5.

25 Transatlantic telegraph cable

585

1 mA

i(T1)

i(T2)

i(T3)

100 A
i(R3)

i(T4)
i(R1)

10 A
1
VA
100 m
V

VB

10 m
VD

VC
1m
10 m
0.1
1m
Cursors on VD at 3 dB @ 0.32 Hz
and on i(R1) at 3 dB @ 2.8 Hz

10

100
Frequency ( Hz)

Fig. 5.25.3 Frequency response of the circuit of Fig. 5.25.2. i(T1) represents the current input
to segment T1 etc. The 3 dB point for the output at R1 for the current response indicates
nearly an order of magnitude improvement relative to that for the voltage response at VD.

and the t is seen to be satisfactory (remember that the calculation is only for a step
rather than the series of pulses). The curves of Fig. 5.25.4 illustrate how the initial
fast rise of the input is progressively washed out (VA, VB, VC to VD) as it passes
down the cable. It is evident that signalling at the rate of one dot every four seconds
was quite possible, but as the rate is increased the amplitude decreases until the
point is reached when the intensity is insucient to activate the receiver successfully. Thomson and Stokes adopted a limiting point of 55% of the maximum as a
criterion, which is why that point is indicated on the curve for i(t). Stokes estimated
that to signal half-way round the Earth would allow only one dot per 15 s, which
is in reasonable agreement with our simulation allowing for the distance being
about three times further.
My interest in this matter dates from my days as a postgraduate in the department of Natural Philosophy of Glasgow University, where in the small museum
there was a piece of Kelvins transatlantic cable. I was intrigued by the problem of
how they expected to be able to signal over such a large distance, let alone the
mechanical diculties of manufacturing such a length, and the little they knew
about the seabed on which the cable had to lie or the chasms or mountains it had
to span. An idea of the form of construction of cables of the time is given by Grivet