A Thread Across the Ocean

by John Steele Gordon

Book Overview

Shedding fascinating new light on an American saga, Gordon explores the laying of the transatlantic cable in 1866--one of the greatest engineering feats of the 19th century. Maps, line drawings, and halftones.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060524464
• ISBN13: 9780060524463
• Release Date: July 2003
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.56 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A Thread Across the Ocean is full of fascinating facts leading up to the transatlantic telephone cab

My students were fascinated by the equipment outside our classroom that was laying new fiberoptic cable. I mentioned that I would have liked to have seen the transatlantic telephone cables laid. They had never heard of them. They wondered why they were needed. I'm so glad that I got this book for myself as well as for them. It gives a lot of background information that my students might think unnecessary, but it shows why the cables were so important.

Persistence of vision

The first transatlantic cable was a Victorian era triumph that enchanted the world with its glory. The story is one of the courage and persistence of its director-in-charge, Cyrus Field, born in 1819 to a prominent family of Massachusetts. Cyrus began the charge to span the ocean when he was only 33 years old, and after several attempts, finally managed to overcome all obstacles 14 years later. The story that unfolds is one that extolls the virtuous and honorable men who made it all happen, giants whose word was their bond.Mr. Gordon tells the story with all the enthusiasm of a child, unsullied by any trace of a fashionable cynicism or awareness of the betrayals to come. The book is nicely illustrated with lots of photos and diagrams that contribute mightily to the immediacy of reading it. I especially enjoyed the chapter in which the final triumph occurs, and, I kid you not, at one point actually had chills run along my spine. This is a story that will awe and inspire you. Cynics and phonies need not apply.

The Atlantic cable

Most people of my generation (the "Baby Boomers") learned a bit about the Atlantic cable in school, and the name of Cyrus Field was known to us. That's about all that we knew, but this book fills in quite nicely the entire story of how the cable came into existence, and the persistence that it required to have the work completed. There were many disappointments, and they are well laid out in the book.Along with the story itself there are excellent thumb nail biographies of the major figures, and that's very helpful.This is a story of dogged goal pursuing in the face of many obstacles, and should serve as an inspiration to anyone who persists in seeking their dream, no matter what it may be.

An Era is Captured

As the title indicates, this book is about the laying of the first telegraph cable across the Atlantic Ocean. Gordon relates this story well from the pie in the sky innocent dreaming of those who first promoted the idea, to the amateurish first attempts to finally, the professional successful laying of the cable. He is concise and interesting. The book is filled with contemporaneous quotes from pro-techies and and anti-techies of the time. I enjoyed the "big picture" better. Gordon relates well the era of the early industrial age when fortunes were seemingly made in minutes and Americans and Englishmen thought anything possible. He conveys to the reader the huge leaps and bounds made in technology during the first half of the nineteenth century and uses the laying of the Atlantic cable as not only a shining example of such advances, but also a crowning achievement of the age.The book is as readable a history as one will ever find. Gordon takes his subject, puts it in perspective and sprinkles the book with off-topic history that aids in the telling of his story.

Tycoons and Inventors Start a Global Village

In these days of instant communication, when one can send an e-mail quickly and reliably to any part of the world, it might seem unnecessary to examine the laying of telegraph cables between Europe and America. But the delightful book, _A Thread Across the Ocean: The Heroic Story of the Transatlantic Cable_ (Walker) by John Steele Gordon, gives a lively history of an epochal achievement which was only eventually a success despite costly failures, calamities, and mistakes. It is good to be reminded of just how difficult this beginning of our communications technology was to achieve, for as the title mentions, the story is indeed heroic.The hero is Cyrus Field, a man of enthusiasm, determination, and optimism who would not let his cable idea die. The appeal of the story is eventual success despite many heartbreaking failures, but as Gordon demonstrates, the failures were mined for lessons learned, and each subsequent attempt to lay the cable was a bit cleverer, a bit more comprehensive. There were broken cables, unexpected storms, and suspicion of sabotage in the different attempts. The public was wild with optimism and then wild with mockery when the cables failed. One laid in 1858 actually worked to send a message from Queen Victoria, but slowly, and then went forever dead. The final success in 1866 came in large part because of the gigantic ship _Great Eastern_, the final project of the brilliant engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The huge ship was a bit of a white elephant, but was the only vessel capable of carrying all that cable almost three thousand miles at 3,575 pounds per mile. The coiling it into different levels of the great ship without kinks was an engineering feat in itself. The ship also took advantage of the perfected paying-out machinery and brake, developed by a wealthy amateur tinkerer, a device so successful that it is still used in laying cable today.There is no real suspense to this story, of course; Gordon has, however, written an exciting tribute to Field, the other entrepreneurs, and the technicians who put an exceedingly difficult project into action. The cable, after many attempts, many years, and many dollars, worked and became indispensable. Two weeks after the cable was open for business, for instance, the market quotations in New York and London became equalized, as they could act together. The _Great Eastern_ went on to lay five other cables, and by 1900 there were fifteen, with competition between the firms that ran them. Wireless telegraphy, radio, and satellite communication have not made the cables obsolete; most transoceanic communication is still by reliable strands of wire, or of fiber-optics, beneath the sea. _A Thread Across the Ocean_ vividly tells an important and overlooked story of perseverance and triumph.

Suprisingly fascinating!

In 1853, entrepreneur Cyrus Field was introduced to Frederick Gisbourne, a man whose idea of laying a telegraph cable across the Atlantic, from Ireland to Newfoundland, had collapsed. Realizing the potential in such an undertaking, Field set up a corporation, and with unflagging energy he set out to make the transatlantic cable a reality. The New York Herald hailed the undertaking as, "the grandest work which has ever been attempted by the genius and enterprise of man." The project captured the imagination of the United States and United Kingdom, but few could foresee the trouble and hardships that the project would encounter. I must admit that my wife gave me a strange look when I showed her this book. How could a book about a cable be interesting? Well, the fact is that author John Steele Gordon succeeds at making the story absolutely fascinating! After a rather confusing first chapter, the book launches into the story of the Atlantic Cable, the men who built it, and the society in which it appeared. The author succeeds in grabbing your imagination, making you turn page after page, dying to see what happens next. I really enjoyed this book, and recommend it to everyone!