The chair was occupied by the Rt. Hon. Sir Stafford Northcote, Bart.,[69] President of the Board of Trade. The following were among the invited guests: the Rt. Hon. Lord Stanley, M.P., Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs; the Rt. Hon. Lord Carnarvon; the Rt. Rev. the Lord Bishop of Chester; the Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P.; Sir Charles Bright, M.P., original projector of the Atlantic cable, and Engineer to the Anglo-American Telegraph Company; Prof. W. Thomson, electrical adviser to the Atlantic Telegraph Company; Mr. Latimer Clark, coengineer with Sir Charles Bright; Mr. R. A. Glass, managing director to the Telegraph Construction Company (contractors); Mr. Samuel Canning, engineer to the contractors; Mr. Henry Clifford, assistant engineer to the contractors; Mr. Willoughby Smith, electrician to the contractors; Captain James Anderson, commander of the Great Eastern; Mr. William Barber, chairman of the Great Ship Company; Mr. John Chatterton, manager of the Gutta-Percha Works; Mr. E. B. Bright, Magnetic{209} Telegraph Company; Mr. T. B. Horsfall, M.P.; and Mr. John Laird, M.P.
After proposing toasts to Her Majesty the Queen, to the President of the United States, and to the Prince of Wales, the chairman (Sir S. Northcote) again rose amid applause, and said it was a maxim of a great Roman poet that a great work should be begun by plunging into the middle of the subject. He would therefore do so by proposing a toast to the projectors of the Atlantic Telegraph—Sir Charles Bright and Mr. Cyrus Field, Mr. J. W. Brett having since unfortunately died. When they came in after years to relate the history of this cable, they would find many who had contributed to it, but it would be as impossible to say who were the originators of the great invention as it was to say who were the first inventors of steam. He begged to couple with the toast the name of Sir Charles Bright, as, perhaps, the foremost representative from all points of view up to the present time (applause). The greatest honor is due to the indomitable perseverance and energy of Sir Charles Bright that the original cable was successfully laid, though, through no fault of his, it had but a short useful existence (great cheering).
Sir Charles Bright, M.P., after acknowledging the compliment paid to the “original projectors” and to himself personally, said that the idea of laying a cable across the Atlantic was the natural outcome of the success which was attained in carrying short lines under the English and Irish Channels, and was a common subject of discussion among those concerned in telegraph extension prior to the formation of the Atlantic Telegraph Company.
About ten years ago the science had sufficiently advanced to permit of the notion assuming a practical form. Soundings taken in the Atlantic between Ireland and Newfoundland proved that the bottom was soft, and that no serious currents or abrading agencies existed, for the minute and fragile shells brought up by the sounding-line were perfect and uninjured.
There only remained the proof that electricity could{210} be employed through so vast a length of conductor. Upon this point and the best mode of working such a line, he had been experimenting for several years. He had carried on a series of investigations which resulted in establishing the fact that messages could be practically passed through an unbroken circuit of more than 2,000 miles of insulated wire, a notion derided at that time by many distinguished authorities. Mr. Wildman Whitehouse, who subsequently became electrician to the company, had been likewise engaged. On comparing notes later, it was discovered that we had arrived at similar results, though holding somewhat different views, for his (Sir C. Bright’s) calculations, using other instruments, led him to believe that a conductor nearly four times the size of that adopted would be desirable with a slightly thicker insulator. It was this type which the new cables just laid had been furnished with.
In 1856, Mr. Cyrus Field—to whom the world was as much indebted for the establishment of the line as to any man—came over to England upon the completion of the telegraph between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. He then joined with the late Mr. Brett and himself (Sir C. Bright) with the view of extending this system to Europe, and they mutually agreed, as also did Mr. Whitehouse later, to carry out the undertaking. A meeting was first held in Liverpool, and in the course of a few days their friends had subscribed the necessary capital. So that in greeting those who had just returned from the last expedition—Mr. Canning, Mr. Clifford, Captain Anderson, and other guests of the evening—Liverpool was fitly welcoming those who had accomplished the crowning success of an enterprise to which at the outset she had so largely contributed (applause).
The circumstances connected with the first cable would be in the recollection of every one, and, although the loss was considerable, the experience gained was of no small moment. A few months after the old line had ceased to work, their chairman (Sir S. Northcote) consulted him on behalf of the Government as to the best form of cable for connecting us telegraphically with{211} Gibraltar, and he (Sir C. Bright) did not hesitate to recommend the same type of conductor and insulator which he had himself before suggested for the Atlantic line—a higher speed being desirable. This class of conductor in the newly laid Atlantic cable appeared likely to give every satisfaction, he was happy to say, and the mechanical construction of the cable, also the same as that he had previously specified for the Gibraltar line, appeared to have admirably met some of the difficulties experienced in cable operations.
The credit attached to these second and third Atlantic cables must mainly rest with the Telegraph Construction Company (formerly Messrs. Glass, Elliot & Co.) and their staff, inasmuch as in this case the responsibility rested with them throughout. The directors—including Mr. Glass, Mr Elliot, Mr. Gooch, Mr. Pender, Mr. Barclay, and Mr. Brassey—deserved the reward which they and the shareholders would no doubt reap. To Mr. Glass, upon whom the principal responsibility of the manufacture devolved, the greatest praise was due for his indomitable perseverance in the enterprise. Then the art of insulating the conducting-wire had been so wonderfully improved by Mr. Chatterton and Mr. Willoughby Smith, that, nowadays, a very feeble electrical current was sufficient to work the longest circuits, an enormous advance on the state of affairs nine years previously. Again, they must not forget how much of the success now attained was due to Professor Thomson and his delicate signaling-apparatus, the advantages of which have since 1858 been more firmly established. Mr. Varley had also done most useful work since becoming electrician to the “Atlantic” Company. Moreover, he (Sir C. Bright) hoped the active personal services of his partner, Mr. Latimer Clark, would not be forgotten.
It was satisfactory to find that the cables were already being worked at a very large profit. This system would doubtless be quadrupled within a short period, when the land-lines on the American side were improved (hear, hear, and applause). With this commercial success—combined with the improvements introduced into submarine{212} cables, and the power of picking up and repairing them from vast depths—there was a future for submarine telegraphy to which scarcely any bounds could be imagined. A certain amount had already been done, but China and Japan, Australia and New Zealand, South America and the West India Islands, must all be placed within speaking-distance of England. When this last has been accomplished, but not till then, telegraphic engineers might take a short rest from their labors and ask with some little pride:
Quœ regio in terris nostri non plena laboris? (loud applause).