The first transatlantic cables - when did they appear and how did they work? Telecommunications Law. Story
The modern world is connected by email and the Internet, telephone and fax, and all this goes not only via satellite. Five out of every six calls and messages go over the wire.
Deep at the bottom of the oceans lie many multi-core cables, the thickness of one strand of a human hair, called fiber optics, and millions of kilometers of such cables are laid along the broken seabed. These cables strangely attract hungry sharks, and the result is damage to the world wide web.
When lines are broken, one of the most advanced ships and vessels in the world, the Atlantic Guardian, is called in. Without him, our wired world could not exist. Its crew is responsible for maintaining 40 cable routes between England and New Jersey, Newfoundland and France, Rock Island and Spain. Speed and reliability - distinctive features of this vessel, regardless of the degree of swell of the Atlantic. Millions of dollars are lost due to network downtime, and the team experiences enormous psychological pressure while completing tasks.
The cable vessel was built at the Vander Giessen Yards shipyard in Rotterdam, Holland in 2001, and is owned by Global Marine Systems. Its function is the installation and further maintenance of fiber optic communication lines. The cost of the project is 50 million dollars. This ship is not afraid of the waves of the North Atlantic.
In shallow waters, the cable is damaged by fishing vessels pulling trawls or other gear. In addition, large ships drop anchor where they should not and also cause damage to the cable. Underwater currents, straits and low tides cause chafing, which, over time, tears the cable. The vessel is equipped with two azipods, which makes it possible to easily maneuver in space, in addition, it is even pleasant to control. Almost nothing has changed over several decades, only the shell and filling of the cable.
The cable is lifted using cranes, winches and blocks. This may seem like the most common operation, but it is not. The ship arrives at the approximate point of damage, according to coordinates received from the satellite. Then it releases a “soft hook” and hooks the cable from the bottom. Then a cutting hook is lowered down as the ship moves along the cable, its sharp blades cutting it, since the defective cable cannot be lifted without cutting. Once the cut is made, the vessel moves to re-hook one side of the cut cable and lift it on board. Having lifted the cable, it is secured and tested to ensure that it is in good condition from the point of failure. The end of the cable is sealed and thrown overboard, securing the buoy to make it easier to find. The other side of the cable is wound up and checked, finding damage. At the time of each operation, the vessel automatically steers, remaining in place in given point, thanks to satellite system navigation (GPS) installed on the vessel. Together, this is a unified system of sensors and rudders of the ship, allowing the ship to maintain stability during waves or move in a given direction. All this is controlled by a computer. There is also a robot on board remote control"Atlas-1". It is capable of moving on caterpillar tracks along the seabed at a speed of 4 km/h, searching for and digging out cables, and then sending an image on board high resolution to make a decision. The Atlas-1 robot is equipped with a set of instruments, various cameras and lights - these are the pilot’s “eyes” on the seabed.
There is a place on the ship with specialized conditions and equipment where microscopic fiber-optic cable strands are soldered. The people who work there are called “binders,” although it takes them about a day to repair the damage. After all this, the cable is connected into a coupling and tested between two node stations. If the transmission test is successful, the cable is placed back into the water with extreme care. Using a robot makes it possible to bury a cable at the bottom of the ocean. It delivers a powerful jet that forms a trench. And then the cable is lowered into this trench.
Not yet developed unmanned vehicles for cable repair, there is always a heavy one, but this useful work for the cable ship Atlantic Guardian.
Technical data of the cable ship "Atlantic Guardian":
Length - 120 m;
Width - 18 m;
Displacement - 3250 tons;
Power plant - diesel-electric, power 9656 hp. With.;
Speed - 15 knots;
Autonomy - 50 days;
It is common to think that the World Wide Web is something intangible. And this is partly true. Over the past hundred years, the planet's atmosphere has transformed from a banal mixture of nitrogen and oxygen into a thick soup of radio waves. But don’t be mistaken - every bit of information, before becoming ethereal electromagnetic radiation, necessarily travels a long way along wires, most of which are laid along the ocean floor.
Attempts to connect continents with wires began in the very first years after the invention of the telegraph itself. In 1840, the English professor Wheatstone submitted to parliament a project for laying an underwater cable from Dover to the French coast, but did not receive the consent of legislators and, accordingly, money.
