Milestone-Proposal:French Transatlantic Telegraph Cable of 1898

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Docket #:2015-12

This Proposal has been approved, and is now a Milestone


To the proposer’s knowledge, is this achievement subject to litigation? No

Is the achievement you are proposing more than 25 years old? Yes

Is the achievement you are proposing within IEEE’s designated fields as defined by IEEE Bylaw I-104.11, namely: Engineering, Computer Sciences and Information Technology, Physical Sciences, Biological and Medical Sciences, Mathematics, Technical Communications, Education, Management, and Law and Policy. Yes

Did the achievement provide a meaningful benefit for humanity? Yes

Was it of at least regional importance? Yes

Has an IEEE Organizational Unit agreed to pay for the milestone plaque(s)? Yes

Has an IEEE Organizational Unit agreed to arrange the dedication ceremony? Yes

Has the IEEE Section in which the milestone is located agreed to take responsibility for the plaque after it is dedicated? Yes

Has the owner of the site agreed to have it designated as an IEEE Milestone? Yes


Year or range of years in which the achievement occurred:

1897 to 1959

Title of the proposed milestone:

The French Transatlantic Telegraph Cable, 1898

Note: the formal opening date of this particular cable was 17 August 1898, when President McKinley exchanged greetings with French President Faure. Reference..... Electrical World & Engineer April 15, 1899. p.475.

Plaque citation summarizing the achievement and its significance:

The submarine telegraph cable known as Le Direct provided a better way to communicate between Europe and North America by connecting the continents without intermediate relaying. Developed in 1898 by La Compagnie Francaise des Cables Telegraphiques, Le Direct was 3174 nautical miles long, the longest and heaviest cable in service. Crossing the deepest waters of the Atlantic Ocean from Brest France to Orleans Massachusetts was a remarkable oceanic engineering feat.

200-250 word abstract describing the significance of the technical achievement being proposed, the person(s) involved, historical context, humanitarian and social impact, as well as any possible controversies the advocate might need to review.


IEEE technical societies and technical councils within whose fields of interest the Milestone proposal resides.


In what IEEE section(s) does it reside?

Providence Section

IEEE Organizational Unit(s) which have agreed to sponsor the Milestone:

IEEE Organizational Unit(s) paying for milestone plaque(s):

Unit: Providence Section
Senior Officer Name: Cathy Ann Clark

Unit: Providence OES Chapter
Senior Officer Name: Albert J Williams

IEEE Organizational Unit(s) arranging the dedication ceremony:

Unit: Providence Section
Senior Officer Name: Cathy Ann Clark

IEEE section(s) monitoring the plaque(s):

IEEE Section: Providence Section
IEEE Section Chair name: Cathy Ann Clark

Milestone proposer(s):

Proposer name: Steven Crocker
Proposer email: Proposer's email masked to public

Proposer name: Gilmore Cooke, SLM
Proposer email: Proposer's email masked to public

Proposer name: Philip Cousins, FCSM committee member
Proposer email: Proposer's email masked to public

Please note: your email address and contact information will be masked on the website for privacy reasons. Only IEEE History Center Staff will be able to view the email address.

Street address(es) and GPS coordinates in decimal form of the intended milestone plaque site(s):

At the Cape Cod location: The French Cable Station Museum, 41 Route 28 at Cove Road, Orleans Massachusetts, 02653. USA.

Describe briefly the intended site(s) of the milestone plaque(s). The intended site(s) must have a direct connection with the achievement (e.g. where developed, invented, tested, demonstrated, installed, or operated, etc.). A museum where a device or example of the technology is displayed, or the university where the inventor studied, are not, in themselves, sufficient connection for a milestone plaque.

Please give the address(es) of the plaque site(s) (GPS coordinates if you have them). Also please give the details of the mounting, i.e. on the outside of the building, in the ground floor entrance hall, on a plinth on the grounds, etc. If visitors to the plaque site will need to go through security, or make an appointment, please give the contact information visitors will need. At the Cape Cod location: The plaque will be mounted on the outside wall of the The French Cable Station Museum near the shoreline where Le Direct came ashore in 1897.

Are the original buildings extant?

Yes for building at the Cape Cod location

Details of the plaque mounting:

At the Cape Cod location: The address is: The French Cable Station Museum, 41 Route 28 at Cove Road, Orleans Massachusetts, 02653. USA. The plaque will be attached to the building at the main entrance of the museum. It will be readily visible by the general public.

How is the site protected/secured, and in what ways is it accessible to the public?

