[Sidenote: =Cyrus W. Field, 1819=]
[Sidenote: =In business for himself=]
=136. The Atlantic Cable.= Cyrus W. Field was born in Massachusetts in
1819. His grandfather was a Revolutionary soldier. Cyrus went to school
in his native town of Stockbridge, and at fifteen was given a place in
a New York store at fifty dollars a year. Before he was twenty-one he
went into business for himself. At the end of a dozen years he was the
head of a prosperous firm. In 1853 he retired from active business.
[Sidenote: =Why not span the Atlantic?=]
Field became interested in a man who was joining Newfoundland with the
mainland by means of a telegraph line. "Why not make a telegraph line
to span the Atlantic?" thought Field. He went to work, and put his
schemes before Peter Cooper and other generous men. They believed in
them.
[Sidenote: =Englishmen also approve the plan=]
Field next went abroad and laid his plan before a number of Englishmen.
He pleaded so eloquently that they, too, were convinced. He returned to
America to lay the matter before Congress and ask that body to vote him
a sum of money.
[Sidenote: =President Pierce signs the bill=]
Congress was very slow about it, and the bill did not pass until the
last days of that session. President Pierce signed it the last day of
his term as president.
[Sidenote: =Half a million dollars gone=]
Field returned to England and watched over the making of his "cable."
In August, 1857, everything was ready. The cable lay coiled on
shipboard, ready to be let out in the Atlantic. The great ship started,
and everything went well till three hundred thirty-five miles of the
cable had been let out, when it broke in two. It was the same as losing
half a million dollars.
[Illustration: PRESIDENT PIERCE SIGNING THE FIELD BILL]
[Sidenote: =A second trial=]
[Sidenote: =Breaks again=]
Field went back to England and began promptly to prepare for a second
trial. He then came to America and made arrangements to use the
_Niagara_, a large vessel. The British ship, _Agamemnon_, was also
taken to help in this second trial. The ships started in mid-ocean, one
going one way and one going the other way. This time only one hundred
eleven miles were laid, when the cable again parted.
[Sidenote: =A council of war=]
Field hastened to London to meet the men who had backed him in his
undertaking with their money. It was a council of war after a terrible
defeat! But Mr. Field did not believe in surrender, even to the sea.
[Sidenote: =Success=]
On the seventeenth of July, 1858, the ships again set sail for
mid-ocean. They "spliced" the cable, and the _Niagara_ with Mr. Field
on board sailed away for Newfoundland. The British ship went the other
way. This time they were successful. Both countries were excited. Queen
Victoria flashed a message under the sea to President Buchanan.
[Sidenote: =A great day in New York=]
Great was the rejoicing in New York, the home of Mr. Field. A religious
service, expressive of the deep interest of the people in the success
of his work, was held in Trinity Church, at which two hundred clergymen
in gowns appeared; national salutes were fired, a great procession was
formed, an address was made by the mayor of the city and, at a very
late hour, a grand banquet was held. While the banquet was going on,
the cable gave its last throb, and parted.
[Illustration: CYRUS W. FIELD
_From a photograph by Elliott and Fry, London_]
[Sidenote: =The cable parts the third time=]
The very day that a whole city rose up to do honor to the Atlantic
telegraph and its author, it gave its last flash and then went to sleep
forever in its ocean grave.
[Illustration: LAYING THE FIRST ATLANTIC CABLE]
[Sidenote: =After a wait of five years=]
After five years of slow and toilsome work, caused by the fact that the
Civil War was raging in the United States, Cyrus W. Field was again
ready. When the vessel, bearing the cable, was within six hundred miles
of land, the cable broke again.
[Sidenote: =The money subscribed=]
=137. The Final Success.= An Anglo-American Telegraph Company was
now formed. Mr. Field subscribed $50,000, Daniel Gooch $100,000, and
another person promised to bear a part of the expense. On a Friday
they set out and on another Friday they reached America with the cable
safely laid. Mr. Field sent this message to England:
[Sidenote: ="Hearts Content"=]
"Hearts Content, July 27, 1866. We arrived here at nine o'clock this
morning. All well. Thank God, the cable is laid, and is in perfect
working order."
[Sidenote: =Effect on the civilized world=]
[Sidenote: =Great honor for Mr. Field=]
The success of this undertaking, after so many years of failure,
produced a great effect throughout the civilized world. Mr. Field was
the center of all rejoicing. Congress voted him a gold medal. England
did honor to his name. The Paris Exposition of 1867 gave him the
highest medal it had to bestow. From Italy he received a decoration.
States and chambers of commerce in all parts of the nation passed
resolutions in praise of his great work.
Finally he took a trip around the world and received honors from many
nations. Mr. Field lived at Tarrytown, New York. He died in New York
City in 1892, at the age of seventy-three.