- 2 months ago
Hidey-ho, neighbors. I'm Jon, and this is Part 3 of FOOL TIME. In Part 1, we examined the invention of the Internet via Morse code and the expansion of telegraph networks. In Part 2, we got to know the noble mensch who made it his mission to lay a telegraph cable across the Atlantic Ocean and the doofus tycoon who stole his idea. Now, in Part 3, we'll watch as the Atlantic Telegraph Company tries to pull off this near-impossible feat. Yep, this episode is The One With The Ships. Hope you enjoy.
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00:00The year is 1852. Dr. Wildman Whitehouse abruptly closes a successful medical practice in Brighton, England, and soon he leaves the medical profession altogether.
00:10His full name is Edward Orange Wildman Whitehouse, so he had a lot of options to choose from.
00:15If he were the kind of person who went by, say, Edward Whitehouse, well, that would have made him the kind of man who would have been content to remain a doctor for the rest of his life.
00:22And if Tim Taylor had been content to remain a Binford Tool salesman, he wouldn't have ascended to the title of Tim the Toolman Taylor.
00:28Tim is, of course, a sitcom caricature, a pretend man, so wildly overconfident and cartoonishly destructive that surely could never actually exist.
00:40Or could he?
00:41Wildman Whitehouse is our most volatile of Tims. He will fill the role of catastrophic Tim.
00:48He is a super Tim, a man who perhaps captures Tim's essence far better than any other man known to history.
00:54History features and is sometimes propelled forward by its fair share of dummies, dolts, screw-ups, jackasses, and blockheads, but I have never encountered anyone else quite like Wildman.
01:06Wildman begins his next journey by following a proud and time-honored Claude tradition, dropping everything he's doing to follow a shiny, noisy object.
01:25The shiny object in this time is certainly the telegraph. I mean, what's not to love?
01:30You tap the telegraph key and it makes a fun little click and the battery goes bzzz, and then a minute later the receiving apparatus starts spinning its own little wheel full of paper and it taps a bunch of little dots and dashes on the paper that form its own cool little code that you get to decipher?
01:43That's neat. I can't blame him for falling in love with it, but he's also a doctor, which puts him in a special position.
01:50For one, he has a little money to invest in his new hobby. For another, he's educated, so he's a decent rider, and as any honest rider would tell you, you can be a decent rider and also be a doofus.
01:59But my theory is that just like a diver needs a diving board from which to fall higher than they climb, you gotta first be a little bit smart if you're gonna be a lot stupid.
02:09And in this quest, a seemingly impossible quest, to string a transcontinental telegraph cable across the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, he could not ask for a deeper pool.
02:19Wildman Whitehouse is a little bit smart. He's also remarkably ambitious and hardworking, although he's the poster boy for working harder, not smarter.
02:27His experiments earn him the attention of J.W. Brett, who, along with Atlantic Telegraph Company director Cyrus Field, are pretty spooked by this phenomenon of telegraph signals slowing down to the point of uselessness underwater.
02:39Now, Brett describes Whitehouse as this dogged, outside-the-box experimenter, the exact sort of guy they want to tackle a problem that's eluded conventional problem-solving,
02:48but what Whitehouse actually is, and what I think Brett knows he is from the jump, is a guy who can spin a story.
02:56Brett has a bunch of cable lying around that hasn't yet been shipped out to places like the Red Sea, so he throws it to Whitehouse and says, here, go nuts.
03:04So, Whitehouse starts pretending to be a scientist.
03:06This is a guy who, in championing his own outsider status, dismisses academic science by using the words scientist and philosopher interchangeably.
03:14He calls the forces of nature in their way, the enemy, one he intends to conquer.
03:20It's not about solving or creating or inventing with this guy, it's about conquest in the name of England.
03:26Whitehouse has the attitude of a soldier marching off to war, but at the same time he lacks the stomach for the regimentation routine and standards that define the life and purpose of a soldier.
03:35He wants to be both conquering hero and one-man army, which we see in the proprietary nature of his experiments, but he's never accrued any hands-on real-world experience, and as we'll see, whenever he does get the opportunity to do so, he calls in sick.
03:49He's like Rambo if Rambo never went outside.
03:52One observer notes that concepts like intensity and resistance, in other words, the basic building blocks upon which our entire understanding of electricity is built, are really not of much interest to Whitehouse.
04:03So, God knows what his experiments, if you want to call them that, are actually going to teach anybody about anything, especially since said experiments aren't very repeatable, since he uses his own proprietary equipment he built himself.
04:15He has this apparatus that lets him shoot current through a wire, then some doohickey on the other end scribbles some lines, and he declares this to be the current's autograph.
04:24This is what those in the field of modern science would refer to as dicking around.
04:29Some dismiss his experiments as largely scientifically useless.
04:33Uh, yeah?
04:34Well, then why does everyone call him the Lightning King?
04:37Oh, yeah?
04:38Why does everybody call me the Tool Man?
04:41Because it's your show, and you made up the name?
04:43Yep, this is their show, and they made up the name.
04:45The Atlantic Telegraph Company has decided that Whitehouse is their man, and they've done a whole lot of work to hype him up, including giving him the nickname Lightning King.
04:53But his credibility is still under attack, as is Tim's when a guest establishes that she is a lot more qualified than he is.
05:01See, Tim and Wildman have the exact same problem.
05:04They're neither practical men nor men of science.
05:08Historically, Whitehouse has been framed as a practical man by default, since he seems to despise the entire field of science the second it gets too tough to follow.
05:15But, as Bruce J. Hunt convincingly points out in his 1996 paper, Wildman was no practical man at all.
05:22He had zero experience in the field.
05:24He never actually played any part in laying or maintaining any functioning cable anywhere in the real world.
05:30He just screwed around in his lab and pretended to accomplish things.
05:33Tim's exact same dilemma is laid bare in the Season 3 episode of Home Improvement titled Swing Time,
05:38in which he's so burned up by the prospect of a woman being more qualified than him that he challenges her to a trivia contest, which he loses.
05:46Badly.
05:47In a non-rusting aluminum epoxy, what are the percentages of aluminum and epoxy?
05:52Easy.
05:53Everyone knows that.
05:5470% aluminum, 30% epoxy.
05:56Actually, that's 80% aluminum and 20% epoxy.
06:0070%, 80%.
06:01What's the difference?
06:02One is right and one is wrong.
06:04Having lost his claim to the title of man of science, Tim insists on skipping to the bonus round,
06:08where he can demonstrate that he has no use for science because he is the practical man.
06:13And what is that?
06:14It's the Tool Bowl Super Bonus Screw-Off.
06:18First person to screw those screws in takes the whole thing.
06:21Tim makes Wildman Whitehouse proud by foregoing all the reliable and time-tested power drills
06:26in favor of his own handmade piece of crap.
06:29Your electric screwdriver has a gas engine?
06:31It's big, it's stupid, it sucks.
06:33He loses.
06:34These men are neither men of science nor practical men.
06:37They're just loud and busy.
06:40But loud and busy is enough to keep Tim the Tool Man Taylor on the air for about a decade,
06:44and loud and busy is enough to earn Wildman the Lightning King Whitehouse,
06:48a spot on the board of directors of the Atlantic Telegraph Company.
06:56Their intention is for Wildman to serve as the company's attack dog.
