BACK REFLECTION: THE EXPLOSIVE BEGINNINGS OF SUBMARINE TELECOMS

THE EXPLOSIVE BEGINNINGS OF SUBMARINE TELECOMS

BY PHILIP PILGRIM

I’ll begin by giving a so-called “shout-out” to our friends at Submarine Telecoms Forum and SubCom as some of the following early submarine cable communication events happened on their doorsteps. Hopefully, these obscure events will be brought back into the spotlight and given appropriate respect for their contribution to our industry.

The 1850 English Channel Submarine Cable was not the first.

The Goliath Laying the 1850 English Channel Cable

(Thanks to Bill Burns and Atlantic-Cable.com)

Most laypeople, I included, consider the August 28th, 1850 cable across the English Channel to be the first submarine cable. It is captured in numerous paintings and drawings of the stout steam tug , Goliath, with a large spool of cable on board, happily chugging across the channel. It is also captured in folklore; the unarmoured cable (a single copper strand with a rubbery gutta percha exterior) was fictionally pulled up the next day by French fisherman who thought he discovered a marvelous new seaweed with gold interior. However, history shows that the first cables were developed much earlier for more destructive purposes.

THE EARLY 1800’S & THE SCIENCE OF ELECTRICITY

Cable Sample: Gutta Percha and Copper Conductor

(Thanks to Bill Burns and Atlantic-Cable.com)

To add further colour to these early days, one should realize that the first submarine telegraph cables followed immediately on 1850 English Channel the heels of significant scientific milestones in electricity and electromagnetism. The scientists pioneering applications of electricity witnessed their telegraph peers exploit their discoveries, and often these same scientists assisted and contributed.

Aron Pavel L’vovich Schilling Von Canstadt

Let’s look at the basic components needed in the 1830’s to get the telegraph ball rolling:

1. A low resistance copper wire for carrying a signal

2. An energy source for signaling

3. A means to insulate the copper wire from its watery environment

4. Copper, gold, and silver had been formed into wires for millennia, so this was readily available in the early 1800’s.

5. Leading up to the invention of the telegraph, nearly all experiments with electricity involved so-called static electricity. This energy was created from the friction of rubbing materials together and the energy was not able to be stored easily by humans (thunderclouds and kites excluded). It was not until the experiments of Luigi Galvani and Alessandro Volta in the late 1790’s that lead to Volta’s chemical battery in 1800. This convenient device could store energy for long periods of time and the energy could be released in short bursts from a terminal to send a signal along a telegraph wire.

6. Early experiments with electrical signaling and water in the 1830’s revealed that coating wires with tar-soaked cloth enabled the “electric fluid” to travel along the wire and not “leak” into the surrounding water. Gutta percha, a natural plant latex was later introduced to England in 1842 and then exploited as a wire insulator in 1845.

It was Samuel Morse who is credited as the first to originate the telegraph in the “new world” in 1832 however, others were working on the same challenge on the continent, and in Britain.

It was the work of Russia’s Pavel Schilling, in 1832 that found its way to Germany where Carl Friedrich Gauss, Wilhelm Eduard Weber, and later Carl August von Steinheil developed working telegraphs. Schillings work on using signals to remotely detonate explosives also found its way to Samuel Colt in the U.S.A.

First Terrestrial Telegraph “Cable” London, 1837

PFE DIGRESSION

We must pause to acknowledge Steinheil as he discovered the earth to be a universal conductor and a “free” return path for electrical circuits. His discovery allows our current day power feed equipment to work over one single copper conductor and return via the ocean ground beds and Earth to complete the circuit.

THE FIRST TERRESTRIAL TELEGRAPHS

It was England’s William Fothergill Cooke, who first witnessed the Schilling telegraph in Heidelberg Germany in 1836, then brought the concept to England.

The first practical terrestrial telegraph system was commissioned in England in the summer of 1837 by William Fothergill Cooke & Charles Wheatstone. It was an experimental 5-wire affair that ran underground along a railway line in London connecting Euston to Camden Town (2km). It used wood as the insulator.

Meanwhile in the Americas, Morse was using electromagnet relays to regenerate the signal, and by 1837, was sending signals over 16 km on a test bed. He conducted his first public demonstration in Speedwell Village, Morristown, New Jersey on January 11, 1838 where he sent a signal over an unregenerated 3.2km testbed. (SubCom’s headquarters was also in the same Morristown).

HMS Royal George

THE FIRST SUBMARINE TELEGRAPH APPLICATIONS

In England in 1839, just two years after the first terrestrial telegraph experiment in London, a submarine cable was first used to send a signal. The HMS Royal George, a gun ship with 100 cannons, was once the largest ship in the British Navy. It was built in 1756 and fought in many battles, including in the American Revolution, but was accidentally sunk during repairs off Portsmouth, England in 1782.

