Transatlantic telephone cable. How the World Wide Web was created - the Internet (9 photos)

June 27, 1866 the ship anchored in the bay of Newfoundland. This day is considered to be the beginning of regular permanent electrical communication between Europe and America.

At the same time, a cable that had sunk earlier was raised from the bottom of the ocean, tested and spliced ​​with a spare cable on the ship. Thus, on September 8, 1866. the second cable connected both continents.

Success in 1866 contributed to the unprecedented development of submarine cable technology. 4 more cables crossed the Atlantic. Cables were laid in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, Mediterranean Sea, South Atlantic.

In the 1880s, the design of submarine cables was greatly improved. The conductive core was not twisted from seven identical wires, but consisted of a central copper wire with a diameter of 3-3.1 mm and a strand of 12 copper wires with a diameter of 1.05 mm. The diameter of such a vein increased by only 35-40%, and its cross section doubled. The resistance of the conductor to direct current decreased, therefore, the speed of current propagation and telegraph transmission increased even more. The cable armor was reinforced, now it was not 12, but 18 (and even 24) wires with a diameter of 2.1-2.4 mm.

The first transatlantic telephone cable TAT-1 was laid between the cities of Oban (Scotland) and Clarenville (Newfoundland) during 1955-1956. and put into operation on September 25, 1956. It contained 36 independent voice transmission channels with a bandwidth of 4 kHz and 51 amplifiers located at a distance of 70 km from each other. In the first 24 hours, it made 588 calls from London to the USA and 118 from London to Canada. Soon the number of channels was increased to 48, and the bandwidth narrowed to 3 kHz. In 1978, TAT-1 was disabled.

The second transatlantic telephone cable TAT-2 was put into operation on September 22, 1959. Thanks to the technology of channel concentration by using natural pauses in a conversation (English time-assigned speech interpolation, TASI), the number of channels in it was increased to 87. Using this technology, the client was allocated a channel only in those moments when he really spoke.

Based on coaxial cable, the TAT-3 connected the UK and New Jersey and included 138 voice channels capable of supporting 276 simultaneous connections, which, however, required reducing the distance between amplifiers to 37 km.

Modern transatlantic cables are based on fiber optic channels and a "self-healing ring" topology.

The mysterious 19th century that we know so little about!
It is very beneficial for the modern rulers of the world to keep us in the dark about the level of technology and industrial production of that time, since they present today's technical and technological degradation as progress.
In order to see how brazenly we are being deceived, consider the history of the telegraph, namely, the laying of submarine lines.
telegraph cable 19th century. Such a laying could not be carried out without the use of technologies, instruments and equipment similar to modern ones, while much more primitive technologies are presented to us.
The history of the telegraph clearly shows us how false the official history of science is.
By 1900, tens of thousands of kilometers of underwater telegraph lines had been laid - this is a fact, there is a telegraph connection.
On the other hand, there are officially no technologies, measuring instruments, computers, satellites, cable layers, all these modern technologies that we use now when laying deep-sea cables appeared only in the 2nd half of the 20th century!

1904 Karte des Weltkabelnetzes (Map of the World cable network)
from Oskar Moll: Die Unterseekabel in Wort und Bild.

This video shows how transoceanic cable laying is carried out:

Transoceanic submarine communication cables

In 1858, a transatlantic telegraph connection was established. Then a cable was laid to Africa, which made it possible in 1870 to establish a direct telegraph connection between London and Bombay (via a relay station in Egypt and Malta).

Main telegraph lines for 1891

First attempts

The first underwater cable transmitting an electrical signal was laid in Munich along the Isar River. However, due to the lack of sufficient waterproofing, the long-term operation of such a cable was not possible. Only the invention in 1847 by Siemens of the technology of making insulation from gutta-percha made it possible to begin work on laying a cable between Calais and Dover, which broke after sending the first telegram, a year later there was an attempt to replace it with an armored cable, however, the latter did not last long.