06:59The law of squares put forth by William Thompson threatens to doom the project before it even gets going.
07:04It argues that the capacitance of the cable's insulation combines with the resistance of the wire itself
07:09to produce an exponential slowdown effect.
07:12Thompson has suggested that this effect could be sufficiently mitigated
07:16if the copper wire interior were larger and of higher quality.
07:19But Cyrus Field's trademark impatience has led him to already order the manufacture of the cable
07:25without heeding any of this advice.
07:27This is the cable they're stuck with.
07:29Defending it seems impossible.
07:31But it's not impossible to Wildman, who continues to demonstrate a singular gift for saying stuff.
07:36Thompson has laid out a very thorough defense of his law of squares.
07:40I do not understand any of this.
07:43I would like to tell you that I really gave it my best shot,
07:45but I think I made it to about this equation right here before pulling the ripcord.
07:50I'm just not doing this.
07:52Sorry.
07:53And neither are the investors, who have about as much appetite for all this stuff as I do.
07:58Wildman's counter-argument to the law of squares is, I gotta admit, a lot more palatable.
08:02It basically boils down to his claim that he tested hundreds of miles of cable with his own methods,
08:06and it was fine.
08:08How did he test them doesn't matter.
08:10He calls the law of squares a, quote, fiction of the schools.
08:13In other words, it's for nerds.
08:15Wildman's argument is vague and insubstantial, but the layperson investor doesn't know that.
08:20In fact, they probably appreciate hearing that all these ivory tower schoolboys are philosophers
08:24who work in abstractions and don't understand how things really get done.
08:29Whitehouse and Thompson spend the fall of 1856 going back and forth a few times in London scientific journals.
08:34It should be noted that while the law of squares is generally accurate,
08:38Thompson, as he himself will later admit, made some hasty assumptions based on it
08:43that were less than perfectly accurate.
08:45More than anything, though, he's having trouble figuring out how to even respond to Whitehouse
08:49because he's not exactly sure of what Whitehouse is saying
08:52because he doesn't even think Whitehouse is exactly sure of what Whitehouse is saying.
08:58Apparently, Wildman experimented on that length of cable by just dumping it all in a gigantic vat
09:03and filling it with dirt, somehow believing that the dirt would present the exact same properties
09:09as if you submerged the cable in water, which of course is what he should have been most interested in.
09:15Wildman throws out a lot of assertions and conclusions that are just plain old regular wrong,
09:20but this one is special.
09:22He claims that wrapping a cable in iron wires is exactly the same as submerging it in water.
09:28It's such an eccentrically stupid thing to say.
09:32In its own way, it's so dumb it's exciting.
09:35This is the Wildman-Whitehouse experience, though.
09:37Wildman doesn't conduct experiments, he just does stuff.
09:41Wildman doesn't construct arguments, he just says stuff.
09:44Pretending for just a second that Whitehouse is a scientist,
09:48he and William Thompson are as different as two scientists could possibly be.
09:52Whitehouse has accomplished nothing and is wildly impressed with himself.
09:56By the time Thompson reaches his later years, he'll be recognized as one of the greatest
10:00and most important scientists to ever live.
10:03Even now, in his early 30s, he holds more than enough clout in academic circles
10:06to end this guy's non-career.
10:09But Thompson's as humble as Wildman is not.
10:12He'll define himself by all the things he wasn't able to accomplish
10:15rather than all the things he was.
10:17Science humbles him.
10:18He's deeply religious but never feels the need to study theology
10:21because he believes God speaks to him through science.
10:24It's as though he has a healthy understanding of how small he truly is,
10:29in spite of all the praise and accolades thrown his way.
10:31These days, he's even less inclined to pull himself into an argument than usual
10:35as he's spending most of his time caring for his ailing wife.
10:38I bet he also sees the writing on the wall.
10:41He knows that the 9 million variable equations that impress academia
10:44are not going to do anything to sway investors.
10:46He knows that the cable has already been ordered
10:49and probably knows that this cable, as fundamentally crappy as it is,
10:53is nonetheless their best and only chance to make history.
10:57So Thompson caves.
10:59He falls in line, writing,
11:00Well, White House's experiments are probably consistent with the Law of Squares.
11:04It's probably some weird battery thing.
11:07The important thing is he's got the practical men on board.
11:10Good work, everybody.
11:11It's going to go great.
11:12He is, after all, an Al Borland.
11:14And Al Borland is a company man.
11:17Al's relationship with his employer, Benford Tools,
11:20was always deferential and subservient.
11:22It came from a place of gratitude,
11:23which is commendable even if the subservience itself is not.
11:27Let's now return to that Season 3 episode titled Be True to Your Tool,
11:31in which Tim and Al discover that Benford wants them
11:33to promote a substandard reciprocating saw.
11:36Tim insists they go to company headquarters personally to voice their concerns.
11:40Why did we have to come here?
11:42You know I'm not good at confronting superiors.
11:45Now you've got to speak up.
11:47If a kiss-up like you has a complaint, he'll take it seriously.
11:49This was one of the only times Tim was ever right.
11:52So the president of Benford shows up and, right here,
11:55stopped the tape.
11:57I didn't make this connection until way late in production,
12:00but you remember how I established that Cyrus Field
12:02has graduated from being Tim to being Benford Tools?
12:05And you remember that story about his globe in the office,
12:08and from that point forward,
12:09he always made it a point to be the globe guy?
12:12Well, here you go.
12:13The president of Benford is very proud of the globe in his office,
12:16the calling card of the head-up-his-ass executive-class dumb guy.
12:20Continuing.
12:20It's an inferior tool.
12:22Both Al and I agree.
12:25Is this true, Al?
12:34I would like some tea.
12:36He can't do it.
12:37There's too much loyalty to Benford to Buck, even when he should.
12:40Maybe he feels like he's fully dependent on Benford
12:43and wouldn't ever be able to host another show elsewhere,
12:45and maybe he's right.
12:48How many third-rate regional home improvement shows can there be?
12:51Similarly, Thompson seems to know that the Atlantic Telegraph Company,
12:54as lacking as it is,
12:56is nonetheless the only outfit that presents even a remote chance
12:59of successfully laying a transatlantic telegraph cable.
13:03So, he joins up as an unpaid advisor,
13:05probably in the hope that he'll be able to help squeeze
13:07some kind of miracle out of this thing.
13:10In so doing,
13:11the funniest thing happens.
13:13William and Wildman don't just make peace with each other,
13:17they become buddies.
13:19William pays Wildman a visit,
13:20Wildman shows him all his stupid instruments and experiments,
13:24William says they're neat.
13:26William publicly declares that Wildman's results are sound
13:29and it's all going to work out after all.
13:31William lends credibility to Wildman
13:33by talking him up in academic circles.
13:35He even tries to get him elected to the Royal Society.
13:38Thompson is way too smart to truly believe what he's saying here,
13:41but maybe he really has talked himself into it.
13:44As prolific as his contributions have been in theoretical science,
13:47he's still pretty new to applied science.
13:51Maybe he dismisses his own convictions as an irrational gut feeling,
13:54but he's humble to a fault here.
13:56Thompson should have trusted that gut,
13:59because he's right.
14:00And because one day,
14:01not too far from now,
14:03White House is going to return all this goodwill
14:05by betraying him.
14:06Al's do this, though.
