A Story of the Telegraph

by John Murray

“I had the privilege of seeing him some years before he died, long subsequent to the establishment of the Atlantic telegraph, and he said that on his meeting Cyrus W. Field, in the month of January, 1854, whilst foreshadowing the possibility and the desirability of establishing Atlantic communication between Newfoundland and the Continent of America, he did not refer to the possibility of a cable to England, but only relied on the success of that enterprise by contributing to its coffers messages obtained from steamers arriving in Newfoundland and transmitted from thence by carrier pigeons, and ultimately by telegraphic cable.

“Mr. Gisborne made that statement, and he admitted that he did not, in his first interview with Cyrus W. Field, foreshadow the possibility of the Atlantic telegraph.

“Now Mr. Field on being questioned in regard to that interview which took place in Mr. Field’s house in January, 1854, said exactly the same thing.

“He only contended for the pigeons in the first place and the possibility of a cable to Cape Breton in the second place, and the clever far-seeing commercial man, as he was considered, said that there was no possibility of such a scheme ever paying, and, therefore, he would not have anything to do with it; but on seeing Gisborne, he turned over the Globe, and, in turning it over, seeing that Cape Breton was only an inch or two on the Globe from Newfoundland, and that Ireland was only six inches, with his shrewdness and cleverness he said at once, ‘If a cable can be laid to Cape Breton, why can’t it be laid to Ireland?’ and the next morning he wrote a letter to Professor Morse and asked him if a cable could be laid to Ireland and whether it could be worked. He also wrote a letter to Lieutenant Maury, of the United States Navy, and asked him whether it would be possible to lay a cable to Ireland. Satisfactory answers being obtained to these two questions, he at once embarked in the enterprise and threw his whole influence (rich man that he was at that time) into the work of laying the Atlantic cable. You will see, therefore, that Mr. Gisborne did not communicate the idea of the Atlantic cable, but he communicated the idea of a cable that was quite enough for a man of Cyrus W. Field’s foresight and ingenuity to suggest the possibility of an Atlantic cable, so that there is really no difference as to credit due these two gentlemen for the initiation of the project, and I can assure you it is most satisfactory to me because I have always been a warm friend of both gentlemen (applause). I think I am the only living witness to these facts I have related, and I am glad to have this opportunity to state it publicly. I know it is a matter of interest to all telegraph men. Now the question comes to my mind, Who then was the author of the first idea of the Atlantic cable.

“In this connection I will go back to the year 1850. In 1854 the New York, Newfoundland and London Telegraph Company obtained a charter which gave them exclusive rights to land a cable in Newfoundland for fifty years. This charter terminates in 1904, and I hope to live to see that charter expire. I am confident it will never be renewed, because the British Government would never consent, now that deep-sea telegraphy is an assured fact, to exclusive rights, of that nature being conferred on anybody or corporation. (Applause.)

“We will now go back to, Who was the first man that started the idea of the Atlantic cable? and I find no difficulty in naming the man, as far as my opinion goes.

“In 1850, whilst studying telegraphy with Mr. Gisborne in Halifax, he was very communicative in all his methods and actions, and he showed me letters at that time from Mr. Brett. There were two Bretts. I think the first was John and the second Jacob, but it was the elder Brett who was in communication with him then by letter, and he had given birth to the idea of a cable. He not only gave birth to it in 1850, but in 1852 he laid the cable from Dover in England to France, and that cable was working until within a few years of the present time. He, therefore, not only gave birth to the idea, but he gave actual presence to the cable, and I think it is not unlikely, and I find it easy for me to say, that there never was an inventor who was wont to appreciate his own invention. I think it is not unlikely that Brett, when he had the idea of a cable at all, although only twenty-one miles in length, that he had within his vision thousands of miles, covering all bays, all waters and all seas (applause); that is my idea that John Brett was the originator and inventor of the submarine cable.”

Mr. Mackay, whose testimony we have given, was the superintendent of telegraphs for the Anglo-American Telegraph and Cable Company for the Island of Newfoundland and held this position for many years.

The circumstances which brought Gisborne and Field together was as follows: The former had planned a line of telegraph from St. John’s, Nfld., through four hundred miles of dense wilderness and forest to Cape Ray, there to connect by steamers or by carrier pigeons or by cable.

To enable him to carry out this project the Legislature of Newfoundland granted £500 for a survey of the route.