1856-1858

The development of the underwater telegraph followed a difficult path of mistakes, catastrophes, and disappointments. However, the successful laying of a number of lines led to the idea of ​​​​the possibility of crossing the telegraph cable Atlantic Ocean.

transatlantic cable

England, with vast overseas possessions and technical capabilities, was bound to become a pioneer in the laying of submarine cables, and it is not surprising that she held the lead for almost a hundred years. However, the initiative to organize the laying of the first transatlantic cable still belongs to America - its subject Cyrus West Field, who organized the "Transatlantic Company" in 1856.

Most of the questions in the project were about the electrical conductivity of the cable. It was not clear whether the electric current would be able to run the huge distance of 4-5 thousand kilometers separating Europe from America. Veteran telegraph business Samuel Morse answered this question in the affirmative. For greater certainty, Field turned to the British government with a request to connect all the wires at his disposal into one line and pass current through them. On the night of December 9, 1856, all the air, underground and underwater wires of England and Ireland were connected into one continuous chain 8 thousand kilometers long. The current easily passed through the huge circuit, and there was no more doubt on this side.

In 1856, the Atlantic Telegraph Company was founded, which in 1857 began laying 4,500 kilometers of armored telegraph cable. The ships "Agamemnon" and "Niagara" began laying from the coast of Ireland, but due to the loss of the cable, the attempt had to be postponed.
After the second unsuccessful attempt that took place at the beginning of 1857, only from the third (July 1858 of the year) was it possible to lay a cable from the coast of Ireland to Newfoundland, on August 5 a transatlantic telegraph connection was established. On August 16, 1858, Queen Victoria of Great Britain and the then US President James Buchanan exchanged congratulatory telegrams. The greeting of the English Queen consisted of 103 words, the transmission of which lasted 16 hours. In September 1858, the connection was broken, apparently due to insufficient waterproofing, the cable was destroyed by corrosion.

In 1864, the laying of 5,100 km of cable with improved insulation began; it was decided to use the largest ship of those times, the British steamer Great Eastern with a displacement of 32,000 tons, as a cable layer. On July 31, 1865, a cable broke during laying. Only in 1866, on the second attempt, it was possible to lay the cable, which provided a long-term telegraph connection between Europe and America. It is curious to note that the cable, broken in 1865, was found, after which it was fastened with the missing fragment and was able to function successfully.

Main telegraph lines in 1891
A few years later, a cable was laid to India, which made it possible in 1870 to establish a direct London-Bombay telegraph connection (via a relay station in Egypt and Malta).

The ocean floor in a section from Valencia, Ireland to Newfoundland.

Vertical section of the bed of the Atlantic Ocean,
from Valencia, Ireland, to Trinity Bay, Newfoundland,
(on line C.D of chart above) showing Soundings
Made by Lieut. Dayman in H.M.S. Cyclops, 1857
for laying the Atlantic Telegraph Cable.
(The vertical scale, showing depths of soundings,
is about 72 times greater than the longitudinal scale.)

echo sounder
Material from GeoWiki - an open encyclopedia of geosciences.
A device for measuring the depth of the ocean based on measuring the time it takes for a signal (sound, radio, etc.) to be reflected from the seabed at a known speed.
Echolocation is the main method for mapping the seabed.
How did you manage to make this "portrait" of the ocean floor, with what instruments?
And what navigation devices were used to lay the cable accurately
on the course without losing -/+ 1-2 km? At that time there were the most accurate navigation technologies?

