STARS:Underwater Cables
From GHN
Author: Bernard Finn
Citation
Communications cables under the seas have played a pivotal role in binding the world together—economically, politically and culturally—in ways that have been both beneficial and detrimental (or, one might say, stabilizing and destabilizing). Technical developments have taken the cables through three distinct eras: telegraphy with single-conductor copper wires, beginning in the 1850s; telephony by means of coaxial cables with repeaters, beginning in the 1950s; and data transmission through optical fibers, beginning in the 1980s.
Timeline
| 1847 | John and Jacob Brett suggest trans-Atlantic cable |
| 1850 | First cable across English Channel, worked briefly |
| 1858 | First cable across Atlantic, failure within a month |
| 1861 | British Parliamentary Commission report on submarine telegraph cables |
| 1864 | Successful Persian Gulf cable to Karachi, following Commission recommendations |
| 1866 | First successful Atlantic cable, laid by Great Eastern |
| 1867 | Siphon recorder introduced |
| 1873 | Duplex introduced in Atlantic cables |
| 1901 | Pacific cable from Canada to Australia and New Zealand |
| 1924 | First magnetically-loaded Atlantic cable |
| 1958 | First trans-Atlantic telephone cable, coaxial with repeaters |
| 1965 | First transistorized Atlantic telephone cable |
| 1970 | Communications –grade optical fiber developed at Corning |
| 1980 | Commitment to single-mode fiber transmission for TAT-8 |
| 1984 | Fiber-optic cable to Isle of Wight, first to carry regular traffic |
| 1987 | Report of erbium-doped fiber amplifier |
| 1988 | First trans-Atlantic fiber optic cable |
| 1996 | Optical amplifier introduced in Atlantic cable (TAT-12) |
| 1998 | First long-distance cables with wave-length division multiplexing |
Essay
Bibliography
References of Historical Significance
References for Further Reading
About the Author(s)
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