A Thread Across the Ocean By John Steele Gordon

Pg 3 knowledge was just as slow to flow across the ocean as men and goods. North America was not only 3k mi from Europe, it was 2 months as well

Pg 10 in 1845, Ezra Cornell (founded Cornell U) laid a line that crossed the Hudson River from Fort Lee to Manhattan where the GWB is today. It worked satisfactorily for several months until ice broke it

Pg 67 Ppl suggested suspending the cable from balloons, or floating it just below the surface. One person thought it should be attached to a string of buoys where ships could tie up to send and receive messages. Even Prince Albert suggested that the cable be enclosed in a glass tube

Pg 72 A precise knowledge of the depths to be encountered was necessary to design the cable. The reason was not that depth affects how well a submarine cable operates but that the depth determines how much strain will be put on it as it is being laid. The greater in the depth, the longer the length of cable that would necessarily have to hand from the ship, its weight pulling on the cable. The cable, obviously would have to withstand the greatest strain to be encountered, so the depth determined the required strength of the cable

Pg 135 The first through message between Europe and America will be from the Queen of Great Britain to the President of the US, and the second his reply

Pg 142 by 1861, although 11,364 cables had been laid worldwide, only about 3000 miles were still operating

Pg 177 the Great Eastern ship carried 500 people, the cable, plus 10 bulls, 1 cow, 114 sheep, 20 pigs, 29 geese, 14 turkeys + 500 other fowl

Pg 214 the first transatlantic telephone cable was laid in 1956, capable of transmitting 32 calls simultaneously. By 1988 cables were carrying 10k simultaneous calls. In 1996 the new trans-Pacific cable could carry 320,000

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