retroelectro
was probably about three hundred miles in, where the ocean starts to get very deep. In one of the first reports that the board received from Whitehouse, he proposed that they raise the cable to look for a fault. The board quickly and strictly ordered that he must not attempt this. At the same time, they sent a skilled telegraph operator named Mr. France to assist Whitehouse, but when he arrived, he was turned away and refused admission by Whitehouse. After a few days of evasive responses, the board discovered that Whitehouse had raised the cable, cut it open, spliced it back together, and tied it to a buoy in the harbor. The Queen’s message “From Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain to His Excellency
of the United States.” – The first message from Queen Victoria to President Buchanan took over sixteen hours to transmit and verify. The first message from Queen Victoria to President Buchanan was sent on the 16th of August. On this day, Whitehouse was the operator that sent the inaugural message across the Atlantic Ocean. It was roughly 100 words and, according to Whitehouse just a year earlier, would take minutes to send. It took over sixteen hours to transmit. The majority of this was caused by the signal delay that Thomson warned about, but Whitehouse said that would be fine in 1855. Eventually, they removed Whitehouse’s coils and equipment and used Thomson’s Mirrored Galvanometer and batteries.
some show because The Atlantic Telegraph Company board fired him the next day. They then sent this message to Thomson at the University of Glasgow, begging him to return and correct the chaos left by Whitehouse. ‘Dear Sir, You are hereby authorized and empowered to take charge and possession (until further arrangements can be made) of this Company’s office and electrical apparatus at Valencia and to issue, in respect to the adjustment and working of the instruments, such instructions as you may deem best. It is also hereby ordered and authorized that no person, whatever is to be allowed, on any pretense, to enter the Company’s electrical department without your special order and permission. We are, dear
Whitehouse must have put on
Figure 14. Eighth Wonder
the President of the United States. The Queen desires to
congratulate the President upon the successful completion of this great international work, in which the Queen has taken the greatest interest. The Queen is convinced that the President will join with her in fervently hoping that the electric cable, which now already connects Great Britain with the United States, will prove an additional link between the two nations, whose friendship is founded upon their common interest and reciprocal esteem. The Queen has much pleasure in thus directly communicating with the President and in renewing to him, her best wishes for the prosperity
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