The early years oceanic telegraphy: technology, science and politics

In 1866 Fleeming Jenkin reviewed the state of telegraphic engineering consequent upon the success of the 1866 Atlantic cable expedition. Contrasting this with the 1858 failure, he concluded that there had been considerable advances in technique and knowledge in the intervening years. He argued that there existed failings in all aspects of the ‘art’, but that the careful scientific analysis that had been employed had solved any problems. In the paper, an examination is made of the years between 1859 and 1865 with a view to establishing an idea as to the processes by which the success had been achieved. The examination is carried out with reference to more or less popular opinion, represented by The Times, Scientific American, Edinburgh Review and Mechanics Magazine, with particular reference to two sources: the first an inquest on the failure of two prestigious cables, those under the Atlantic and the Red Sea, the second a collection of reports issued by the British Association for the Advancement of Science, detailing the development of a standard of resistance. Supplementing this with a study of the writings of the engineers, it is concluded that the process of development was a normal, slow but sure one, with the embryonic solutions present well before 1860, but requiring the imprimatur of an ‘official’ committee to validate what had become ‘best practices’ of the engineers. The collocation of the 1858 failure with the 1866 success has previously overvalued these ventures, for, while significant, there were episodes in the development of a technology that, by 1986, was everyday.