An echo sounder is a highly specialized sonar, a device for studying the relief of the bottom of a water basin. It usually uses an ultrasonic transmitter and receiver, as well as a computer to process the received data and draw a topographic map of the bottom.

from the history of the echo sounder:

" Of particular interest in the study of the depths of the ocean until the XIX century. sailors did not show since it was believed that the relief of the seabed, as it were, reflects the relief of the land, i.e. it was believed that highest values depths correspond to the heights of nearby peaks. Average depth oceans was taken equal to the average elevation of the continents.
At the beginning of the XIX century. interest in sounding work, and consequently, in the means of measuring depths, increased sharply. Scientists and navigators realized that the study of the seas and oceans is impossible without studying the nature of the bottom topography and its features. Systematic special measurements were needed in the seas and oceans, and for this, appropriate instruments were needed to measure great depths.
Behind 19th century more than a hundred patents have been issued for depth gauges alone.
The first ultrasonic echo sounder was patented in 1920 by the Russian scientist and inventor KV Shilovsky and the French scientist P. Langevin, who in 1929 was elected an honorary member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
The echo sounder was tested for several years in the English Channel and in the Mediterranean Sea and fully confirmed the correctness of the chosen technical solutions. From this moment begins the stage of development of ultrasonic echo sounders, which allow automatically and continuously, in any weather and at different speeds measure any depth of the oceans. "
In the history of measuring instruments for the depth of the sea and ocean floor, there is no indication that before the beginning of the 20th century there were reliable measuring instruments that would give reliable measurements of the depth of the world's oceans to a depth of 5-8 km. That is, officially, echo sounders did not exist until the beginning of the 20th century, they were measured with simpler and less reliable instruments.
It is not enough to have an echo sounder to make topographic map sea ​​bottom. You also need to be able to process the data that is obtained when using it. Now we process this data with the help of a computer.
But the first Z3 computer, which has all the properties of a modern computer, was created by Konrad Zuse only in 1941!

Navigation on the high seas or in open ocean When laying a submarine cable, it is extremely important to take into account deviations from the course due to wind or current.
At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, advances in the development of physics served as the basis for the creation of electronic navigational instruments and radio-technical means of navigation. There is no specific information on which navigational devices were used when laying transoceanic cables in 1850-1900, you need to contact the archives and special libraries.

"After the conference of the main maritime powers in Brussels in 1853, at which the principles of meteorological observations at sea were discussed, the position of meteorologist-statistician was created in Great Britain with the Committee on Commerce, to which Robert Fitzroy was appointed. He was given several helpers. This was the beginning of the first in the history of the state meteorological department - the British Meteorological Service.
During the Crimean War on November 14, 1854, a storm wrecked 60 British and French ships. After that, at the end of November, the director of the Paris Observatory, Urbain Le Verrier, asked his European scientists to send him reports on the state of the weather in the period from November 12 to 16. When the reports were received and the data was mapped, it became clear that the hurricane that sank ships in the Black Sea could have been foreseen in advance. In February 1855, Le Verrier prepared a report to Napoleon III on the prospects for creating a centralized meteorological observation network with the transmission of information by telegraph. Already on February 19, Le Verrier compiled the first weather map based on real-time data."

The commercial operation of the electric telegraph was first started in London in 1837.
In 1858, a transatlantic telegraph connection was established.
The trick is to make a weather forecast for several days, you need to collect information from a large region, but how, if only in 1858 a transatlantic telegraph connection was established?
It turns out a vicious circle: the weather forecast was made in real time using the telegraph, and the international telegraph itself entangled the world with its web only by 1865. How was the analysis of the huge amount of data collected in real time in order to make a reliable weather forecast?

Please note that the submarine cable is laid on the shortest distance between Europe and North America. How, without space technology, was it possible to calculate that this particular distance is the shortest and to lay a cable from point A to point B with its minimum consumption?

The laying of underwater telegraph lines went on in leaps and bounds in the second half of the 19th century,
follow the story if a more detailed image can be found at this link:

Map of the 1858 Atlantic Cable route from
Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, August 21, 1858

Another map of the 1858 Atlantic Cable route.

Detail of above map

Australia and China Telegraph, 1859
Existing and proposed lines

1865: Map Shewing the Atlantic Telegraph and other Submarine
Cables in Europe and America from The Atlantic Telegraph.

