Chapter Three 
THE SIMPLE IDEA OF AN ATLANTIC CABLE 
IN ONE SENSE it was somewhat strange and unexpected that a 
retired New York merchant should take up as his life work 
the promotion of the first Atlantic cable. Field had received 
no education in science or engineering, and his experience 
in finance had been limited to mercantile transactions. Yet 
he possessed an inheritance of Yankee ingenuity and adapt- 
ability, and he was a persuasive, magnetic type of man. Peo- 
ple liked him and were swayed by his sanguine arguments. He 
was subject to fits of depression, it is true, but they were 
quickly over and his normal attitude was optimistic. 
At the middle of the nineteenth century the electric tele- 
graph was just becoming important. It was the first applica- 
tion of the electric current to prove of substantial value. 
Back in the days of Benjamin Franklin, electricity had been 
known only as static or spark electricity made by friction, and 
the public heard of it principally through so-called cures for 
disease and the part it played in the use of lightning-rods. 
About 1800, current electricity began to be heard of through 
the chemical experiments of the Italian professor, Alessandro 
Volta. It was then thought that the chief use of the current 
would be as an aid to chemistry in the laboratory. 
As further researches were made, the inter-relations of 
electricity and magnetism were recognized, especially after 
the famous experiments of Michael Faraday in England in 
1831, and similar investigations by Joseph Henry in the 
United States at about the same time. But engineers and in- 
ventors were slow to apply the theories of electro-magnetism. 
It was to be several decades before practical electric motors 
were produced. Electrical engineering was not yet established. 
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