History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications
from the first submarine cable of 1850 to the worldwide fiber optic network

Books: 1865 - The Atlantic Telegraph

The Atlantic Telegraph: Its History, from the Commencement of the Undertaking in 1854, to the Return of the "Great Eastern" in 1865. Accompanied with a familiar explanation of the theory of telegraphy; a chronological summary of the progress of the art; and a tabular list of the submarine cables now in operation; also an account of the leading submarine and land lines in progress and projected. From authentic sources.
iv, 117 pp., illustrations, 2 folding maps, folding plate, 3 portraits. 20 cm. London, Bacon & Co., 1865.,

Copies of this first edition of the book catalogued by OCLC list only three portraits; this copy has four portraits.

Copies are held at: Yale University Library, New Haven, Connecticut; Smithsonian Institution Washington, DC; Detroit Public Library, Detroit, Michigan; University of Texas Library, Austin, Texas. The 1866 second edition is more commonly found.

This is the first edition, published in 1865 after the return of the Great Eastern from the unsuccessful cable laying voyage of that year.  The book includes two maps showing existing cables, a fold-out diagram of the Great Eastern, and four tipped-in real photographs of Cyrus Field and other members of the expedition.

Below are the photographs from the book

Cyrus Field, in a pose reflecting the classic 1858 Matthew Brady photograph, with the addition of Great Eastern in the background	Professor William Thomson, later Lord Kelvin, scientific adviser to the Atlantic Telegraph Company, and inventor of the mirror galvanometer, used to detect the extremely faint signals from the cable
Believed to be Robert Halpin, First Officer of Great Eastern on the 1865 voyage and subsequently Captain on a number of cable-laying expeditions.	Samuel Canning, an engineer with Glass, Elliot & Co., consulted by Cyrus Field in 1856 during the planning of the first Atlantic cable. Canning also represented the contractors, the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company (successors to Glass, Elliot), on the 1865 Great Eastern expedition.