The message from Queen Victoria to President Buchanan, consisting of 95 words, took 67 minutes in transmission; it read:
"The Queen desires to congratulate the President upon the successful completion of this great international work, in which the Queen has taken the deepest interest.
"The Queen is convinced that the President will join with her in fervently hoping that the electric cable which now connects Great Britain with the United States will prove an additional link between the nations whose friendship is founded upon their common interests and reciprocal esteem.
"The Queen has much pleasure in thus communicating with the President, and renewing to him her wishes for the prosperity of the United States."
The reply of President Buchanan was as follows:
"The President cordially reciprocates the congratulations of Her Majesty, the Queen, on the success of the great international enterprise accomplished by the science, skill and indomitable energy of the two countries. It is a triumph more glorious, because far more useful to mankind, than was ever won by conqueror on the field of battle.
"May the Atlantic telegraph, under the blessing of Heaven, prove to be a bond of perpetual peace and friendship between the kindred nations, and an instrument destined by Divine Providence to diffuse religion, civilization, liberty and law throughout the world. In this view will not all nations of Christendom spontaneously unite in the declaration that it shall be forever neutral, and that its communications shall be held sacred in passing to their places of destination, even in the midst of hostilities?"
The historian of the enterprise was Mr. John Mullaly, of New York, who was on the Niagara as secretary to Prof. Morse and subsequently to Mr. Cyrus W. Field and correspondent of the New York Herald. He has published three interesting works on the subject: a Trip to Newfoundland, with an account of the laying of the submarine Cable (between Port au Basque and North Sydney), 1855; The Ocean Telegraph, 1858; and The first Atlantic Telegraph Cable, a pamphlet of 28 pages, reprinted from the "Journal of the Franklin Institute," 1907. From it, we learn that Archbishop Hughes was one of the principal American subscribers to the capital of the Atlantic Cable Company.
When, in 1855, the subject of laying a cable under the Atlantic ocean began to be seriously considered, Thomson, who was then only 31 years of age, discussed in a series of masterly papers the theory of signaling through such conductors, showing inter alia that the instruments used on land-lines would be inoperative on cables, and also that the same speed of transmission could not be attained on cables as on ordinary telegraph lines. It was shown at the same time, that these differences are due to the fact that, unlike an air-line, the cable is an electrical condenser in which the copper core is separated from the waters of the ocean by a layer of gutta percha, a nonconducting material. As a submerged cable is, therefore, a long Leyden jar of great electrical capacity, it follows that a signal sent in at the American end will not reach the other instantly; for while the current flows along the conductor, it has also to charge up the cable as it progresses, which operation retards the signals, and also deprives them of the clearness and sharpness with which they were sent. The phenomenon is analogous to the diffusion of heat along a bar, the temperature of the various cross-sections rising in gradual succession until the distant end is reached. The mathematical investigations of Thomson showed the necessity of working slowly, and of using weak currents as well as very delicate receiving instruments. The interval of time required for the transmission of a signal from Newfoundland to Valentia is about one second.
Some years later, in 1858, Thomson had the opportunity of putting his theoretical views to the test of experiment on a grand, commercial scale, and had the satisfaction of finding that all his conclusions were confirmed. Electricians of the early period distrusted the inexperienced young man who had never erected a mile of telegraph line or even served for a month in a telegraph office; but their distrust was followed by admiration when they saw the efficient manner in which he handled every problem and dealt with every difficulty that occurred while laying the cable of 1858. It was generally admitted that, had it not been for the brilliant work of the young Glasgow Professor, many years would have passed away before the Old World and the New would have been brought into telegraphic communication.