1865: Chart of the World Showing the Proposed Submarine & Land
Telegraphs Round the World from The Atlantic Telegraph.

1870 British Indian Cable
Bombay-Aden, Aden-Suez

c. 1870 Map showing the telegraph lines in operation, under contract, and contemplated, to complete the circuit of the globe / entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1855 by J.H. Colton & Co. in the Clerks Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. 41cm x 63cm. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, call number G3201.P92 1855 .J51

c. 1880 Anglo-American Telegraph Company North Atlantic map

1893 map of North Atlantic cables (center section omitted),
from Charles Bright's Submarine Telegraphs

Map of the Philippines, showing route of the cable laid by CS Burnside in 1901,
from Florence Kimball Russell's A Woman's Journey through the Philippines

1901 Eastern Telegraph Company System Map
from A.B.C. Telegraphic Code 5th Edition

Carte generale des grandes communications telegraphiques du monde, 1901/03
International Telegraph Bureau (Berne, Switzerland)

North Atlantic detail of above map

Great Britain detail of above map

1902 British All Red Line map, from Johnson's
The All Red Line - The Annals and Aims of the Pacific Cable Project

1924: The Eastern Associated Telegraph Companies" Cable System map

1924 International Cables map from Schreiner: Cables and Wireless

Cable and Wireless “Via Imperial” map. Undated, but post-1935
Courtesy of Anita Fuller, whose father, Colin Hugh Thomas

An interactive map showing the history of cable laying :

Submarine cable maps:

Cabling

It would seem that having such a powerful-looking product, you can load it on ships and dump it into the depths of the sea. The reality is a little different. Laying a cable route is a long and laborious process. The route must be, of course, cost-effective and safe, since the use of various methods of cable protection leads to an increase in the cost of the project and increases its payback period. Geological exploration is carried out, assessment of seismic activity in the region, volcanism, the likelihood of underwater landslides and other natural disasters in the region, where the work will be carried out and, subsequently, the cable will lie. The forecasts of meteorologists also play an important role so that the deadlines for the work are not disrupted. During the geological exploration of the route, a wide range of parameters is taken into account: depth, bottom topology, soil density, the presence of foreign objects, such as boulders, or sunken ships. A possible deviation from the original route is also evaluated, i.e. possible lengthening of the cable and an increase in the cost and duration of the work. Only after carrying out all the necessary preparatory work, the cable can be loaded onto ships and laying can begin.
It is worth noting that the cable is laid in trenches at depths up to 1500-2000 m due to fishing activities and other factors. IN similar situations you have to use the knife principle of laying or simply lower the seabed to the bottom giant size a plow that will plow it and allow you to secure the cable from gear and other troubles. On great depths for obvious reasons, powerful, armored cables are used that are simply laid on the ground.
If in the case of short distances is used whole piece cable, then when laying in the sea, the distances increase many times, and the linear length of the cable coil is limited. Plus, when transmitting a signal over long distances, it is distorted and attenuated. To compensate for these losses, given the cable design described in the previous article, signal amplifiers and repeaters are used at splices or other necessary sections. There are no problems with power supply, the design of the fiber optic cable implies the possibility of transmitting current from which the equipment located at a distance of up to 150 km from each other is powered.

This is what the signal amplifier looks like before installing the installation, in partial analysis:

And this is how it looks ready for laying at the bottom of the ocean:

Actually, from the GIF, the laying process becomes extremely clear:

the black device shown schematically on the GIF is called underwater cable car.
An ordinary underwater cable layer breaks through a not very wide, 0.1 - 0.2 m, and shallow, ~ 0.7 m, trench into which the cable is laid. The equipment itself is towed by a ship at a speed of approximately 3 km/h and is connected to it by a separate cable to monitor the status of the device itself and the work it is doing.

