Specimens of Atlantic Telegraph Cable
date: label: date made
content: 1858
name: label: associated user
content: unknown
label: maker
content: Glass, Elliot, & Co.
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: Specimens of Atlantic Telegraph Cable. A thin flat case with hinged cover, lined with velvet and covered with bookbinder's pebbled paper. Containing specimens of the component parts of cable, each 12" long set in grooves in the base, numbered and described as follows:
label: Description (Brief)
content: 1. Copper Wire, 7 of which form the electrical conductor.
label: Description (Brief)
content: 2. Electrical conductor, complete.
label: Description (Brief)
content: 3. Electrical conductor, with one covering of gutta percha.
label: Description (Brief)
content: 4. Electrical conductor, with two coverings of gutta percha.
label: Description (Brief)
content: 5. Electrical conductor, with third and final covering of gutta percha.
label: Description (Brief)
content: 6. Specimen showing the mode of joining the electrical conductor.
label: Description (Brief)
content: 7. Electrical conductor having a fourth covering of gutta percha for shore ends.
label: Description (Brief)
content: 8. Shore end of cable complete. In tin case.
label: Description (Brief)
content: 9. Centre of cable, surrounded with steel wire, complete.
label: Description (Brief)
content: 10. Main cable, complete.
label: Description (Brief)
content: 11. Bed of yarn for protecting gutta percha from abrasion. Missing.
label: Description (Brief)
content: 12. Large protecting wire for shore ends.
label: Description (Brief)
content: 13. Steel wire for center portion.
label: Description (Brief)
content: 14. Strand covering of main cable.
label: Description (Brief)
content: 15. Single wire of [main cable].
label: Description (Brief)
content: These specimens show the component parts and their relation to each other of the first Atlantic Cable, of 1858, which was laid from shore to shore, and of the changes made a little later when the heavier shore ends were made and laid. Cable laid between Valentia Bay, Ireland and Trinity Bay, Newfoundland. A silver plate on the cover bears the inscription: "Lieut. O.H. Berryman, U.S.N., The Atlantic Telegraph. Specimens of the various component parts of the cable. Feb'y 1858."
label: Description (Brief)
content: Lieut. Berryman took an important part in the Atlantic Cable enterprise, being engaged in making sounds and surveys of the route across the Atlantic Ocean which was selected for the cable. The collection was presented to Lieut. Berryman by the Royal Society of Great Britain as a memento of the occasion, and came into the possession of his daughter Columbia N. Payne who donated them to the Smithsonian.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: from Columbia N. Payne
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: EM.234248
label: catalog number
content: 234248
label: accession number
content: 10558
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Cable Sample
label: Other Terms
content: Cable Sample; Conduction
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: fabric (case material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (case material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 11 1/2 in x 14 in; x 29.21 cm x 35.56 cm