On August 17, 1858, intercontinental electronic communication officially began with a ninety-eight-word message from Queen Victoria to American president James Buchanan across the first Atlantic cable. The leading scientific figure in the cable-laying mission was the mathematical physicist Professor William Thomson, later to become Lord Kelvin. He worked with financiers, engineers, and ‘electricians’ (electrical technicians) to make the cable a reality. The laying of the first functioning Atlantic cable between 1857 and 1866 was made possible only through the solution of a wide range of scientific and technological problems.

Lord Kelvin and the Atlantic Cable Story

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Other resources:

• More detail on the galvanometer
• Mathematical theory

External links:

• History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications