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

1851 England-France Cable
(Dover-Calais)

4 16-gauge conductors, 10 armoring wires, gutta percha insulation. 25 miles total length, weight 7 tons per mile

The cable was manufactured at Millwall, coiled on board HMS Blazer in September 1851 and laid under the direction of Messrs. Crampton and Wollaston, the engineers of the Submarine Telegraph Company.

The cable, which was manufactured by Newall & Co. in three weeks, measured originally 24 miles in length. Owing to the manner in which it was laid down this was found insufficient to extend from coast to coast, although the direct distance is only 21 miles. It was therefore found necessary to manufacture an additional mile of cable, which, being spliced on to the part laid, the whole was completed, and the electric communication between Dover and Calais definitively established on the 17th October, 1851.

The cost of the cable itself was £9,000, being at the rate of £360 per mile. The total cost for cable and stations at Dover and Calais was £15,000.

(information from The Electric Telegraph Popularized by Dionysius Lardner)

The galvanised iron armoring wire for the 1851 cable was supplied by Richard Johnson Brothers of Manchester, later Richard Johnson & Nephew.

See also the Submarine Telegraph Company page.

Research Material Needed

The Atlantic Cable website is non-commercial, and its mission is to make available on line as much information as possible.

You can help - if you have cable material, old or new, please contact me. Cable samples, instruments, documents, brochures, souvenir books, photographs, family stories, all are valuable to researchers and historians.

If you have any cable-related items that you could photograph, copy, scan, loan, or sell, please email me: billb@ftldesign.com