Underwater cable laying - Fugro - kalipso

Cable laying on the sea/ocean floor runs continuously from point A to point B. The cable is laid in coils on ships and transported to the place of descent to the bottom. These bays look, for example, like this:

If it seems to you that it is small, then pay attention to this photo:


After the ship goes to sea, only the technical side of the process remains. A team of stackers with the help of special machines unwinds the cable at a certain speed and, maintaining the necessary cable tension due to the movement of the ship, moves along a pre-laid route.

From the outside it looks like this:

In case of any problems, breaks, or damages, special anchors are provided on the cable, which allow you to raise it to the surface and repair the problem section of the line.

Cable device :

Of undoubted interest is the direct installation of the cable, which will operate at a depth of 5-8 kilometers inclusive.
It should be understood that a deep-water cable must have the following number of basic characteristics:

Durability
be waterproof
Withstand the enormous pressure of water masses above oneself
Have sufficient strength for installation and operation
Cable materials must be selected so that mechanical changes (stretching of the cable during operation / laying, for example) do not change its performance
The whole point of deep-sea cables lies in the protection of this very working part and the maximum increase in its service life.

Cable production

A feature of the production of optical deep-sea cables is that most often it is located near ports, as close as possible to the seashore. One of the main reasons for this placement is that a linear kilometer of cable can reach several tons, and in order to reduce the required number of splices during laying, the manufacturer strives to make the cable as long as possible. The usual length for such a cable today is 4 km, which can result in approximately 15 tons of mass. As can be understood from the above, the transportation of such a bay of deep-water OK is not the easiest logistical task for land transport. Wooden drums, common for winding cables, do not withstand the mass described earlier, and for transporting OK on land, for example, it is necessary to lay out the entire construction length in a figure-of-eight on twin railway platforms so as not to damage the optical fiber inside the structure.

SubCom (formerly Tyco Telecommunications) is an industry leader in submarine communications systems. The company has installed more than 490,000 km of submarine cables in more than 100 submarine fiber optic systems providing communications around the world.
UNDERWATER TRANSOCEANIC CABLE NETWORKS: HOW IT IS DONE - VIDEOS AND ANIMATIONS

Interesting facts about how the continents of our planet communicate,
how the cable is laid along the bottom of the ocean, and, most importantly, how it was created worldwide network- Internet.

1
What you see above is a submarine communications cable.
It is 69 millimeters in diameter, and it is he who carries 99% of all international communication traffic (i.e. Internet, telephony and other data). It connects all the continents of our planet, with the exception of Antarctica. These amazing fiber-optic cables cross all the oceans, and they are hundreds of thousands, what to say, millions of kilometers long.

World map of the submarine cable network

This "CS Cable Innovator" is specially designed for laying fiber optic cable and is the largest ship of its kind in the world. It was built in 1995 in Finland, it is 145 meters long and 24 meters wide. It is capable of carrying up to 8500 tons of fiber optic cable. The ship has 80 cabins, of which 42 are officers' cabins, 36 are crew cabins and two are luxury cabins. Without maintenance and refueling, it can work 42 days, and if it is accompanied by a support ship, then all 60.

Initially, submarine cables were simple point-to-point connections. Now submarine cables have become more complex and they can split and branch right at the bottom of the ocean.

Since 2012, the provider has successfully demonstrated an underwater data transmission channel with a bandwidth of 100 Gbps. It stretches across the entire Atlantic Ocean and its length is 6000 kilometers. Imagine that three years ago, the capacity of the inter-Atlantic communication channel was 2.5 times less and was equal to 40 Gbit / s. Now ships like "CS Cable Innovator" are constantly working to provide us with fast intercontinental Internet.

Cross section of submarine communication cable

1. Polyethylene
2. Mylar coating
3. Stranded steel wires
4. Aluminum water protection
5. Polycarbonate
6. Copper or aluminum tube
7. Vaseline
8. Optical fibers

This is what it looks like on the bottom. What are the environmental consequences of laying telecommunications cables in seabed? How does this affect the ocean floor and the animals that live there? Although literally millions of kilometers of communication cables have been placed on the sea floor over the past century, this has not affected the lives of underwater inhabitants in any way. According to a recent study, the cable has only minor impacts on animals living and living within the seabed. In the photo above we see a variety marine life next to a submarine cable that crosses the Half Moon Bay continental shelf. The cable is only 3.2 cm thick.

