Liberte! Egalite! Telegraphie! The French Cable Station in Orleans, Massachusetts

Sometimes factors-such as government regulations, personal preferences, or even national pride-can intervene to preserve an outmoded technology long after technical considerations would dictate its demise. The town of Orleans, nestled in the elbow of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, harbors one such product of benign neglect: the French Cable Station Museum. This article describes the history of the telegraph-cable connections between France and the Cape, dating back to 1879, only thirteen years after the first permanently successful transatlantic cable was laid. French patriotism influenced the routing and operation of the cables as much as economics or engineering. The submarine telegraph cable was an interesting propagation medium in its own right. Even after intercontinental radio communications became practical, some of the best minds in the communications industry applied themselves to the problem of maximizing cable-transmission rates, with mixed results. I review two significant technical advances in submarine-cable technology that occurred between 1900 and 1930. Finally, I conduct an armchair tour of the French Cable Station Museum as it is today, one of the few communications museums in the country which preserves historic operating equipment at its original site.