August 1858

Press release: 14 August 2008 (PDF version, 118KB)

The story of the first trans-Atlantic cable is well represented in the main displays at Porthcurno but for the 150th anniversary of the first successful communication via the cable in 1858 we have a small exhibition of documents and several parts of the original cable.

In July 1858, two ships loaded with cable, the US Niagara and the British HMS Agamemnon sailed away from each other in mid Atlantic laying the cable respectively to Newfoundland and Ireland.

The ships remained in communication via the cable as it was laid, using Thomson's galvanometer, and when the final splices were made in early August the cable was working well.

On display are the notes of Charles Tilston Bright showing the first Morse signals received at Valentia after the connections were completed. By 19th August lengthy greetings between the US President Buchanan and Queen Victoria had been exchanged to celebrate the success of the project. The process took nearly a day to transmit each message and interpret it at the other end! It was nevertheless an earth shattering milestone in communications history.

Public opinion had been both excited and defeatist- New York Tribune August 3rd,

"a few days more and the news of a new failure will make it plainer still that the operations have been conducted by men unqualified to overcome the difficulties they had to contend with".