The modern world is connected by e-mail and the Internet, telephone and fax, and all this goes not only through satellite. Five out of every six calls and messages go over the wired backbone.

Deep at the bottom of the oceans lie many stranded cables, one strand thick as a human hair, they are called fiber optics and millions of kilometers of such cables are laid on the broken seabed. These cables strangely attract hungry sharks, and the result is damage to the world wide web.

When the lines are broken, one of the most advanced ships and vessels in the world, the Atlantic Guardian, is called. Without it, our wired world could not exist. Its crew is responsible for maintaining 40 cable routes between England and New Jersey, Newfoundland and France, Rock Island and Spain. Speed ​​and reliability are the distinguishing features of this vessel, regardless of the degree of roughness of the Atlantic. Millions of dollars are lost due to network downtime, and the team is under enormous psychological pressure during tasks.

The cable ship was built by Vander Giessen Yards in Rotterdam Holland in 2001 and is owned by Global Marine Systems. Its function is laying and further maintenance of fiber optic communication lines. The cost of the project is 50 million dollars. This ship is not afraid of the waves of the North Atlantic.

In shallow water, the cable is damaged by fishing boats pulling a trawl or other gear. In addition, large ships anchor where they should not and also cause damage to the cable. Undercurrents, straits and low tides cause abrasion, which, over time, tear the cable. The vessel is equipped with two azipods, which makes it possible to easily maneuver in space, and besides, it is even pleasant to control it. Virtually nothing has changed over several decades, only the sheath and fillings of the cable.

The cable is lifted with cranes, winches and blocks. This may seem like the most common operation, but it is not. The ship arrives at the estimated damage point, according to the coordinates received from the satellite. Then he releases a "soft hook" and catches the cable from the bottom. Then a cutting hook is lowered down while the ship follows the cable, its sharp blades cutting it, since the defective cable cannot be lifted without being cut. After the cut, the vessel is moved to hook on one side of the cut cable again and haul it aboard. Having lifted the cable, it is fixed and tested to make sure it is in good condition from the point of failure. The end of the cable is sealed and thrown overboard, with the buoy secured to make it easier to find. The other side of the cable is wound and checked for damage. At the time of each operation, the vessel is automatically steered, remaining in place at a given point, thanks to the satellite navigation system (GPS) installed on the vessel. In the complex, this is a single system of sensors and rudders of the ship, which allows the ship to maintain stability during waves or move in a given direction. All this is controlled by a computer. There is also an Atlas-1 remote-controlled robot on board. It is capable of crawling across the seabed at 4 km/h, locating and digging out the cable, and then sending a high-resolution image to the board for decision making. The Atlas-1 robot is equipped with a set of tools, various cameras and lights - these are the pilot's "eyes" on the seabed.

There is a place on the ship with specialized conditions and equipment, where microscopic strands of fiber optic cable are soldered. The people who work there are called "binders", although it takes them about a day to repair the damage. After all this, the cable is connected into a sleeve and tested between two node stations. If the data transfer test is successful, the cable is lowered back into the water with extreme care. Using the robot allows you to bury the cable at the bottom of the ocean. It delivers a powerful jet that forms a trench. And then the cable is lowered into this trench.
Unmanned vehicles for cable repair have not yet been developed, there will always be a heavy one, but such useful work for the cable ship "Atlantic Guardian".

Specifications of cable ship Atlantic Guardian:
Length - 120 m;
Width - 18 m;
Displacement - 3250 tons;
Power plant - diesel-electric, power 9656 l. With.;
Speed ​​- 15 knots;
Autonomy - 50 days;