Demolition of the Royal George

It became a marine hazard. British Colonel Commandant Charles William Pasley, of the Corps of Royal Engineers, was tasked to remove the Royal George. Submerged explosives had been used in the past for demolition but he noted that wires and batteries were recently used to remotely detonate explosives in 1837 in Russia; so he sought the advice of leading British scientists experimenting with “wires and batteries”: Charles Wheatstone, Michael Faraday, and John Frederic Daniell. In August of that year, insulated copper wire was used to signal the underwater explosives and blow up the wreck. As dynamite or similar high explosives were not yet invented, oak barrels were filled with gunpowder and covered with lead. The detonator was a “hot wire” design. It was a resistance-heated platinum wire. A battery was used to send the signal. The signaling was obviously unidirectional and simply a long pulse but information was exchanged. The insulation of the submarine cable would have been a waterproofed cloth referred to as “tarred yarn”. John Frederic Daniell’s latest battery, the Daniel Cell Battery, was used. This battery was invented in 1836 and was the most powerful available at the time.

Our friends in the oil & gas subsea sector should appreciate this feat as it was the first application of an umbilical cable.

Samuel Colt

Remote Destruction of the Styx, April 13, 1844

Samuel Colt (of revolver handgun fame), was also de-veloping remote detonation submerged technology. His concept was to lay a grid of submarine mines in a harbour.

When an enemy ship passed over a mine, an observer would cross-reference the grid location and remotely detonate a corresponding mine at that grid point. Working with his friend, Samuel Morse, Colt’s first proof of concept demonstration was in New York Harbour on July 4th, 1842 where he used a 300m underwater cable to detonate explosives below an unmanned vessel towed over the mine. The charge was detonated from the deck of the gunship North Carolina.

News Account of Morse's NYC Demonstration, July 4th , 1842

News Account of Colt’s NYC Demonstration, July 4th , 1842

Colt’s 4 Conductor Lead Armoured Cable Circa 1844

On August 20th, 1842, Colt conducted his second demonstration on the Potomac River for the president of the United States, John Tyler, and his cabinet. A report gives 8,000 spectators and the magnificent destruction of another towed vessel.

Colt’s Trunk and Branch Design

Colt’s third demonstration was on October 18th, 1842 again in New York City before 40,000 spectators. He used copper wire wrapped with tar and cloth to send electric signals to an underwater charge from the deck of the revenue cutter Ewing. He blew up a ship aptly named the Volta. Samuel Morse was again involved and shared his reels of insulated cable to assist Colt. Morse also gave a submarine telegraph demonstration on the same day to communicate between Manhattan Island and Governor’s Island two miles away however, his batteries were too weak. Morse then used Colt’s battery and was able to conduct unidirectional communications. Unfortunately, the first submarine cable fault in history occurred the next day on October 19th,

Colt’s Submarine Cable and Minefield Array (top view and profile view)

1842 when Morse’s submarine cable was accidentally hauled up by a merchantman ship getting underway.

Colt’s fourth and final demonstration was on April 13, 1844 on the Potomac River near the Washington Navy Yard. The President, John Tyler, was again in attendance with thousands of spectators. A ship, the Brunette, (rechristened Styx for the demonstration) was unmanned and set adrift into the mine field. Colt first detonated one mine in the distance for fanfare and then made his first attempt at hitting the ship. It was a miss but the explosion rocked the ship. A minute later the ship had drifted further, and his second attempt again missed. Third time lucky, it was a hit and greatly damaged the ship but did not sink it. A naval crew promptly rowed to the stricken vessel, boarded it, and hoisted the US flag to symbolize its successful capture.

The clear purpose of Colt’s final demonstration was for warfare but, for us subsea telecom enthusiasts, there is much more of interest below the surface. Trivial components of Colt’s apparatus go unnoticed, but he singlehandedly made significant firsts in the history of subsea technology.

• Armoured Cable: Colt’s system had to withstand explosives, so his cables were lead wrapped.

• Branching Units: Colt’s system had a trunk with branches to anchored mines and a separate insulated conductor to each mine.

• Festoon Architecture: The design was also that of a trunk/branch festoon which we commonly use along seacoasts today.

• Detector Arrays: The basis of the design, a silent submarine cable array waiting on the bottom for a ship to pass over, was later applied to detect submarines. (Be sure to check out Dr. Richard Walding’s excellent website on this topic: http://indicatorloops.com)

Very little material is available on the early submarine telegraph events in the USA. Here is one that shows the efforts of Morse and Colt to bring attention to their work in the early 1840’s before the first commercial terrestrial telegraph boom began in 1844. These smaller demonstrations occurred indoors and were in addition to the larger ones detailed above where things “blowed-up real good”.

Colt and Morse Telegraph and Ship Mine Presentation Circa 1842

COMMERCIAL SUBMARINE TELEGRAPH TELECOMMCATIONS BEGAN IN THE USA IN 1845:

In October 1845, Colt, having exhausted his attempts to convince the US Government to protect its harbours with his minefield invention, turned towards telecoms. He formed the New York and Offing Electric Telegraph Association and laid a submarine telegraph cable from Manhattan Island to Coney Island. (most likely stock from the Styx demonstration). He also laid a cable across the East River but, as with most early cables, it failed in its infancy. In 1846, he laid a second cable across the East River that succeeded and extended the line to Fire Island. Please refer to cable sample image shown above showing Colt’s lead covered, four conductor cable from 1844.

PHILIP PILGRIM is the Subsea Business Development Leader for Nokia's North American Region. 2021 marks his is 30th year working in the subsea sector. His

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