It was a message that heralded the dawn of the modern communications age and changed the world. Transmitted across 3000km of ocean, a group of visionaries had succeeded in what had never been done before - connecting Europe to North America by cable.
Central among this group of pioneers was a Belfast scientist and Ulster-Scot, William Thomson – Lord Kelvin.
A new film tells the epic story of how, on August 16, 1858, a message was sent from Valentia in County Kerry to Newfoundland in Canada on the other side of the Atlantic. The message, until that moment, would’ve taken days when carried by ship. It was sent by Morse Code along the new underwater transatlantic telegraph cable: ‘Europe and America are united by telegraph. Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good will towards men.’
It took just a matter of hours.
The Cable That Changed The World, on Wednesday 14 August on BBC iPlayer and BBC One Northern Ireland at 10.40pm, explores how Thomson was key to achieving what had never been done before.
Laying a cable on the floor of the Atlantic ocean and sending a message across its vast expanse was the culmination of decades of pioneering science.
Lord Kelvin, an Ulster-Scot, born in Belfast and a professor at the University of Glasgow, worked alongside a group of trailblazers that included British engineer, Isambard Brunel; American businessman, Cyrus Field and Samuel Morse, inventor of the telegraph and Morse Code, to do what had been deemed impossible.
Together their ingenuity and relentless pursuit helped realise one of the great scientific accomplishments of their age.
The epic story, made by Tyrone Productions and narrated by actress Jessie Buckley, is brought to life through innovative graphics, rarely seen archive and historical reconstructions.
Their achievement came at great cost and failure and required dogged perseverance and determination as the boundaries of science, business, physics and engineering were pushed to their then known limits.
When eventually they succeeded, the endeavour was hailed across the world. New York saw parades, fireworks, ringing church bells and a 100-gun salute.
One of the first messages sent was from Queen Victoria to US President, James Buchanan: ‘A link between nations whose friendship is founded on common interest and reciprocal esteem.’
Today, 99 per cent of all internet and mobile communications is relayed by the undersea cables that traverse the oceans of the world.
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