CYRUS WEST FIELD, WHO LAID THE ATLANTIC CABLE BETWEEN AMERICA AND EUROPE
Cyrus W. Field, 1819
In business for himself
136. The Atlantic Cable. Cyrus W. Field was born in Massachusetts in 1819. His grandfather was a Revolutionary soldier. Cyrus went to school in his native town of Stockbridge, and at fifteen was given a place in a New York store at fifty dollars a year. Before he was twenty-one he went into business for himself. At the end of a dozen years he was the head of a prosperous firm. In 1853 he retired from active business.
Why not span the Atlantic?
Field became interested in a man who was joining Newfoundland with the mainland by means of a telegraph line. "Why not make a telegraph line to span the Atlantic?" thought Field. He went to work, and put his schemes before Peter Cooper and other generous men. They believed in them.
Englishmen also approve the plan
Field next went abroad and laid his plan before a number of Englishmen. He pleaded so eloquently that they, too, were convinced. He returned to America to lay the matter before Congress and ask that body to vote him a sum of money.
President Pierce signs the bill
Congress was very slow about it, and the bill did not pass until the last days of that session. President Pierce signed it the last day of his term as president.
PRESIDENT PIERCE SIGNING THE FIELD BILL
Half a million dollars gone
Field returned to England and watched over the making of his "cable." In August, 1857, everything was ready. The cable lay coiled on shipboard, ready to be let out in the Atlantic. The great ship started, and everything went well till three hundred thirty-five miles of the cable had been let out, when it broke in two. It was the same as losing half a million dollars.
A second trial
Breaks again
Field went back to England and began promptly to prepare for a second trial. He then came to America and made arrangements to use the Niagara, a large vessel. The British ship, Agamemnon, was also taken to help in this second trial. The ships started in mid-ocean, one going one way and one going the other way. This time only one hundred eleven miles were laid, when the cable again parted.
A council of war
Field hastened to London to meet the men who had backed him in his undertaking with their money. It was a council of war after a terrible defeat! But Mr. Field did not believe in surrender, even to the sea.
Success
On the seventeenth of July, 1858, the ships again set sail for mid-ocean. They "spliced" the cable, and the Niagara with Mr. Field on board sailed away for Newfoundland. The British ship went the other way. This time they were successful. Both countries were excited. Queen Victoria flashed a message under the sea to President Buchanan.
CYRUS W. FIELD
From a photograph by Elliott and Fry, London
A great day in New York
Great was the rejoicing in New York, the home of Mr. Field. A religious service, expressive of the deep interest of the people in the success of his work, was held in Trinity Church, at which two hundred clergymen in gowns appeared; national salutes were fired, a great procession was formed, an address was made by the mayor of the city and, at a very late hour, a grand banquet was held. While the banquet was going on, the cable gave its last throb, and parted.
LAYING THE FIRST ATLANTIC CABLE
The cable parts the third time
The very day that a whole city rose up to do honor to the Atlantic telegraph and its author, it gave its last flash and then went to sleep forever in its ocean grave.
After a wait of five years
After five years of slow and toilsome work, caused by the fact that the Civil War was raging in the United States, Cyrus W. Field was again ready. When the vessel, bearing the cable, was within six hundred miles of land, the cable broke again.
The money subscribed
137. The Final Success. An Anglo-American Telegraph Company was now formed. Mr. Field subscribed $50,000, Daniel Gooch $100,000, and another person promised to bear a part of the expense. On a Friday they set out and on another Friday they reached America with the cable safely laid. Mr. Field sent this message to England:
"Hearts Content"
"Hearts Content, July 27, 1866. We arrived here at nine o'clock this morning. All well. Thank God, the cable is laid, and is in perfect working order."
Effect on the civilized world
Great honor for Mr. Field
The success of this undertaking, after so many years of failure, produced a great effect throughout the civilized world. Mr. Field was the center of all rejoicing. Congress voted him a gold medal. England did honor to his name. The Paris Exposition of 1867 gave him the highest medal it had to bestow. From Italy he received a decoration. States and chambers of commerce in all parts of the nation passed resolutions in praise of his great work.
Finally he took a trip around the world and received honors from many nations. Mr. Field lived at Tarrytown, New York. He died in New York City in 1892, at the age of seventy-three.
CYRUS H. McCORMICK, INVENTOR OF THE REAPER
138. Making Bread More Plentiful for Millions. It was only natural that Cyrus H. McCormick should be interested in inventions. His father, Robert McCormick, had fitted up many labor-saving devices for use on his farm. He tried to make a reaper, but it was a failure.
One hundred years ago the common method of harvesting in this country was by "cradling" the grain. For this, a scythe with prongs on its handle was used. The prongs caught the grain and laid it in rows, ready to tie.
CYRUS HALL McCORMICK
Cyrus Hall McCormick was born at Walnut Grove, West Virginia, in 1809. The boy was always interested in inventing. When fifteen, he invented a better grain cradle. At twenty-one he made a hillside plow that surpassed his father's. His great invention, the reaper, was made the following year. His friends all laughed at his machine, but he went on perfecting it. All his life Cyrus McCormick had to meet ridicule or bitter competition. But he came of Scotch-Irish fighting stock. He had the determination which battles its way to success.
THE FIRST McCORMICK REAPER
After a model of the original reaper
In 1834 the reaper was patented. It was shown at the World's Fair in London in 1851. It won a prize as the most valuable thing in the whole fair.
Cyrus H. McCormick started to manufacture his machine at Chicago in 1847. The demand for reapers grew rapidly. When the Civil War called out one man in three from the North, there were enough reapers in use to equal the labor of one million slaves. The North not only fed itself but sent great quantities of grain to England. Cyrus McCormick's great invention did much to help the North abolish slavery.
HARVESTING WITH MODERN MACHINERY
139. Reapers for the West. The invention of the reaper made it possible for the West to be quickly settled. Before, farmers raised only the few acres they could be sure of harvesting. Grain is lost, if not cut a few days after it is ripe. The wide prairies of the West could not be harvested by the old methods. Now on these great plains huge reapers drawn by engines sometimes cut forty-eight feet of grain in a single swathe.
Because of the labor it saves, McCormick's invention has made the cost of bread low for millions of people. With hand-reaping half the people of the country would be busy producing nothing but bread. In the past most nations were never free from the danger of starvation. Now the world produces enough for all.
A noted French society, when it elected McCormick a member, said that he had "done more for the cause of agriculture than any other living man."