Two years later, the inventor of the most common version of the telegraph, Samuel Morse, connected the shores of New York Bay with a cable and transmitted a message through it. Then he predicted that in a short time the telegraph would connect the Old World with the New. A decade later, the company of brothers John and Jacob Brett launched a telegraph service between England and France by laying single-strand copper wire, covered with gutta-percha and braided steel, under the waters of the English Channel.
Nexans Skaggerak is a specialized vessel built in 1976 by the Norwegian company Øgreys Mekaniske Verksted for the underwater installation of power cables and hose lines. In March 2010 she was modernized at Cammell Laird repair docks in Birkenhead, England. The vessel was sawn crosswise, and an additional 12.5 meter long section was welded between its two halves. A new turntable was also installed at Skagerrak. On the right in the photo - a power cable intended for laying at sea comes from the shore via a special conveyor that eliminates too sharp bends, and is stored in a special cylindrical compartment. A modern submarine power cable can have a diameter of about 100 mm. A meter of such a “thread” can easily pull a couple of tens of kilograms, so it is no wonder that several hefty workers are required to control the installation. Below in the photo - the turntable installed on Skagerrak has a diameter of 29 meters and a payload of 7000 tons, with a volume of 2000 cubic meters.
The man who instantly connected the Old and New World, became the American entrepreneur Cyrus Field, who founded the New York, Newfoundland and London Telegraph Company in 1854. Samuel Morse, known to us, became vice president. Cable laying began in 1857 with the assistance of the governments of the United States and Great Britain, which provided warships for use as cable layers: the steam frigate Niagara and the steam-sailing battleship Agamemnon. 620 km of cable were laid to the bottom of the Atlantic, after which it broke.
The next attempt was made a year later - “Niagara” and “Agamemnon”, having connected the ends of the cable in the middle of the ocean, set off in different directions. After several breaks, the ships returned to Ireland to replenish supplies. The next start - in July of the same year - brought success that few people had hoped for. But... the telegraph worked for about a month and fell silent.
The tireless Field returned to his idea in 1865, chartering the largest ship of that time, the Great Eastern, as a cable-laying ship. Three quarters of the line had been laid from it to the bottom, when on August 2 the cable broke again and sank to the bottom. Finally, in 1866, the telegraph line crossed the Atlantic, and at the very beginning of the last century - the vast Pacific Ocean.
Up to the 30s of the XX century main problem intercontinental communications had low quality isolation. The main materials for its manufacture were natural polymers rubber and gutta-percha; the cable was wrapped on top with armor made of steel wire, and in coastal areas the armor was sometimes made in two layers to protect against anchors and fishing gear.
The ability to instantly transmit data over thousands of kilometers is now taken for granted - no one has been surprised for one hundred and fifty years. But behind the obvious there are considerable technological tricks. The World Wide Web is not only throughput and length, but also mass and volume. To be convinced of this, just look at the drum in which the coiled cable is stored. The dimensions of this “coil” are quite consistent with the scale of the tasks being solved. A modern cable drum on a specialized vessel requires thousands of tons and cubic meters, plus special systems for cable laying and unwinding. And there are three or four such drums on the flagships of the “wire fleet”. The design should ensure winding, unwinding and storage of the cable without kinks, heavy loads and other extremes. This is precisely what is connected with large diameter“reels” - modern underwater wires are not designed for any serious bending, so you cannot roll the skein too tightly - it will break.
Today's fiber optic cables have multiple layers of protection against corrosive sea water and mechanical damage. A bundle of transmission fibers “floats” in a hydrophobic gel filler inside a copper or aluminum tube covered with a layer of elastic polycarbonate and an aluminum screen. The next layer is twisted steel wire wrapped in Mylar tape. Outside, the cable is dressed in a polyethylene “jacket”. Another option is a cable with a profiled load-bearing core. In this design, up to eight optical pairs are placed inside each of six gel-filled channels extruded in polyethylene cord. The pairs are protected by wound Mylar tape, copper shielding and thick polyethylene braiding. A thick steel wire is laid in the center of the cord to give rigidity to the cable. The warranty on underwater communication cables is at least 25 years.
Where does the Internet come from?
The first attempt to use an underwater cable to transmit a signal - not yet telegraphic at that time - was made in Russia in 1812 by P. Schilling to detonate sea mines equipped with an electric fuse from the shore.
