2-979-606 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Atlantic Cable, ready for shipment, Morden Wharf, East Greenwich, [London], 1857. 'The core is conveyed to [Glass, Elliott, and Co.'s works at] East Greenwich upon large reels, each containing rather more than a mile of wire, and there placed on standards in a lower floor of the factory, the reels being so arranged as to allow of the wire being readily drawn off. Thence it passes into an upper floor, where are the machines for serving it with a thick covering of hemp, well saturated with a mixture of tar and pitch...After passing through a tank containing tar and pitch in certain proportions, and maintained at an even temperature, it is laid in large coils ready for delivery on board ship...there is every probability of...the entire length of 2500 miles - being completed early in May next'. From "Illustrated London News", 1857.