14:08Goodwill is their vice.
14:09Tim gave Al every reason to walk away.
14:12He upstaged Al.
14:13He embarrassed him.
14:14He ignored him.
14:15He coasted on his hard work.
14:16He regularly put him in harm's way.
14:19He wouldn't stop clowning him.
14:20He wouldn't stop slandering his mother on TV.
14:22If the series finale of Home Improvement
14:24had ended with Al sending Tim to the hospital
14:26with his bare hands,
14:27I think we all would have understood.
14:28But Al stuck with Tim.
14:31He loved him.
14:32He cared about him.
14:33He showed up and came through for him
14:35again and again.
14:38He really shouldn't have.
14:43As the calendar turns over to 1857,
14:46both William Thompson and Wild Man White House
14:48tell the Atlantic Telegraph Company
14:50that they need more time to experiment with the cable
14:52before they start laying it across the ocean.
14:54But remember,
14:56this project is being overseen by Cyrus Field,
14:59the man who,
14:59despite having next to no experience
15:01in the business of underwater telegraphy,
15:03went off and ordered two gigantic lengths of cable
15:05without even asking for feedback
15:07from someone like Thompson.
15:08He seems to have solely relied
15:09on the recommendations of Brett
15:11and the manufacturers of the cable
15:12who predictably said,
15:13oh yeah, sure,
15:14it's going to go great.
15:15This is also a man
15:16who ordered the cable
15:17to be produced in two different factories
15:19and was such a novice
15:20or so careless
15:21or both
15:22that at no point
15:23did he ever bother to check
15:24and make sure the wires of both cables
15:26were being twisted
15:26in the right direction,
15:28which they are not,
15:29so they're going to have to complicate the process
15:30even further
15:31by retrofitting this cable
15:33with a big janky bracket apparatus.
15:36Field,
15:36who feels a need to impress investors
15:38and who also feels a need to rush everything
15:41because he is the most impatient man alive,
15:43says,
15:44no.
15:45No time for further experiments.
15:48We're doing this now.
15:49Two ships have been commissioned.
15:58One is the USS Niagara,
16:00a steam frigate
16:01that at 328 feet in length
16:03figures to be
16:03one of the largest warships
16:05ever built
16:05as of 1857.
16:07The other is the HMS Agamemnon.
16:10Compared to the Niagara,
16:11she's a little fella,
16:12about 100 feet shorter in length.
16:13She's also purely a wooden vessel
16:15lacking the Niagara's
16:17iron ribbing in the hull.
16:18These two ships will start
16:19from the inland waters
16:20east of Valencia Island,
16:21perhaps the least Irish-sounding place
16:23in all of Ireland.
16:24The most treacherous segments
16:26of this cable's path
16:27figure to be the two stretches
16:28where it approaches land
16:29in Ireland and Newfoundland
16:30given the rapid rise
16:31in the seafloor elevation
16:32and the rocky terrain.
16:34So placing the point of landfall here
16:36helps them at least
16:37avoid the extra trouble
16:38of contending with the brutal currents
16:39of the open ocean.
16:41Additionally,
16:41these shore-end stretches
16:42of 10 or 15 miles
16:43will be made up
16:44of a special cable construction
16:45that's a lot thicker
16:46and tougher than the dime-sized design
16:48that'll make up
16:49the vast majority of the cable.
16:50The Niagara and Agamemnon
16:51will sail together
16:52across the Atlantic
16:53and pay out this cable
16:54off the stern
16:55with the Niagara going first.
16:57Once the Niagara runs out of cable,
16:59they'll splice it
16:59to the length of cable
17:00carried by the Agamemnon,
17:02which will lay the cable
17:03the rest of the way
17:03to Newfoundland.
17:05This end will terminate
17:06at a little coastal village
17:07called Parts Content.
17:08The U.S. Navy
17:09has used primitive,
17:10yet surprisingly accurate,
17:11sounding technology
17:12to roughly estimate
17:13the undersea terrain
17:14across this stretch
17:15of the North Atlantic,
17:16which appears to be
17:17so friendly to this project
17:18that it's been called
17:19the Telegraph Plateau.
17:21This elevation chart
17:22is dramatically upscaled vertically,
17:24just so you can see
17:25the rapid rises
17:26near the continental shelves,
17:27as well as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
17:28in the middle,
17:29but it's actually pretty flat
17:30and nowhere near as deep
17:32as some other oceans
17:32around the world
17:33with a maximum depth
17:34of a little less than 15,000 feet.
17:37This will still be enough
17:38to produce enormous
17:39hydrostatic pressure
17:40on the cable's insulation,
17:41which is a big reason
17:43why it won't behave quite
17:44like it does
17:44in above-ground testing.
17:46Now, of course,
17:47a range of different personalities
17:48have their fingerprints
17:49all over this project,
17:50and while I couldn't confirm this,
17:52my guess is that Charles Bright
17:54is the guy chiefly responsible
17:55for this incredibly impressive
17:57coiling system
17:58deep within the belly
17:59of the Agamemnon.
18:00An identical system
18:01is employed by the Niagara.
18:03It's born of ingenuity,
18:05experience,
18:05and a true understanding
18:07of the cable
18:07they're working with.
18:09The cable is very carefully
18:10wrapped around this giant cone
18:12in perfectly round layers.
18:14Although they're missing
18:14from this illustration,
18:15a series of iron rings
18:17surrounds this cone,
18:18and when the cable
18:18is pulled above deck,
18:19those rings gently guide it
18:20through the hatch.
18:22Loading the cable like this
18:23is a very intricate process
18:25that takes them forever,
18:27but when you've got
18:28a thousand miles of cable
18:29coated in natural insulation
18:31and you can't afford
18:32any kinks anywhere
18:33throughout the entire length,
18:36this is how it's got to be.
18:37What this means, though,
18:38and this is where we enter
18:40the Cyrus Field experience,
18:42the Agamemnon isn't big enough
18:44to comfortably store
18:45both this cable
18:46and the massive amounts of coal
18:47required to power the engine.
18:49If I were Cyrus Field,
18:50well, there are many things
18:52I would do differently,
18:53but for one,
18:53I think I'd choose to contract
18:55three large ships
18:56or even four.
18:57Splice the cables into four lengths
18:59and splice them back together at sea.
19:01That obviously wouldn't be cheap,
19:02so I would just give myself
19:04more time to do the thing
19:05I'm best at if I'm Cyrus Field,
19:07talking a big game
19:08and raising money.
19:09This would also give Thompson
19:10and Whitehouse the time
19:11they were asking for
19:12to do more experiments,
19:13but nope, two ships it is.
19:16A couple of support ships
19:17will tag along,
19:18but they won't be carrying
19:19any cable.
19:20And while the gigantic Niagara
19:21can carry this load
19:22pretty much fine,
19:23the Agamemnon has to utilize
19:25its coal bunkers
19:26just to make room for the cable.
19:28This means that 70 tons of coal
19:30has to be stored on the deck
19:32in open air.
19:33They try to do this
19:34as smartly as they can,
19:35storing 35 tons
19:36on both the port
19:37and starboard side
19:38of the deck
19:39to stabilize it.
19:40Not optimal,
19:42but we'll probably find out
19:43whether or not
19:44this is a good idea
19:45soon enough,
19:45won't we?