The first attempt to lay a telegraph cable under water was made in 1839 in India. The East India Telegraph Company laid a cable along the bottom of the Hooghly River, near Calcutta. Unfortunately, data on the use of the line has not reached us.
The first transatlantic cable, laid between the two in 1858, lasted only about a month. The cables of 1865−66 served without repair for about five years, and a number of sections of the cable of 1873 (Ireland - Newfoundland) for about ninety years.
By 1900, 1,750 underwater telegraph lines with a total length of about 300 thousand kilometers were laid in the world. The first telephone line across the Atlantic was laid in 1956.
The longest undersea power cable is laid along the seabed North Sea between Eemshaven (Netherlands) and Feda (Norway). The length of the NorNed line is 580 km, it is designed for 700 MW. Operation began in May 2008.
The length of the Unity line, which connected Japan (the city of Chikura) with the west coast of the United States (Los Angeles) along the bottom of the Pacific Ocean in 2010, is 10 thousand km, with a capacity of 7.68 Tbit/s.
High-voltage lines connecting islands, oil platforms and wind farms to the mainland are even better protected than communications. The conductors are usually three copper strands, each of which is shielded with semiconductor tape and a thick layer of cross-linked polyethylene insulator. Another screen is laid on top of the insulator, and a waterproof tape is wound. On the outside, each conductor is covered with a sealed lead sheath and anti-corrosion polyethylene braid. If ethylene propylene rubber (EPR) is used as the main insulator, the lead layer is often omitted to make the structure lighter. A modern power cable must include at least one fiber optic pair for data transmission. Conductors and optical fiber are filled with polypropylene or polyethylene, covered with amplifier tape, polymer braiding, steel wire armor and another layer of polyethylene yarn with a thickness of at least 4 mm. As a rule, such cables serve faithfully for decades. The rapid development of offshore wind energy and oil and gas production has led to the fact that currently all eight submarine power cable factories on the planet are operating at capacity limits. And the demand for their products is only growing.
Italian cable laying machine Gliulio Verne
A matter of technology
So, the global demand for traffic is simply crazy - according to the Telegeography agency, since 2007 it has been growing by 100% per year. Underwater power lines are growing along with alternative energy. We have an excellent cable. All that remains is to connect the islands and continents with them.
Creation of a submarine cable system - the most complicated operation performed by top-class professionals in extreme conditions with surgical precision. The first step is to determine the optimal route. Using special vessels equipped with side-scan sonars, remotely controlled submersibles and Doppler acoustic profilers, oceanographers are exploring areas of the bottom where the thread will soon fall. The altitude profile of the route, the composition of the bottom soil, the seismic activity of the zone, the presence and nature of currents, natural and artificial obstacles in the laying corridor are carefully recorded and analyzed. Based on the data received, the line configuration is compiled and routing gaskets Buoys equipped with GPS transmitters and radio beacons are placed at critical points along the route. Only after this do cable-laying vessels come into play.
The Cable Innovator, with a displacement of 10,557 tons, is the world's largest cable construction vessel. optical cable. Built in 1995 at the Finnish shipyards Kvaerner Masa, owned by Global Marine Systems. Three 17-meter drums can each hold 2,333 tons of cable. For 60 days, a ship with a crew of eight dozen people can operate in full autonomy mode, unwinding a cable line at speeds of up to 6.6 knots (a little more than 12 km/h).
There are no serious differences between cable ships for laying power and communication lines. The only difference is in the specific equipment. In addition, “siloviki” usually work in coastal areas, and optics are pulled thousands of kilometers into the open sea. The world's largest and most productive vessels specializing in high-voltage mains are the Norwegian layer Skagerrak, company-owned Nexans, and Giulio Verne of the Italian corporation Prysmian Group. The Cable Innovator from the Global Marine Systems flotilla with a displacement of 10,557 tons has no equal among “communicators” - it can carry 8,500 km of optical cable on board. The largest fleets of cable ships are based in the Pacific Ocean - eight ships work for the American company SubCom and the same number for its Japanese competitor NEC. Characteristics Cable laying machines have a small working draft, not exceeding 10 m, mandatory equipment with dynamic positioning and hydroacoustic orientation systems, as well as extremely sensitive propulsors that allow speed control with pharmaceutical precision. A modern cable laying machine is equipped with a multi-pulley cable winch machine that develops a thrust of up to 50 tons and lowers the cable into the water at a speed of about 1.5 km/h. In addition, on board there are cranes for submersion and lifting of underwater vehicles, devices for splicing and cutting, diving equipment and much more.