The Cape Cod plaque will be attached and secured to the building and visible by the general public.

Who is the present owner of the site(s)?

At the Cape Cod location: The French Cable Station Museum in Orleans, Incorporated, a non-profit enterprise.

What is the historical significance of the work (its technological, scientific, or social importance)? If personal names are included in citation, include justification here. (see section 6 of Milestone Guidelines)

BEING DEVELOPED

What obstacles (technical, political, geographic) needed to be overcome?

Part 2. What obstacles (technical, political, geographic) needed to be overcome?

The problem of dredging for a broken or loose cable along the bottom of rocky, irregular and deep Atlantic waters had to be to solved to complete the works on time. According to FG de Nerville, it was Rouillard’s newly engineered grapnels, used aboard cs Arago and the Silvertown, that saved the project by facilitating the southern route across the Atlantic. Considering the cable’s depth, dredging over rocky bottoms was a formidable task. There were two regions where these conditions were encountered: first, directly north of the Azores, and secondly, where the Gulf Stream meets the currents from Labrador carrying icebergs. [11,15]

In 1897, SIT engineer Rouillard designed, fabricate and tested a series of new grapnels known as Rouillard’s ‘grappins de releve’. One type in particular saved the day, Rouillard’s centipede with counter-teeth. The ship heads perpendicular to the cable which is miles below the surface. The centipede is like a heavy chain with many teeth that is dragged on the hard rocky sea bottom. Pairs of teeth are mounted perpendicular to each other. The assembly is designed to glide on hard surfaces but does not seize by cracks. The opposing teeth are steel flat parts that are slightly rounded to facilitate sliding on the bottom. The design allows just enough space between them and the extremity of the corresponding tooth for the passage of the cable. The teeth and the opposing teeth are attached to a collar mounted on a central rod of iron for ease of replacement and repair. Sections are bolted together to increase the length. See figures 14 and 15.



figure 14 Cable workers are getting ready to haul the cable caught by Rouillard’s centipede. This image belongs to France Telecom SA, Service des Archives et dui Patrimoine Historique des Telecommunications. Permission for its use is pending.


figure 15 Rouillard’s new centipede grapnel was originally designed for laying Le Direct. Copied from H. Larose, Les Dragages de Cables Sous-Martins par Grands Fonds. Revue D’Electricite. 10 August 1901.

What features set this work apart from similar achievements?

BEING DEVELOPED

Supporting texts and citations to establish the dates, location, and importance of the achievement: Minimum of five (5), but as many as needed to support the milestone, such as patents, contemporary newspaper articles, journal articles, or chapters in scholarly books. 'Scholarly' is defined as peer-reviewed, with references, and published. You must supply the texts or excerpts themselves, not just the references. At least one of the references must be from a scholarly book or journal article. All supporting materials must be in English, or accompanied by an English translation.

1. The New York Times 6.13.1897. The New French Cable. M Depelley (also email for copy right)

2. Karl D. Stephan. Liberte Egalite Telegraphie: The French Cable Station In Orleans, Massachusetts

3. Rene Salvador. Les Cables Sous-Marins Dans l'Avant Goulet de Brest

4. Rene Salvador. A Short History of French-Transatlantic Telegraph Cables from French Viewpoint

5. Scientific American Supplement 9.25.1897. Submarine Telegraphy A New French Transatlantic Cable

6. The Electrical Engineer 11.10.1898. The New French Atlantic Cable

7. The Electrician 8.19.1898. The New French Atlantic Cable

Supporting materials (supported formats: GIF, JPEG, PNG, PDF, DOC): All supporting materials must be in English, or if not in English, accompanied by an English translation. You must supply the texts or excerpts themselves, not just the references. For documents that are copyright-encumbered, or which you do not have rights to post, email the documents themselves to ieee-history@ieee.org. Please see the Milestone Program Guidelines for more information.

Providence Section letter of endorsement and financial support will be emailed to R Colburn separately. Letter of endorsement and acceptance by the French Cable Station Museum to be emailed separately.

Please email a jpeg or PDF a letter in English, or with English translation, from the site owner(s) giving permission to place IEEE milestone plaque on the property, and a letter (or forwarded email) from the appropriate Section Chair supporting the Milestone application to ieee-history@ieee.org with the subject line "Attention: Milestone Administrator." Note that there are multiple texts of the letter depending on whether an IEEE organizational unit other than the section will be paying for the plaque(s).

Please recommend reviewers by emailing their names and email addresses to ieee-history@ieee.org. Please include the docket number and brief title of your proposal in the subject line of all emails.