19:58When the two ships sail
20:00into Valencia Bay,
20:01practically everyone
20:02in County Kerry
20:03is there to greet them.
20:04This part of Ireland
20:05is like the vast majority
20:06of places on Earth
20:07in this time
20:07and that nothing
20:08ever happens here.
20:09So it's nice
20:10that they're treated
20:11to the opening stage
20:12of what figures to be
20:13one of the most impressive
20:14feats in human history
20:16to this point.
20:17Nearly all the major players
20:19will be aboard
20:19one of these two vessels,
20:21Cyrus Field,
20:22William Thompson,
20:23Charles Bright,
20:23J.W. Brett,
20:24and unfortunately,
20:25Samuel Morse.
20:27Wildman Whitehouse
20:28is a late scratch,
20:29staying home on the advice
20:30of his doctor,
20:31so the Tim Alpha,
20:32the Tim of Tims,
20:33will not be going.
20:35And as previously established,
20:36Cyrus Field,
20:37our previous Tim,
20:38has fully graduated
20:39into the form
20:40of Benford Tools.
20:41But don't worry,
20:42we will not be lacking
20:43for Tims.
20:44These ships will be filled
20:46with maybe a couple of owls
20:48surrounded by hundreds
20:49of Tims.
20:50Believe you me.
20:55At dawn on Thursday,
20:56August 6th, 1857,
20:59the Niagara and Agamemnon
21:00are sent off
21:01by throngs of adoring
21:02onlookers.
21:03As they disappear from view
21:04out of Valencia Bay
21:05and into the open ocean,
21:07the Niagara begins
21:08to pay out the heavier
21:09shore end cable
21:10from her stern.
21:11Now, the paying out
21:11machinery is a pretty
21:13sophisticated
21:13and impressive thing.
21:15It's designed
21:15to gently pull the cable
21:16up from one of these
21:17cone apparatuses
21:18below decks
21:19and just as gently
21:20spin it over a big wheel
21:21with workers stationed
21:22all along the line
21:23to keep an eye out
21:24and make sure
21:25it's being guided
21:25along properly.
21:26This wheel also
21:27has a brake system
21:28on it that his chief
21:29operator, Charles Bright,
21:30can apply in the event
21:31that they're letting go
21:32of the cable too quickly.
21:34This is important
21:35because when dropped
21:35underwater,
21:36the weight of the cables
21:37can act
21:37The cable has broken.
21:41Five miles
21:42into their journey,
21:43the cable
21:44has broken.
21:45The line got caught
21:46in the machinery
21:47probably because
21:48they're still at the phase
21:49where they're laying out
21:50that thicker shore end cable
21:51and possibly
21:52because this is the fate
21:54that most often
21:54befalls the tool man.
21:56Whenever the riders
21:57wanted to bottle up
21:57an episode with a simple
21:58Tim goof,
21:59they'd just tie some cable
22:00to him and shove him
22:01off the roof.
22:04Guys, don't let go
22:05of that rope.
22:09Cables confounded Tim.
22:11He didn't understand
22:12their basic properties
22:13and how much
22:14can we really blame him?
22:15Cables, cords, ropes,
22:16these are counterintuitive
22:17things.
22:17I count myself
22:19among the legions
22:19of people who've broken
22:20a phone because
22:21our headphones
22:21snagged a railing
22:22or doorknob and
22:23yanked the phone
22:24right out of our pocket, these things humble us often.
22:27Luckily, they're still close enough to the shore
22:29to be able to go back and start over.
22:31This means one of the support ships
22:32has to go all the way back to the shore,
22:34pull it back out of the water, and re-splice it,
22:36which takes a while.
22:38I'm not sure if the adoring crowd is still there.
22:40I hope they've all left, because this is pretty embarrassing.
22:44Eventually, they set off again,
22:46with the Niagara dropping cable behind it.
22:48The sun sets, and they sail on without incident
22:50as the pang-out wheel loudly cranks along.
22:53Cyrus Field's brother, Henry,
22:54describes an interesting phenomenon aboard the Niagara.
22:58The men are still rattled by this morning's incident
23:00and the lesson in how truly fragile this cable is.
23:03They feel like it could snap at any moment
23:05and rejoice in every moment it doesn't.
23:07Its fragility seems to humanize it in a way,
23:10as though they're caring for a sick friend.
23:12They even tiptoe and whisper around it
23:14as though it's resting and they don't want to wake it up.
23:16Their care is rewarded.
23:18Days pass without incident.
23:20The weather is good.
23:21The pang-out machine keeps doing its thing.
23:23Grinding more cable out of the holes and into the water.
23:25They can see the cables functioning well,
23:27which, by the way, is one fun little perk
23:29of this whole enterprise.
23:31While they're dropping this cable,
23:32they're actually also using it to send messages
23:34hundreds of miles back and forth between the ship
23:36and the station in Valencia Bay.
23:39This is incredibly useful, since they'll know instantly
23:41if something happens to go wrong with the cable somewhere.
23:43It's also just unbelievably cool.
23:46They're in a ship.
23:47A moving ship in the ocean talking to people on land hundreds of miles away,
23:5150 years before the advent of wireless radio.
23:54It's got to be the most amazing thing any of them have ever seen.
23:57On Monday evening, the line goes dead.
24:00It doesn't fade, it doesn't get jumbled up,
24:06it just plain stops.
24:08Instantly.
24:09The line doesn't seem to have broken,
24:12because if it had, they'd be able to tell from a difference in weight on the cable.
24:15Not knowing what to do, they call the ship's electricians,
24:18who can't make heads or tails of it,
24:20so they call the ship's racist, Samuel Morse.
24:22Morse has been in his quarters all day, horribly seasick,
24:25and I'm very glad he is, but if only for this particular moment,
24:30put yourself in his shoes if you would like to imagine hell.
24:33You're 66 years old, and by all accounts about as seasick as you can possibly get,
24:38bedridden, constantly vomiting, the whole deal.
24:41You're miserable, and since the ship never stops rocking,
24:43and you're only a short way into the voyage,
24:45you know you're in for many more days of this.
24:48And then they drag you out of bed and ask you to troubleshoot
24:51a troubleshooter's worst nightmare.
24:53It's just a telegraph hooked up to a dead cable.
24:56You might have some sort of instrument to sort of ping the wire
24:58and try to estimate where the problem is, but it's 1857.
25:02Your instruments probably aren't precise enough to tell you anything valuable at all.
25:06And even if you could somehow isolate the length of cable where the problem was,
25:10you've already laid a couple hundred miles of it.
25:12What if it's mile number 37, mile number 174?
25:16What are you actually supposed to do about it?
25:18If you've ever had to solve a complicated problem while also being so sick you could
25:22barely get out of bed, multiply that by 10 with around 200 people anxiously staring at
25:28you, and you've got this.
25:29Morse can't do anything about this.
25:32Nobody can.
25:33And then, out of nowhere, the cable comes back to life and functions perfectly.
25:39To this day, no one knows why it went dead.
25:42No one knows why it clicked back on.
25:45Those aboard can barely contain their emotion.
25:47Their old buddy is doing just fine.
25:54There is, thankfully, an Al Borland in the mix.
25:56Charles Bright has spent every waking moment managing the brake on the cable's wheel,
26:01which takes an extraordinary amount of skill.