Schematic map of the first transatlantic cable laid along the seabed in the summer of 1858. Due to imperfect design, poor insulation and the use of too much voltage for transmission, the communication line then worked for only about a month, and the quality and, accordingly, the communication speed were always below any criticism. On September 1, 1858, it was transmitted across the Atlantic last message, after which the continents were again separated. By 1861, about 20 thousand kilometers of submarine cable were laid in various parts of the world, but no more than a quarter of them were in working order. America and Europe were finally connected by telegraph on July 27, 1866, after which communication was never interrupted for more than a few hours.
Renting such a miracle of technology costs approximately $100,000 per day, however, demand exceeds supply. For example, SubCom's Tyco Resolute cable laying machine, whose cylindrical hangars can accommodate 2,500 km of optical cable, is provided with work for several years to come. The same can be said about Skagerrak. And the rest are not sitting idle: fishing gear, ship anchors, landslides and earthquakes that damage underwater pipelines keep the squadron of cable ships in constant combat readiness. Cases of cable rupture due to shark bites and even the theft of tens of kilometers of power lines by pirates have been recorded. In Atlantic alone, up to 50 repair operations are performed per year. But this is a matter of technology...
To the bottom
Laying any cable starts with land. This jewelry operation is usually carried out by a team of experienced divers. The cable-laying machine comes closer to the shore, sets out on a given course and releases the required section of the “thread” onto the water, connected to a pull cable that was previously inserted from the shore through a long pipe dug into the ground. During this operation, the etched cable hangs on the floats to avoid critical kinks and tangling. The process of bringing the cable and cable to the connecting panel is monitored visually using television cameras - subsequently repairing this section of the line will be much more difficult than any other. Checking the integrity of the cable by applying a signal (or voltage, if it is power) occurs during installation in a constant mode. If everything is normal, the pipe is walled up on the sea side, water is pumped out of it, and instead an anti-corrosion mixture of inhibitors, biocides that kill water bacteria, and a deoxidizer that absorbs oxygen is supplied inside. Coastal laying, despite its apparent simplicity, is the longest stage of work. It took the team of Björn Ladegaard, an engineer at Nexans, three whole weeks to connect the power line to the network on the beaches of Mallorca in January this year, covering only about 500 m!
On the open sea everything is simpler, but it also has its difficulties. The topography of the seabed is rarely convenient enough for the so-called free laying, when the “thread” is lowered directly onto the ground. Thus, the power line between Spain and the Balearics had to be buried over a section of 283 km, including at depths of more than a kilometer. Another 23 km were carved out of the rock!
In the underwater wilds, indispensable assistants to engineers are deep-sea vehicles with remote control via cable hose. Nexans specialists have three machines at their disposal. The small and nimble CapTrack with a set of sensors, a GPS transmitter, powerful spotlights and television cameras is designed for operational monitoring and precise placement of the “thread” on the bottom. In areas with extremely difficult terrain, an underwater Spider bulldozer is used with additional “weapons” in the form of a drill head, water cannons and a powerful pump. Spider's manipulator arm can be equipped with a whole bunch of creepy tools designed for destruction. Most of the work on the routes is carried out by the Capjet trench machine with its water-jet plow. The exposed soil is constantly pumped out by a pump from a one and a half meter trench and fed behind the stern of the Capjet, covering the laid cable.
When more serious obstacles get in the way, engineers use arched transition systems. The cable in a special sleeve is suspended on anchored sealed steel cylinders filled with air. If there are “associated” pipelines, the cable is secured to them with special clips. If you have to “step over” pipes, concrete bridges or protective sleeves are used, laid in the right place by underwater vehicles. In areas with stable bottom currents, the cable, like any cylindrical body, is subject to the destructive effects of vortex vibrations. Gradually, these high-frequency vibrations, invisible to the eye, destroy even reinforced concrete beams. To combat this problem, the “thread” is dressed in a plastic spiral-shaped “feather”. To prevent the insulation from rubbing against rocky ground, soft polyurethane mats or tape protectors are used. All operations to lengthen, branch the cable, install amplifiers and control equipment on it are carried out on the ship immediately before laying this section on the bottom. At the finish of the route, the cable-laying operator repeats the operation of bringing the main line ashore. After this, the line is tested and put into operation.
