Posted
on July 27, 2016
Have
you heard someone say something like, “My aunt is going across the
pond on Thursday”? “Across the pond” is a jokey sort of
understatement for “over the Atlantic,” either from the U.S. to
Europe, or vice versa. It's understatement because it makes it seem
as if the mighty Atlantic Ocean (3 to 4 thousand miles wide) were a
mere pond.
Of
course, nowadays, anywhere on Earth is just seconds away from
anywhere else, when we're talking about communications. Back in the
1700s, the fastest way to communicate “across the pond” was to
send written communications by ship – so news from the American
colonies, for example, would get to England in six or seven weeks.
Eventually
faster ships—and having small, speedy ships dedicated to just
delivering mail and news—cut the communication time between America
and Europe to just ten days.
Still
– multiple days!
And
stormy weather could delay ships for weeks.
In
the 1850s, people began laying a “transatlantic”
(across-the-Atlantic) telegraph cable across the sea floor from
Ireland to Newfoundland. It was finished in August of 1858, but it
only functioned for three weeks...and during those three weeks, the
signal quality became very poor very quickly. The transmission time
thus got quite slow (not ten-days slow, of course, but mamy more
minutes than it should have taken!).
On
the second attempt, starting in 1865, better materials were used, and
the connection was completed on this date in 1866.
Finally,
people in the Americas could communicate with people in Europe the
same day. As a matter of fact, they could get a response back on the
same day! What a revolution!
Soon
new cables were laid with duplex and quadruplex systems that could
relay more than message at a time, and eventually telegraph cables
were replaced with telecommunications cables. Of course, now we use
satellite signals more often than cable communication! And things are pretty instant!
Hooray
for progress!
Hooray
for technology!
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