26:03In a report to the directors later this year, Bright will outline the ridiculous on-the-fly
26:08calculus that's necessary to operate this thing.
26:11So here's the USS Niagara.
26:13As of noon on Saturday the 8th, it's right about here, with a seafloor about 2,000 feet
26:18deep.
26:19The Niagara's been moving pretty slow, less than 5 knots.
26:22This is easy mode, but only compared to what comes after.
26:25It's still tricky.
26:26If he just sat there and let the wheel spin, it would spin out the cable way too quick.
26:30Because this cable here that's in freefall, it's not quite as heavy since it's underwater,
26:34but it's still really heavy.
26:36Since the ocean floor is 2,000 feet away, that's 2,000 feet of loose, iron-reinforced cable
26:42that's gonna weigh on the wheel and make it pay out the stored cable way too quickly.
26:46Which of course is where the brake comes in.
26:48This wheel manipulates a very powerful brake that applies literal tons of resistance to
26:53the wheel.
26:54It requires finesse.
26:55You never want to slam on the brake, since that would jerk the cable, which is a great
26:59way to break it.
27:00How much resistance you want to apply depends on a few factors.
27:03A big one is how fast the ship is moving.
27:06Another is how the undersea terrain is changing.
27:09Saturday the 8th through Monday the 10th are critical, because these are the days when the
27:13Niagara creeps very slowly over the transcontinental shelf.
27:17That's this monster over here.
27:18Again, this scale is warped for the sake of illustration just so you can see it, but down
27:22here I'll keep everything perfectly to scale just so we can get a picture of how quickly
27:27this terrain drops off.
27:29The Niagara keeps on scooting along over this shelf, and over a span of just 30 miles or so,
27:34the ocean floor drops way, way off.
27:37What used to be 2,000 feet of water is now about 12,000 feet, meaning there's six times
27:43as much heavy iron cable hanging loose in the water, six times the strain.
27:47So what Charles Bright wants to do here is minimize the amount of cable in free fall.
27:52Get it on the floor as quick as possible, because once it hits the floor it stops working
27:56against you.
27:57Ideally it looks something like this.
27:59If he were to apply too much brake and feed it out too slowly, it would look like that.
28:04Obviously that means way, way more loose cable hanging out there.
28:08You're basically playing tug-of-war with your cable, great way to brake it entirely.
28:12But if Bright applies the brake too lightly and pays out the cable more generously, he
28:16runs the risk of this.
28:18It can kink up and fold over on itself, which could really easily crack the gut of perch insulation.
28:23You're inevitably gonna need to pick up this slack, which is gonna mean dragging all this
28:27extra cable across the ocean floor.
28:29Also bad, because for all we know, in 1857 there's all kinds of rocks and debris that could
28:34snag and damage it.
28:35So in order to maintain this ideal form, Bright has to perform constant, on-the-fly calculus
28:40and track a number of variables.
28:43Where is the ship?
28:43What does the available data say about the ocean depth at this particular location?
28:47How fast is the ship moving?
28:48Are the winds picking up?
28:50Will those winds suddenly speed him up or slow him down?
28:52Hey look, there's more strain on the cable than there's supposed to be.
28:55Is there some invisible undercurrent taking hold of it?
28:58Should you ride it out or do something about it?
29:00Is one of the coils the cable running low?
29:01Is it time for the ship's hands to splice in a new cable?
29:04Have they happened to notice a weak spot in the insulation?
29:06Do you need to slow it down and buy him some time to repair it?
29:09Bright has to take all of these things, and more, into account every moment in order to
29:13gently lay down this cable on a surface two miles away that he cannot see.
29:18Imagine being Charles Bright and obsessing over this for, I don't know, 18 hours a day,
29:23maybe more, for three days straight.
29:26It's amazing he hasn't suffered a nervous breakdown, but having laid undersea cables
29:30before, he's probably the best person on earth at this particular job.
29:35It's now Tuesday the 11th at around 3.30 in the morning, everything's moving like clockwork.
29:39Bright has decided he's going to take five, so he puts a less experienced mechanic in charge
29:44so he can make some rounds across the ship.
29:47Perhaps the greatest and most iconic stunt in the history of Tool Time occurs in Season 4.
29:53The boys head off site to demonstrate how a gigantic hydraulic crane works.
29:57Al is licensed to operate this crane and is experienced in its operation.
30:01Tim is not.
30:03Let me jump inside and show our viewers some of the controls.
30:05Tim, maybe I should be…
30:07Hold on a minute.
30:08Bright doesn't say exactly how far he gets to the other end of the ship,
30:11how many steps he's able to take before he stops hearing the paying-out machine.
30:16It's gone silent, and he knows exactly what that means.
30:19He sprints back as fast as he can yelling,
30:21BRAKES! BRAKES!
30:29This is almost certainly the most expensive goof throughout the entire 8-season run of Home Improvement.
30:35It's tough to precisely calculate how expensive this goof is in the immediate wake of the cable
30:40snapping and falling to the ocean floor.
30:41Bright had yelled and screamed at his mechanic to ease off the brake,
30:45but apparently he just didn't hear him.
30:48380 miles of cable.
30:51Gone instantly.
30:52Because the wrong man had his hand on the brake for, what, 30 seconds?
30:56A few months later, they do manage to scoop up and recover about 50 miles of it,
31:00but the remaining 330 or so miles are left to sit on the ocean floor for eternity.
31:07The mission is over.
31:08The Niagara and Agamemnon head home.
31:11The estimated losses from the cable alone total about 12 million modern American dollars, but
31:18these men don't care about that.
31:20It's not their money.
31:21They've just experienced the loss of their friend, one they'd spent days caring for.
31:27None of them speak.
31:27Most of them cry.
31:40Now this is one of those rare circumstances in which a Tim can find himself pretty useful.
31:45Tims tend to present extreme confidence that's quite often unfounded but powerful nonetheless.
31:51In the wake of the Atlantic Telegraph Company's devastating failure, Cyrus Field picks himself and
31:56everyone else right off the mat, refusing to let him or his company quit on this thing.
32:01He's a live wire.
32:02The second he disembarks, he makes the rounds among fellow board members, investors, and the press,
32:07championing the viability of this enterprise.
32:09It results in a second attempt in 1858.
32:13One that almost certainly wouldn't have happened without a guy like him banging the drum.
32:17He also, for a time, evolves into an end-of-episode variant of Tim,
32:21which is to say the Tim who actually learns a lesson and changes his ways in the few moments
32:25before forgetting it entirely and becoming his usual self in the next episode.
32:29And as usual, he learns his lesson by way of a conversation with a Wilson.
32:34Since the paying out apparatus was the problem the first time around,
32:37Field adopts a new technology developed by John Appled, a man who's the rarest of creatures.
32:42A rich guy who's actually uniquely gifted and seems like a pretty cool guy.
32:47He's invented a lot of interesting stuff, but he rarely bothers with patents at all,
32:51preferring to give his ideas away to the public for free.
32:53And now he makes available his brilliant automatic braking system,
32:57which engineer William Everett incorporates into a far more efficient paying out machine.
33:02This braking system can actually sense when the strain on the cable exceeds a set limit
33:06and release the brake automatically, thus protecting the cable.
33:10This would have prevented the snap that ended their last attempt.