Isn’t it easier to launch a couple of satellites into orbit, you ask? Not easier. The speeds are not the same - megabits per second are no longer suitable for the 21st century. Yes, and gigabits too. Underwater terabits are a completely different matter...
Whether this is true or not, they say how a certain lady, having heard that a telegraph cable had been laid between Europe and America, was most amazed at this: somehow telegrams, having passed through the waters of the Atlantic, remain... dry?
However, one should excuse such naivety, because at that time for many people the telegraph was still a curiosity. But you just have to take a closer look at the circumstances under which this project was carried out, and even you and I, living in the 21st century, will be surprised. True, completely different...
The technical means available to the authors of the project were still very imperfect. Many different problems had to be solved literally on the fly, showing miracles of ingenuity. The cable laying work itself required enormous, titanic labor. And besides, the people who decided to connect two continents by telegraph line were plagued by downright fantastic, fatal bad luck; as if evil fate was deliberately putting a spoke in the wheels!
But, despite all the vicissitudes, the builders managed to complete their work, and the construction of a telegraph line between the two continents became for its time a huge achievement, even a kind of technical feat. And the invaluable experience gained in this way made it possible to establish underwater telegraph communications between other continents much easier and simpler.
First of all, it was necessary to make a special underwater telegraph cable, well insulated and protected from the corrosive effects of sea water. Let us recall that P. L. Schilling also thought about this problem. What to use as a protective material? In the 40s of the 19th century, from the juice of some tropical plants learned how to obtain gutta-percha - a viscous 12-Technnk Sh elastic substance. The experiments of the German inventor Werner Siemens showed that gutta-percha is an excellent insulator. Werner himself quickly designed and built a special machine capable of coating wires with gutta-percha.
And in 1850, another inventor, John Brett, made the first special underwater telegraph cable. It consisted of two copper wires with a diameter of 2 millimeters, covered with a thick gutta-percha layer. But such a cable turned out to be imperfect: the copper wire broke easily. This was demonstrated by the very first attempt to connect England and France by telegraph.
And this task was extremely urgent. After all, at a time when everything European countries Having already established telegraph communication among themselves, island England remained, as it were, on the outskirts. Even though the English Channel is small, you still can’t stretch a telegraph wire through the air over it.
True, the cable itself was laid along the bottom of the English Channel without any special technical problems. This was done by the same John Bret. The ship was specially equipped in a special way " Goliath“—they loaded a huge reel with kilometers of cable wound onto it. We planned the path ahead in advance. In front of the Goliath, showing the way, was the warship Vigdeon. Within a few hours the cable ship reached the French coast. All this time, telegraph messages were exchanged from its board with a coast station in England. But soon the connection stopped: somewhere at the bottom there was a cable break...
However, already at next year The telegraph reliably connected England with the mainland. Now a new cable, more advanced, was laid along the bottom of the English Channel. There were four copper wires, each in a gutta-percha sheath. For strength, they were twisted into one rope with five round tarred hemp cords. In addition, the cable was wrapped in two layers of hemp ropes, which in turn were intertwined with ten galvanized iron wires.
This cable, of course, was incomparably thicker and heavier than the first. But it turned out to be efficient and reliable. It was this that was subsequently successfully used on underwater telegraph lines between England and Ireland, England and Holland, Sweden and Norway...
And in 1857 the turn of the transatlantic telegraph cable came. The man who decided to carry out such a project was named Cyrus Field. He invited John Bret to collaborate on his project.
Unlike Bret, Field was not an inventor and designer, but an entrepreneur. He did not hide the fact that he was primarily interested in commercial goals. Send telegrams across the ocean - expensive pleasure, but necessary for many, so among the shareholders were largest banks and private individuals, including the famous English writer William Thackeray. The transatlantic cable was supposed to bring huge profits to the Telegraph Construction and Operating Company founded by Field.
