Talk:Transatlantic telegraph cable/Archives/2018

Dubious 'first' message

The page currently makes a pretty blanket statement that the 'first message' sent over the cable was:

“Europe and America are united by telegraphy. Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”. (On 13 August 1858)

However it appears possible this was only the first 'official' message, not the first message sent over the cable. The cited source is what looks like a decent, but self-published, website atlantic-cable.com here, and which is actually quoting "in 1974, a double-page full-color advertisement appeared in the July 23rd issue of the Antique Trader". Other on-line sources like Wired (magazine) [1], The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) [2] and history-magazine.com [3] support this, or variations of it, but may be sourced back to Wikipedia.

According to a Salford University web page by Professor [Nigel Linge], here:

"The first complete message sent along the cable from Newfoundland to Valentia was on 12th August 1858 at 5:35pm. It read, “Laws, Whitehouse received five minutes signal. Coil signals too weak to relay. Try drive slow and regular. I have put intermediate pulley. Reply by coils” "

So it seems we need to specify it was the first official message not the first.

I note that this issue also gets a slight mention earlier on this talk page.

Comments, especially better sources, please? --220 of ^Borg 04:37, 12 June 2014 (UTC)

I've removed the dubious tag and added another source. Engineers transmissions of the "testing, testing, one two three" type clearly don't count as actual messages, nobody cares about them. Besides the source I added, there is also Historical Encyclopedia of Natural and Mathematical Sciences which describes it as the first cablegram. Test messages hardly rise to the status of being a cablegram. Nobody cares about them. SpinningSpark 20:21, 28 October 2015 (UTC)

I know this is only the Talk page but I find the use - twice - of "Nobody cares about them" very offensive! I certainly do and am much less interested in pompous messages sent by people who probably didn't even understand what was being achieved. It's just another example of the belittling that politicians and many others indulge of the people who actually take society forward. Having said that the text on the main page is currently about right on this section! Johnrcrellin (talk) 15:10, 29 October 2015 (UTC)

Didn't realise I said it twice! Interesting that you think I am a politician, I've worked as an electrical engineer all my life and I doubt that anyone could be persuaded to vote for me. SpinningSpark 15:38, 29 October 2015 (UTC)

I've linked to the 1861 British Report which gives every single message sent on the 1858 cable. I agree that it's misleading to give the "official" first message in isolation. jnestorius^(talk) 19:04, 1 March 2018 (UTC)