33:13It's incredibly advanced stuff for 1858.
33:16So this time around, instead of staying together for the entire voyage,
33:19the Niagara and Agamemnon are going to stop at the midpoint,
33:22splice their cables together and sail away from each other in opposite directions,
33:26laying the cables behind them.
33:28This means they will not be able to communicate with the shore,
33:31but they will be able to talk to each other on the trip home,
33:33which is probably more important.
33:35Many of the key players will still be on board with Field on the Niagara
33:39and Thompson and Bright on the Agamemnon.
33:41Morse has had enough seasickness and is staying home,
33:44but Wild Man White House, after missing the last trip for medical reasons,
33:47will be on this one.
33:49Finally, he'll be able to accrue some practical real-world experience,
33:53actually strike that.
33:54Thompson has to take his place after Wild Man bails at the last minute.
33:58This is becoming a theme.
34:00Wild Man White House, the Lightning King himself,
34:03has been talking a pretty big game for someone who missed the first historic voyage,
34:07has offered a second chance, and this is this one too.
34:10Both his peers and future historians are starting to roll their eyes at his explanation
34:15that he's missing these trips for legitimate medical reasons.
34:18And while none of us can really know for sure,
34:20I mean, listen, the guy's a Tim.
34:23And Tim is a bullshitter.
34:25You see, I think you're avoiding this again.
34:27Every time we go to make an appointment with the lawyer,
34:29we end up canceling it.
34:30Usually because you come up with some bizarre physical ailment.
34:33Do not.
34:34The last time we didn't go because your hair hurt.
34:36Here, Tim's dodging an appointment to see a lawyer about his will.
34:39He doesn't want to even imagine a future that doesn't include him
34:42because he doesn't want to confront conditions he can't control.
34:45This is also Wild Man's deal.
34:47Bruce J. Hunt's work, as you've probably noticed by now,
34:50offers an invaluable window into the type of dude Wild Man is,
34:54and Hunt notes that Wild Man always keeps his methods and experiments proprietary.
34:59It's part of the reason why Thompson had so much trouble critiquing him.
35:02It's almost as though he was operating in his own bespoke language.
35:05He carefully curated his findings through papers and speeches and staged experiments,
35:10but he had no real collaborators, and I think that's by design.
35:15It allowed him to ensure that no one could identify or call out his bullshit.
35:19It offered an enclosed, controlled environment that,
35:21were he to board the Niagara or the Agamemnon, he wouldn't have.
35:26Well, get well soon, Wild Man.
35:28Unlike last time, the Niagara and Agamemnon set sail from Plymouth, England,
35:39being a little more careful in the planning phase this time around,
35:42they've decided to begin the voyage on Thursday, June 10th,
35:45during a time of year when conditions are typically most favorable in the Atlantic Ocean.
35:49There's less fanfare this time, which doesn't really bother anyone on board,
35:53because everything is actually going like it's supposed to.
35:56Throughout Thursday and Friday and into Saturday, the weather's nice,
36:00the waters are calm, they don't even have to worry about dropping the cable yet,
36:03but when they do, the new and improved paying-out machine figures to run like clockwork.
36:08Having run out of things to worry about,
36:10some on board start complaining about the lack of a breeze.
36:13Less wind means less sail power, which means the ships need to burn up more of their coal.
36:18Oh, you want some wind?
36:20You'll get some wind.
36:21Soon, the sailors spot clouds and the horizon as black as night.
36:30This means one thing, and only one thing, it is tool time.
36:34What awaits them is an endless barrage of catastrophic events,
36:37as though every single tool time disaster occurred in unison.
36:42Against such powerful forces of nature, every man aboard the HMS Agamemnon, who previously regarded
36:48himself and Al Borland, will be reduced to a hapless, beaten, and bloodied Tim.
36:58On Saturday the 12th, the barometer begins to drop, the winds pick up and rain starts falling.
37:03On Sunday, a storm pulls in.
37:05It's not possible to objectively place the magnitude of this storm within historical context,
37:09since modern meteorology did not yet exist, but multiple accounts describe it as one of
37:14the most powerful storms, if not the most, ever seen in the Atlantic Ocean.
37:19There are many grizzled old sailors on board who've sailed all over the world and think they've seen
37:24everything. They haven't.
37:26From here forth, we'll rely on the account of London Times correspondent Nicholas Woods,
37:30who's aboard the Agamemnon.
37:31Sunday the 13th, things become fierce in a hurry.
37:34The gigantic Niagara, with its state-of-the-art iron ribbing, is having some trouble given all
37:39the weight she's carrying, but the smaller Agamemnon, who's carrying about as much,
37:43is in a lot more trouble.
37:44She's rolling over the waves from side to side, and her wooden beams are cracking so loudly they
37:49sound like gunfire. Deck hands work all throughout the night without sleep.
37:53On Monday the 14th, the barometer falls even further.
37:56The sun appears briefly, but the ships are hit with a gale so loud that nothing,
38:00not even orders yelled from officers, can be heard.
38:02Then the storm returns and hits even harder than it did the day before.
38:06Woods will use the word desperate.
38:08Suddenly, everyone gets a bit worried about what all this agitation will do to the cables stored
38:13in the holds, as well as the 70 tons of coal stored above decks, but after securing them,
38:18it seems like they'll stay in place.
38:20On Tuesday the 15th, the barometer rises and the storm eases up just a bit, but it's still
38:25knocking the Agamemnon all over the place. She's just not a very nimble ship and can't navigate
38:30the waves as well as the Niagara, despite being much smaller. Carrying all this weight makes it
38:34tougher, to the point where she just kind of has to plunge headfirst right down into the waves and
38:39take her medicine all at once. She takes so many head-on shots that one of the main beams completely
38:45snaps and has to be rigged back together. It goes on like this for four more entire days.
38:51Everyone on board the Agamemnon is physically and emotionally spent.
38:55On Saturday afternoon, the barometer finally begins to inch back up and the storm lays off,
39:01and then the sky turns black again. Every hardened sailor sees it and becomes pale in the face.
39:07They know the worst is yet to come. They now enter the Tool Time Singularity.
39:13By Saturday night, about six days into this onslaught, the Agamemnon is rolling a full
39:1730 degrees from side to side. Once again, the gale force wind makes it impossible to hear anything
39:22or anyone. Which is perhaps just as well because everyone is too preoccupied with keeping themselves
39:27alive and on board to do anything else. Sailors are wrapping their arms around beams and hiding
39:33themselves in corners just to keep the storm from grabbing them and throwing them overboard.
39:37This is the persistent state of things, not for a few moments, not for a few minutes,
39:42but for hours and hours and hours. Even this is yet another opening act. It's getting worse.
39:51Woods declares that what follows almost defies description, although not for lack of effort.
39:56Saltwater crashes in and begins to flood the lower decks. The Agamemnon creaks over and nosedives into
40:02the trough of a gigantic wave and while it somehow remains intact, everything that isn't bolted down goes
40:08flying. The sacks holding dozens of tons of coal bust open and spray so much coal dust that the men
40:14cannot see their hands in front of their faces. Everything made of glass shatters. William Thompson,
40:19like everyone else, is fighting for his life. He tries in vain to save his equipment until it's
40:23mostly smashed to pieces and his cabin is flooded entirely. With everything below decks now becoming
40:28a death trap, all hands get to the main deck where no one can keep both feet down for more than a
40:33few seconds at a time. The storm throws everyone on board back and forth but soon gets bored of that and
40:37now starts prying loose the main deck's barge which certainly weighs several tons and starts sliding
40:42it and knocking it around the deck. Anyone who can't get out of its way is dead. The Agamemnon is
40:48now lurching sideways at a full 45 degree angle then suddenly and violently 45 degrees the other way.