Fortunately, Cyrus Field turned out to be an amazingly purposeful man, endowed with an iron will, character, courage, incapable of despondency, unable to give up, continuing the fight even when it seemed that everything was already lost. If someone else had been in his place, he would probably have given up at some difficult moment, and the project would have been postponed for a while. indefinite time. Field - honor and praise to him - managed to overcome all difficulties. Now we will see how many of them fell to his lot!
The transatlantic telegraph cable consisted of 7 copper wires in a gutta-percha sheath. They were lined with tarred hemp and entwined on the outside with 18 cords of iron wires. It would seem that everything was provided for, but alas: the multi-kilometer cable was manufactured quite quickly, in just 4 months, and such haste led to the fact that it was defective in many places. Unfortunately, it turned out that this was not on land, but in the ocean.
The cable was led into the Atlantic from the Irish coast, work began on August 6, 1857. Ships carrying huge reels of cable and support vessels escorted crowds of reporters. At first, everything went according to plan: every hour 2 kilometers of cable were laid on the ocean floor, the flotilla went further and further into the ocean.
But soon the cable broke; the end, having jumped off the escape wheel, sank into the depths. True, they managed to lift it with the help of a special grappling hook and splice the cliff together. But 5 days later, 300 miles from the coast, the cable broke again during bad weather. This time they could not remove it and left it at the bottom. Cyrus Field, reluctantly, gave the order to turn the ships back. First failure...
Before a new attempt, the entire cable was carefully inspected, places that seemed unreliable were cut out and each wire was spliced again. Of course, this required truly titanic work.
In the summer of 1858, Field's flotilla again entered the Atlantic. Now the plan was different: to start laying the cable right in the middle of the ocean. Having connected its ends, the two ships went in different directions. One was moving towards Ireland, the other towards Newfoundland...
By mid-August, the opposite shores of the ocean were indeed connected by a telegraph line. On August 16, a congratulatory telegram from Queen Victoria of England arrived in New York. It would seem that victory has already been won. Grandiose celebrations began on this occasion both in England and America...
However, in their midst, malfunctions appeared in the operation of the transatlantic telegraph. The signals became increasingly inconsistent. Finally, on September 1, the line went completely silent. Somewhere at the bottom of the Atlantic, a cable was damaged, which now cannot be repaired. Failure again!
The disappointment experienced was incomparable. The company founded by Cyrus Field burst like a soap bubble. Many people who risked their capital suffered. The unlucky entrepreneur even had to hide from their anger for some time. And for 7 long years, no one else spoke about a new attempt to lay a telegraph line along the bottom of the ocean. In addition, a war soon began in America between the North and the South.
However, in 1865, as soon as the war was over, the world heard about Cyrus Field again. It turns out that during this time he conducted experiments with a new, more advanced cable. In addition, he managed to raise capital again, attracting the interest of new shareholders. As if nothing had happened, Field was still ready to achieve his intended goal.
This time a huge steamer was adapted for the work." Great Eastern”, capable of easily lifting the entire cable load on board. On July 23, 1865, he entered the Atlantic from the European shore. But again, almost immediately, misadventures began.
The very next day, a problem was discovered in part of the cable: the iron outer sheath came into contact with the internal copper wires due to damage to the gutta-percha insulating layer. Part of the cable had to be cut out and the ends spliced. Later, the same story was repeated several more times.
But all this turned out to be just annoying little things compared to other adversities. During storms, the cable broke several times and sank to the bottom. They searched for him, found him, brought him to the surface. But one day the end of the cable could not be found. Great Eastern also had to return to England with nothing.
And yet, luck was already waiting for the tireless, unbending Cyrus Field. Acquired the rights to organize transatlantic telegraph communication new company. At her request, a new cable was manufactured, and specially designed machines for its installation were installed at Great Eastern. They were equipped with dynamometers that showed the tension on the cable at any moment. This made it possible to anticipate a possible break in advance and prevent it. On July 7, 1866, another attempt began. On July 27, without any incident, the Great Eastern reached the American coast. The transatlantic telegraph is working!
And then - more. The huge steamer went out into the ocean again, and soon... the end of the cable, lost during the previous attempt, was discovered. It was merged with the new one, and soon Europe and America were connected by two serviceable telegraph lines at once. Cyrus Field's energy, will, perseverance, and ability to attract other people overcame all obstacles.
