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Description: | WESTN. & BRAZILN. Co. CABLE D. HOOPER'S LONDON. (engraved on the brass bands holding the ends of the section of cable together). The specimen is in a plush lined box marked on the purple silk in the lid "SPECIMENS OF WESTERN AND BRAZILIAN TELEGRAPH Co.'s CABLES: RIO DE JANEIRO TO PARA MANUFACTURED AND SUBMERGED BY HOOPER'S TELEGRAPH WORKS, LIMITED, LONDON. 1873." Two labels were attached to the silk lining with a safety pin and purpole silk thread (removed to OHF). The smaller label reads Miss Bottomley the larger reads on one side: To South America SAMPLES of FIRST TELEPHONE CABLES MISS BOTTOMLEY'S father assisted his uncle Professor Thomson (later Lord kelvin) of Glasgow University, on laying the first cables to Brazil to Pernambuco in 1873. Later W. Bottomley was himself in charge of finishing the cables South to Rio de JANEIRO- Previously Professor Thomson, convinced". On the other side " To North America of possibilities of Cable Laying Attempted in 1856 a cable to New York-this cable broke in mid-ocean but eas picked up again & joined-and actually landed that year- but failed after 2 weeks in operation! In nine years, 1865-Prof Thomson attempted again with stronger cables. After many mishaps & set backs he successfully completed Cable to N. AMERICA in 1866" DES HOOPER,William. 1868 London, England. MANU Hooper's Telegraph Manufacturing Company Limited. 1873 Millwall and Mitcham, London, England. N.B. errors in dates on the hand written label. Date for laying the first transatlantic cable was 1857-8, the brazilian cable was 1874 and of course they were telegraph cables and not telephone cables. The first transatlantic telephone cable was not laid until 1956.
This section is from a shore-end cable and is comprised of a inner core of seven strands of copper surrounded by an insulating layer of what appears to be paper and gutta-percha similar to Hooper's patent core of 1868 which has, however, a single copper conductor. The overall construction is also similar to the Atlantic cable of 1866 The core is reinforced with twelve strands of 4mm hot dipped galvanised iron wire wrapped in a vegetable fibre to form the cable. In this specimen the ends have been dipped in pitch obscuring the vegetable fibre.
It is interesting to note that David Thomson King (Kelvin's favorite nephew) reported that the Para to Cayene section of this cable was attacked by fish and was damaged to the core no fewer than six times whilst the cable was being laid in 1874. The cable laying ship the "Gomos" was stranded on the Bar at the mouth of the Rio Grande on May 26 that year. There was no loss of life and David swam ashore after two days on the wreck.
A new length of cables was hastily made and on November 25, 1874 David, in charge of the electrical department, set sail on the cable laying ship "La Plata" with the new cable. He was drowned when the ship foundered in the Bay of Biscay a few days later. His place was later taken by Lord Kelvin's nephew William Bottomley junior (1849-1912) and the cable was completed in 1876. | License: | http://www.hmag.gla.ac.uk/spirit/rights/ | Publisher: | Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow | Rights holder: | Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow | Subjects: | SCIENTIFIC COLLECTION : | Source: | Hunterian Museum | Creator: | Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow | Identifier: | http://www.huntsearch.gla.ac.uk/cgi-bin/... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
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