40:55Back and forth like this over and over and over. At this point she is no longer being bullied or punished
41:02or beaten. She is being devoured.
41:17An unholy cocktail is forming. Scalding hot soup is spilling out of its enormous cauldrons burning
41:22anyone who touches it. Barrels of oil come loose bouncing all around the ship and spilling highly
41:27viscous highly flammable fluid everywhere. Barrels of copper sulfate come loose. Copper sulfate which
41:33makes your eyes and skin feel like they're on fire upon contact now slushes together with this slurry
41:38of hot soup oil salt water and coal dust. It covers everything and everyone and everyone is too
41:44shit scared to notice or care. The Niagara which hasn't been nearly as bad off helplessly watches all
41:50of this unfold. Having given the Agamemnon some space up until this point she now moves closer and
41:55resolves to crash through the waves with her in an expression of solidarity. Those aboard the Niagara
42:01including Cyrus Field are incapable of offering any more than that. And after the Agamemnon nosedives
42:07into yet another mountain-like wave, those aboard the Niagara are convinced she's sinking. She isn't
42:14yet, although it's impossible to count how many devastating blows she's now sustained. Another one
42:19snaps off her steam pipe adding scalding water vapor to that cocktail of oil, sulfate, sea water,
42:25soup, and coal dust. Having now endured approximately a week of this in some measure
42:29or another, some men aboard are so desperate for sleep that they actually work up the audacity or
42:34more likely delirium to lay on their cots. After a few seconds the storm always throws them out and
42:40onto the floor. There's almost no furniture left that hasn't been reduced to crumbs. 50 miles or so
42:45worth of telegraph cable has shaken itself loose and whips around the lower decks resembling,
42:50wood says a cargo of live eels. The Agamemnon is in this position in the first place of course because
42:57of this cable. She's carrying about a thousand tons of it making her almost impossible to maneuver.
43:02Bright himself describes the cable as quote the millstone about the necks of all on board. They
43:08could significantly improve their odds of survival were they to throw it overboard but have resolved to
43:13hold onto it until it's clear they have no other choice. For this obstinance the storm punishes them
43:20further, hitting even harder with a crash that sends a full three quarters of everyone aboard
43:25ragdolling across the decks and smashing into one another. It's now when everyone aboard suspects
43:33they're likely to die. But this is the cable that will tether humankind together and they will not
43:39surrender it to the sea. They will not give in to its demands no matter what.
43:52Day breaks on Tuesday the 22nd. The storm, one that lasted about nine entire days, has finally left.
44:00Most sailors on board have lost their boots which were either blown out of storage or torn right off
44:05their feet by the waves. Almost unbelievably the Agamemnon survives and no one aboard has died.
44:12The trauma of the experience might be best illustrated by these figures. 45 men are in
44:18sickbay. Only 10 are there because of physical injuries. The rest are I suppose we can say
44:24spiritually broken. As the officers begin to right the ship and find their bearings they realize that the
44:31storm has blown them 200 miles backward. Having visited hell for a whole week and change the
44:44transatlantic telegraph project now feels like an afterthought. The Agamemnon does limp along with the
44:49Niagara to the rendezvous point. They splice the cable and go their separate ways finally being able to
44:55utilize their shiny new cable devices. If you're trying to lay some cable well you can't do better than the
45:00the Binford 6100 telescopic ladder. It's a ladder. You are an adult who hosts a home improvement show.
45:14You cannot possibly mess this up. It's a wheel that goes forwards and backwards. You are an experienced
45:22mechanic. You cannot possibly mess this up. But again the storm has reduced every hand aboard to a tin.
45:29This Tim probably in a fit of equal parts excitement and sleep deprivation somehow pulls the wrong way
45:36snapping the cable instantly. They quickly re-splice and start over but the tone has been set.
45:42About 12 hours later in the middle of the night the cable goes dead. Both ships turn around meet back
45:48at the rendezvous point and try to figure out what happened. Upon trading notes they realize that the
45:53break happened at least 10 miles away from both ships meaning it occurred somewhere at the bottom of the
45:59ocean. A devastating outcome. If a break happens near a ship or on its way to the bottom you can
46:05shock that up to a failure in the paying out whether it's failing mechanics or human error. But if it was
46:10at least 10 miles away from the ships that means it hit the ocean floor and then broke. How? Why?
46:17Absolutely impossible to know. What can be done about it? Absolutely nothing. Maybe we can execute everything
46:23perfectly and survive the storm of the century and still be doomed to failure.
46:36Defeated in every sense they resolve to try one last time. This time they agree that if the ships get
46:42further than 100 miles from the rendezvous point and the cable breaks that's it. They give up and go home
46:49for good. The Agamemnon sails 114 miles away just past the point of no return and the cable breaks. As the
46:59coil stored on the main deck unwound it was found that the storm had damaged the cable so badly it couldn't
47:05withstand the strain. And still Cyrus Field will not stay on the mat.
47:21The impulsiveness that led him to rush the order of substandard cable to rush the laying of that cable
47:26to pretend as though any of this was his original idea to begin with is the same impulsiveness that
47:33makes quitting impossible. Field has proven that he's not quite the knock-kneed pencil-pushing
47:38businessman some had taken him for. He's been out there on both voyages and when he beelines straight
47:43off the boat and into London to beg the rest of the directors of the Atlantic Telegraph Company to
47:47give it one last shot he does so with a good deal of credibility. He is all in on this thing. Others are not.
47:55The room reeks of defeatism. It seems to have dawned on the investors how silly of an idea this all was.
48:02How stupid it was of them to think they could on the cheap and on a claustrophobic timetable string
48:07a telegraph cable to the other side of the world that was six times longer than the longest telegraph
48:12line in existence. Neither the technology nor our understanding of it is even here yet. Look
48:17at the progress we've made as of now. Attempt number one after repeated failures couldn't even make it 400
48:23miles. Attempt number two after repeated failures couldn't even make it 300 miles. All this money and we
48:29couldn't even make it a quarter of the way and even if we could we'd still have to deal with the problem
48:34of signal slowdown which we still have not found a proven solution for. We've jumped the gun. Maybe in
48:411880 or 1900 or 1950 we'll have the technology to actually lay a transatlantic cable that works. Trying
48:49it now is just throwing good money after bad. Might as well try to run this thing to Jupiter. One investor wants to
48:54call it now sell off all the cable they have left and cut their losses. The vice chairman of the company
48:59who up until this last failure had been a rock solid supporter of the enterprise storms out of the room and
49:05never comes back. What follows could only be made possible by a rare yet powerful Tim Al alliance.
49:13Cyrus Field joins forces with William Thompson and Charles Bright to passionately present their case that
49:18this is still worth trying. That they have enough cable left that even though the chances of success
49:25are probably one in a hundred those odds are worth taking. They manage to convince the board which votes
49:31in favor of one last try. This time however they won't wait another year nor do they feel they can.
