A history of transatlantic cables

Exactly 150 years ago, August 1858, the world witnessed a historic event in the history of telecommunications: the successful transmission of telegraph messages across the Atlantic Ocean. Although the transatlantic cable carrying these messages failed after a few weeks of operation, and it wasn't until 1866 that permanent transatlantic telegraph cable transmission became possible, the 1858 transmissions were heralded worldwide as a major achievement, introducing a new Age of Information. To commemorate this literally earth-shaking accomplishment 150 years ago, the History Column this month presents an article entitled "A History of Transatlantic Cables" by Jerry Hayes of Concordia University, Canada, a member of the ComSoc History Committee. Interestingly, it took almost another 100 years until the first transatlantic telephone cable, TAT-1, was successfully launched. Jerry covers this epoch-making event in his article as well, in addition to the various undersea telephone cables that followed in the years after. So we are actually commemorating two historic events in this column: the first successful transmission of telegraph data across the ocean, and the first successful transatlantic cable transmission of voice. We commend the article following to you.Special Notice: The ComSoc History Committee is sponsoring a special History Session at the forthcoming IEEE GLOBECOM 2008 in New Orleans. This session, the first of its kind, and coorganized by History Committee members Jacob Baal-Schem of Israel and Mischa Schwartz, will take place Tuesday, December 2, from 1:30-6 p.m. It will consist of three parts: a keynote address on the history of OFDM by Steve Weinstein, a past President of ComSoc and a pioneer in the field of OFDM; four reviewed papers covering a variety of topics on the history of communications; and a panel discussion on the topic "Who Invented Radio?" The panelists, a distinguished group of authorities and historians in the field, drawn from the Uni