The Voice Beneath the Sea (1956, sound)

this program is being presented by the cincin bourbon Bell Telephone Company and citizens telephone company [Music] [Applause] sailing toward a distant shore on a summer night this ship is participating in the greatest International peacetime operation in Communications history the laying of the first transatlantic telephone [Music] cable it was in New York on November 27th 1953 that the transatlantic telephone cable project officially began as a contract of international cooperation was signed by top Executives of the American Telephone and Telegraph company and the Eastern Telephone and Telegraph company in London almost simultaneously Great Britain's then postmaster General signed for the British post office in Montreal Canada's cooperation was assured by the director of the agency in charge of overseas Communications this was a remarkable contract providing for the sharing of research Personnel equipment and cost the contract called for the construction of a radio relay system from the United States border to Eastern Nova Scotia a single cable spanning cabat straight and across newfinland and finally two deep water cables one carrying voices in each Direction across the Atlantic it has been possible to Telephone from America to Europe for many years by radio telephone using radio waves broadcast to the sky which are reflected down on the other side of the ocean however nearly all the wavelengths available for telephone communication have already already been put to use to handle the ever growing volume of international calls also at times atmospheric conditions interfere with the satisfactory operation of the radio telephone system the answer to improve transatlantic service was a telephone cable from Shore to Shore telegraph cables across the ocean had been operating for nearly a century but the telegraphic transmission of Morse code was relatively simple compared with a far more complex electronic problem of transmitting many telephone conversations at the same time a telephone cable had to have repeaters or amplifiers along the Route these repeaters would amplify or boost fading sound patterns at regular intervals along the ocean floor and thus ensure strong and clear trans Atlantic telephone conversations the repeaters had to be especially designed by scientists at Bell Laboratories to fit within the cable itself then they could be paid out through the Machinery of the cable laying ship to slide down into the ocean depths there to operate Untouched by man for 20 years and more in the Hillside New Jersey plant of Western Electric nearly 300 men and women worked at the exacting task of producing the 102 flexible repeaters the telephone project required the core of a simple coil yet that coil must operate perfectly for years perhaps 2 miles and more Beneath the Sea wound with the ultimate of care it had to pass microscopic inspection at every stage with the Precision worthy of the finest watch the parts were assembled into a loose side case which had been tooll by hand to the most minute of tolerances 17 different units containing vacuum tubes resistors condensers were joined together to make up the repeater assembly interlocking steel rings provided protection against being crushed by the tremendous pressures at Ocean depths a copper tube outside the steel rings would prevent a single drop of seawater from getting into the repeater and possibly silencing the entire Cable in the cable manufactur 2o beginning with the center core of purest copper every stage of production at the New Hampshire plant of slex wire and cable company involved a remarkable degree of quality control around the center conductor of copper there had to be a whole series of protected coverings such as insulation of polyethylene on the armoring line the cable moves swiftly growing in diameter with each new tape and covering it received along the way heavy steel wires hurled on by the Juggernaut likee armoring machine and final Coatings of tar and jute provided sure protection against hazards of the undersea late spring of 1955 found the first 200 mile section of cable with repeaters spliced in at 37 mile intervals being loaded aboard Her Majesty ship Monarch in Portsmouth Harbor and the first actual cable lay of the project was about to begin the best possible transatlantic route for the two cables the project required had been determined after long study of the problems involved the Scottish town of Oban was chosen as the Eastern Terminus and the town of Clarenville in Newland as the Western the Monarch lay offshore from clar Ville on a day in July 1955 as her crew began to unload the Western end of the cable with oil drums attached so that small boats could tow it into Shore out of the water it came like some legendary sea monster transatlantic number one the black stub end of a slithering weight to which half a hundred men must bend their backs but on this day as the shore end was pulled into the Clarenville station it was the symbol of a great beginning now there was contact from Shore to ship the monarch made her way down random sound cable paying out smoothly as the first 200m run began the initial Voyage was only a few hours old when up from the vitals of the ship came the first flexible repeater moving forward along the for deck it went over the bow shav and down into the icy waters below to the men in the test room anxious moments as they checked the signals moving through the repeater to the shore station but performance was exactly as planned it was one down and 101 to go the shipboard SP ring operation was of special interest to top Executives of the Bell System who were on board to observe every activity of the first 200 mile cable run and as the last of the 200 Mi of cable for this first section was paid out the exact location of the boy was marked with infinite [Music] care then as the fog closed in the boy holding the cable end fast went over the side to ride there alone on the gray green sea it was home to England for the Monarch to the plant of Submarine cables Limited at aith on the river temps there she filled her holes with 1300 miles of deep water cable for the next section of the Atlantic run fully laden the monarch could return to that carefully marked spot on the West Atlantic recover the buy and continue the cable run toward the Eastern shore station which was near the colorful Scottish town of oband on September 26th 1955 the Monarch raised the boy holding the Eastern Shore end of the cable and the first cable section was completed voices could now travel through the cable from Clarenville to Oban but voices could not travel the other way until the return cable would be completed in 1956 meanwhile in Newland Canadians Americans and British were working together as a team trenching in many miles of cable across some of the most rugged terrain of the island Province radio relay Towers under construction by Canadians and Americans in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia would flash conversations through the air when transatlantic telephone service would begin the route across cabat straight between Newland and Nova Scotia required only a single cable since rigid type repeaters suitable for shallow Waters could amplify conversations in both directions at once it was April according to the calendar and a North Atlantic spring Day made this a memorable task to the men of the Monarch as they lowed the repeater into the [Music] sea now there remained only the final runs of the Atlantic Crossing as the monarch made her way Westward to whether sometimes Fair sometimes [Music] foul but whatever the weather the cable continued to go down and the last chapter in this dramatic Saga of the sea was about to be written by day by night as the ship moved closer to the western shore to every man aboard there was a growing sense of urgency and expectation an awareness of the finality of this Voyage all other work was done the radio relay Towers were finished in the overseas telephone exchange in New York all was in Readiness for the added volume of calls the new cable would make possible the Personnel were trained new positions standing by in London's International Exchange there was an equal Readiness for the new links to be forged links which would provide improved service not only to Great Britain but on to the continent as well and then as the Monarch sailed back into the very Waters where she had laid the first of the cable more than a year before the boy was sighted off Clarenville the raising of that boy meant the final chapter of the Atlantic Crossing then on the for deck it was actually happening the making of the final splice was in process the ends cut clean armor wire Stripped Away the inner cores laid bare and brazing together of the separate ends the armor wires replaced and tightly bound now all that remained of the Atlantic telephone cable not yet under sea was a loop of cable there on the for deck a loop that the crew was moving slowly toward the bow moving out over the sheaves down slowly down and it was done the last Loop of the Atlantic telephone cable disappeared into the Waters of the sound in the Monarch's log the most important entry it had ever known final Spight completed Monarch's task finished in the Clarenville Shore Station technicians stood ready and waiting eager for the first two-way contact through the cables with the Oban station 2,000 M away the test was quickly passed with voices racing swift and clear across the conquered deep there were many who brought this thing to pass thousands of men and women in Canada Great Britain and and the United States working at a hundred different [Music] tasks the world is smaller today for their efforts it is to be hoped that the years to come will bring many other examples of the kind of international cooperation which made possible this significant achievement in Communications history The Voice Beneath the Sea