THE BELL SYSTEM 



TECHNICAL JOURNAL 



VOLUME XXXVI JANUARY 1957 number 1 



Copyright 1957, American Telephone and Telegraph Company 



Transatlantic Communications — 

 An Historical Resume 



By DR. MERVIN J. KELLY* and SIR GORDON RADLEYf 



(Manuscript received Jul}' 30, 1956) 



The papers that follow describe the design, manufacture and installa- 

 tion of the first transatlantic telephone cable system with all its com- 

 ponent parts, including the connecting microwave radio-relay system in 

 Nova Scotia. The purpose of this introduction is to set the scene in which 

 this project was undertaken, and to discuss the technical contribution 

 it has made to the development of world communications. 



Electrical communication between the two sides of the North At- 

 lantic started in 1866. In that year the laying of a telegraph cable be- 

 tween the British Isles and Newfoundland was successfully completed. 

 Three previous attempts to establish transatlantic telegraph communi- 

 cation by submarine cable had failed. These failures are today seen to 

 be the result of insufficient appreciation of the relation between the 

 mechanical design of the cable and the stresses to which it is subjected 

 as it is laid in the deep waters of the Atlantic. The making and laying 

 of deep sea cables was a new art and designers had few experiments to 

 guide them. 



During the succeeding ninety years, submarine telegraph communi- 

 cation cables have been laid all over the world. Cable design has evolved 

 from the simple structure of the first transatlantic telegraph cable — a 



* Bell Telephone Laboratories, f British Post Office. 



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