Comment by reincoder
5 days ago
I recently learnt about Transatlantic telegraph cable: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlantic_telegraph_cable
It was laid in 1858. During its brief three-week lifespan, only 732 messages (amounting to roughly 400 total telegrams) were successfully transmitted before the cable died.
The Digital Antiquarian made fantastic "A Web Around the World" series of articles covering start of telegraph all the way to first Web Browser in a style of James Burke Connections.
A Web Around the World, Part 1: Signals Down a Wire January 7, 2022 https://www.filfre.net/2022/01/a-web-around-the-world-part-1...
https://www.filfre.net/2022/01/a-web-around-the-world-part-2...
https://www.filfre.net/2022/02/a-web-around-the-world-part-3...
First working cable was sort of Monty Python Swamp Castle deal.
Likely failure was due to not being insulated properly and Wildman Whitehouse:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildman_Whitehouse
He got into a technical spat with Lord Kelvin and it didn’t go well for him.