cable Vision

John Steele Gordon's book, Thread Across the Ocean: The Heroic Story of the Transatlantic Cable (Walker & Company, 2002, 240 pages), tells of efforts to lay the first operating cable between Europe and North America. The star is Cyrus Field, the entrepreneur who made it happen. His drive and determination were incredible. His challenge was to come up with a wire 2000 miles long and sink it into the Atlantic Ocean up to two miles down. No ship at the time could carry anywhere near that amount of wire.

Field put his own wealth at risk, but he could not do it alone. He attracted investors and talent from both sides of the Atlantic. Partners in the enterprise included Samuel Morse, of Morse-code fame, and William Thomson, who later became Lord Kelvin. Like others who pursue projects that have never been tried, Field and his partners didn't know what they were getting into. Far from smooth sailing, the effort encountered technical, financial, legal, and political setbacks. Although Field was prone to violent seasickness, he made some fifty transatlantic crossings, more than any other businessperson of the era. The disasters were tragic and the timing unfortunate, yet Field persisted through storms, mechanical failures, bad luck, even suspected sabotage (workers laying the cable were required to wear overalls without pockets or front openings because someone was suspected of jamming needles into the cable).

In 1858 the brief communication between Queen Victoria and President Buchanan via the just-laid cable created a "titanic" reaction. A diarist of the day not given to hyperbole observed that while newspapers were trying to outdo each other in heaping praise on Field and his enterprise, "Moderate people merely say that this is the greatest human achievement in history" (p. 133). What the public didn't know at the time was that, because of a weak signal, the exchange between the Queen and the president took 16 hours to complete—about ten minutes a word. When the cable went dead a month later, Field and his partners were viciously lampooned in the press. Some claimed there was no cable and that the entire event had been staged. It took another eight years and several tries before Field succeeded laying a workable cable.

The richness of the story is in the details, such as just how the material used to make the cable came to be. Aside from porcelain, materials of the eighteenth century were also used by the Romans. Material science began transforming the world in the nineteenth century. Coal tar proved to be a rich source of new substances, including naphtha, which waterproofed cloth, and creosote, which preserved wood, especially railroad ties and telegraph poles. The synthesis of aniline dyes from coal tar in 1856 freed up millions of acres of agricultural land used for dye crops such as madder and indigo.

To paint the picture, the book is richly illustrated with maps, diagrams, and portraits. It's now in paperback and would be an interesting supplement for courses in entrepreneurship, technological change, finance, or even information technology. Gordon writes a regular column, "The Business of America," for American Heritage, and has authored several business histories.

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