[43] The Times, August 6, 1858.
[44] Daily News, August 20, 1858.
[45] “The Life-Story of Sir Charles Bright,” ibid.
[46] The Times, August 6, 1858.
[47] Submarine Telegraphs.
[48] In his work on the Electric Telegraph, the late Mr. Robert Sabine said: “At the date of the first Atlantic cable, the engineering department was far ahead of the electrical. The cable was successfully laid—mechanically good, but electrically bad.” Its electrical failure was, of course, bound to spell commercial failure, no matter how great its success as an engineering feat.
[49] In his presidential address to the Institution of Electrical Engineers in 1889, Lord Kelvin (the Professor Thomson referred to in these pages) said: “The first Atlantic cable gave me the happiness and privilege of meeting and working with the late Sir Charles Bright. He was the engineer of this great undertaking—full of vigor, full of enthusiasm. We were shipmates on the Agamemnon on the ever-memorable expedition of 1858, during which we were out of sight of land for thirty-three days. To Sir C. Bright’s vigor, earnestness, and enthusiasm was due the successful laying of the cable. We must always feel deeply indebted to our late colleague as a pioneer in that great work, when other engineers would not look at it, and thought it absolutely impracticable.”
[50] Encyclopædia Britannica, 8th edition, 1860. Article on The Electric Telegraph, by Prof. W. Thomson, F.R.S.
[51] Mr. Croskey also subsequently found the bulk of the capital for the exploring expeditions.
[52] Later Admiral Sir Leopold M’Clintock, K.C.B., LL.D., F.R.S.