1-157-783 - Oxford Science Archive/Heritage Images

Laying the transatlantic telegraph cable, 1865. On the deck of the SS 'Great Eastern' searching the cable for a fault after its recovery from the bottom of the Atlantic on 31 July 1865. This attempt to lay the cable ended in failure, but the following year the 'Great Eastern' succeeded in laying the cable connecting Valentia in Ireland to Trinity Bay, Newfoundland. Instead of the length of a sea voyage, communication time between the two sides of the Atlantic became a matter of seconds. From The Atlantic Telegraph by WH Russell. (London, 1866).