Parallel Communications

It is hard to say if the parallel communication was first used for the bandwidth enhancement or for the fault-tolerance. For Cyrus Field it took 12 years and four failed expeditions to lay the first transatlantic cable. Cables were snapping and could not be recovered from the ocean floor. On 5 August 1858 a cable begun operating, but the glory was short-lived, the link was dead by 18 September. Eight years later, on 13 July 1866, the Great Eastern, by far the largest ship afloat, begun laying a new cable made in a single 2730 nautical miles long piece with a new insulating resin from the gutta-percha tree found in Malay Archipelago. When two weeks later on 27 July 1866 the cable was landed and began operating, Cyrus Field quickly send back the Great Eastern to sea for paying out the second parallel cable. By 17 September 1866, not one but two parallel circuits were sending messages across the Atlantic.

Figure 1. Loading the transatlantic cable into the 'Great Eastern' in 1865

Figure 2. Laying Cable on Shore

The cable station continued in operation until 1965.

Links:

- BBC - History - The 'Great Eastern' (cached)

- The Early Transatlantic Cable History (cached)

- IEEE History Center - Landing of the Transatlantic Cable, 1866 (cached)

- IEEE History Center-County Kerry Transatlantic Cable Stations, 1866 (cached)

- History of the Atlantic Cable & Submarine Telegraphy - Great Eastern (cached)

- IEEEVM Building the Great Eastern (cached)

- Jules Verne Great Eastern Ephemera - Andrew Nash (cached)

- Malay Archipelago (cached)

- Photo Gallery - Laying Cable on Shore (cached)

- Gutta-Percha (cached)

Maps:

Figure 3. On 13 July 1866, the Great Eastern, a magnificent ship of its day left Valentia Bay, County Kerry, Ireland paying out the cable all the way to Heart's Content, Trinity Bay, Newfoundland landing the shore end on July 27th.

Figure 4. Map of Kerry (county), Ireland

Figure 5. Trinity Bay

Figure 6. Heart’s Content

Figure 7. Newfoundland

* * *