49:39As Cyrus's brother Henry later writes, a bold decision needs to be followed by prompt action lest the spirit
49:45that inspired it be weakened by delay. While there is still barely enough cable in the ships to run the
49:51entire length, there's not enough to allow for any more mistakes. It's clear that whether this
49:57succeeds or fails, this will be the last transatlantic cable expedition for many years to come.
50:03This is the Atlantic Telegraph Company's last-ditch Hail Mary, and no other company on earth is
50:07capable of raising anywhere near enough capital to take up the cause if they fail. This is it.
50:15William Thompson, who weeks ago barely escaped the Agamemnon with his life, was only there to begin
50:25with because he was taking the place of White House who called in sick. Clearly Thompson could use a
50:30break, but White House now calls in sick a third time. Not that much of a surprise given that he
50:37previously promised to go on a practice run then suddenly bailed on that at the last minute too.
50:42But while he misses out on yet another chance to make history, it won't be long before he finds
50:46another much more spectacular way to become world famous. Don't worry about him.
50:52On July 17, 1858, just weeks after the last trip ended, the Niagara and Agamemnon, which has somehow
51:00already been made seaworthy again, sail out of the Cove of Cork to the rendezvous point. No one on the shore
51:05waves or cares. The consensus among the media, the public, and even many of those on board is that
51:11this is a joke. For the second time in about a month, the Agamemnon and Niagara splice the cables
51:17and part ways. Not long after, a whale surfaces near the Agamemnon, very close to the cable. They hold
51:23their breaths. The ship has faced every other kind of disaster. Why not this one? The whale grazes the cable,
51:30but then backs off and lets them continue on their way. Only hours later though, the great storm of
51:37June 1858, despite having dissipated in a previous voyage weeks ago, now prepares to deliver one final,
51:44likely fatal, blow. Field, Bright, and Thompson understand that all these hundreds of miles of
51:50cable may have sustained damage from the storm that, being coiled up and hidden, they can't see or know
51:55about. Consequently, they're paying out the cable at a very conservative rate that limits its strain to
52:001700 pounds. At around 8 PM, the coil unwraps to reveal a segment of cable that's badly damaged.
52:08It's set to go overboard in about 20 minutes. This is not an operation in which they can safely hit the
52:14pause button. If they abruptly stop the ship or apply too much brake, prior experiences taught them
52:19that the resultant jerk in the cable would probably snap it. They're on the clock. They should have enough
52:24time to make repairs. They're almost finished. And then Thompson reports that the current on the cable
52:30has gone completely dead. They understandably assume that this faulty segment of cable must be
52:36the source of the problem, that maybe they'd inadvertently broken the copper core while repairing it.
52:40They quickly decide they have no choice but to cut the faulty section altogether and make a splice.
52:46This is a far more involved and time-consuming maneuver. It's one they perform regularly, of course,
52:51but never this quickly. This is not enough clock. They cut the bad section and try anyway,
52:56racing against time. Right after it's cut out, right after it's too late, Thompson discovers that
53:03the source of the fault is actually miles up the line, far away from the Agamemnon. It had nothing to
53:09do with this segment they just cut out. Later, they'll learn that the current on the line died for the
53:13most basic of reasons. A battery went faulty on the Niagara, and all they have to do is switch out the
53:18battery for a new one to bring the line back to life, but in the moment, they don't know that.
53:23For all they know, the cable broke on the ocean floor again, and this panic they're in the throes
53:27of to make this splice is all for nothing. They embrace the panic anyway, even in the face of what
53:32they probably regard as near-certain failure. Only so many men can work on the splice at one time,
53:38so the rest huddle around in breathless, helpless terror, eyes darting from the men's fingers making the
53:43splice to the coil that's quickly unwinding, shedding cable like an hourglass sheds sand,
53:47until finally, time has run out. They have no choice but to slam the brake on the cable,
53:53practically daring it to snap until the men can finish the splice. With no more slack on the cable,
53:58it begins to go taut. Portions of cable that were neatly rested on the ocean floor now start to peel
54:04back up, adding more and more weight to the line. The men look on in despair as the instruments report a
54:09steadily increasing strain far beyond the 1,700 pounds that was prescribed. It doesn't break.
54:17Before long, the strain exceeds two imperial tons and nears 5,000 pounds nearly triple the amount that
54:25this poor cable should ever be asked to bear. It doesn't break. This correspondent describes the HMS
54:32Agamemnon as hanging by its end as though this cable is pulling back the entire battleship.
54:39It's worth remembering that if this cable breaks, there is no more cable, there is no more investment,
54:46there is no more Atlantic Telegraph Company, there is no other company at this point in history that
54:51can even begin to dream of such a venture. If this cable breaks, the history of global telecommunications
54:58will be set back by years, perhaps decades. This cable does not break. Finally, after minutes that seem
55:09like days, the splice is completed and the cable is finally allowed to run free and fly overboard.
55:15The cable did not break. By this point, the Atlantic Telegraph Company has left hundreds of miles of
55:22cable to waste away at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. What happens to them? Well, in 1877, an engineer
55:28will raise and recover a piece of it and find that the ocean has eaten away its iron exterior entirely,
55:33leaving nothing but the insulation and copper core. It's nearly impossible to imagine any of it surviving
55:39into the year 2025. It's gone. It was abandoned as garbage, never having been connected to its
55:45destination. It belonged to no network. It never was, and never will be, part of this superstructure.
55:53But this cable, this thread, held on when snapping would have meant setting back the progress of
56:00global communication by years, probably by decades. It was probably damaged. It was made imperfectly.
56:06It was stored and treated poorly. It was ragged. It had survived a near shipwreck and it was asked to
56:11heroically withstand multiple tons of strain, far more than it ever should have been able to bear.
56:17For reasons that cannot be explained, it survived. And it will make it to the shore. It will connect
56:25to this unified superstructure, this ship of Theseus. And although it no longer materially exists,
56:33it is the electric fabric that weaves through our walls and connects you to me right now.
56:47In the middle of the night, on August 4th, 1858, Cyrus Field lowers a boat from the Niagara and rows to the
57:04Newfoundland shore. He's still about a mile from the nearest telegraph station, which doesn't have an
57:09overnight operator, which will necessitate a trek of another 15 miles. He's about to get just a little
57:15taste of the terrors his former partner in fate, his old owl, Frederick Gisborne, experienced during
57:20his Newfoundland adventure years ago. It's easy to get turned around. It's pitch dark. It's sparsely
57:25populated. So many things in this part of the world are confusingly named. There are adjacent towns
57:30called Heart's Content, Heart's Desire, and Heart's Delight. See this lousy rock? It's called
57:35Lousy Rock. See this random island? It's called Random Island. See this town? It's called Dildo.
57:42I don't know what to tell you. Take it up with James Cook. At last, Field finds the telegraph office.
57:48At 6 in the morning, the transatlantic cable is connected to the station. Currents are sent and
57:54received from the Agamemnon off the coast of Ireland. Signals are strong. It lives.
58:01Dildo's
58:10Dildo's
58:14Transcription by CastingWords
58:44In Ireland, the opposite end of the cable is dragged in from the shore
58:48and connected to the telegraph station by Dr. Wildman Whitehouse.
59:14Transcription by CastingWords
59:44Transcription by CastingWords
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