Transatlantic Telegraph Related Sheet Music

1858. Two with trimmed top margin. Appear to have been disbound.. Three ( 3) different pieces of printed music with illustrated covers depicting the enthusiasm surrounding the laying of the cable. Both romanticized and scientifically accurate depiction of the Niagara & Agamemnon laying the cable, the cable itself; both size and composition and the geographic placement. The titles the Atlantic Telegraph Schottisch (1857), The Ocean Telegraph March (1858) and the Atlantic Telegraph Polka (1858). All include music and no verse. Each measures approx. 13 1/2" x 10 1/4" The first cable was laid in the 1850s from Valentia in western Ireland to the Bay of Bulls, Trinity Bay, Newfoundland. The first communications occurred on 16 August 1858, but the line speed was poor and efforts to improve it caused the cable to fail after three weeks. The Atlantic Telegraph Company led by Cyrus West Field constructed the first transatlantic telegraph cable. The project began in 1854 and was completed in 1858. The cable functioned for only three weeks, but was the first such project to yield practical results. The first official telegram to pass between two continents was a letter of congratulations from Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom to President of the United States James Buchanan on August 16. Signal quality declined rapidly, slowing transmission to an almost unusable speed. The cable was destroyed the following month when Wildman Whitehouse applied excessive voltage to it while trying to achieve faster operation. It has been argued that the cable's faulty manufacture, storage and handling would have caused its premature failure in any case. Its short life undermined public and investor confidence and delayed efforts to restore a connection. The next and more successful attempt was in 1865.