Don't Look Back in Anger: Wildman Whitehouse and the Great Failure of 1858
summary
1858 attempt lays a 3,000 km undersea copper cable weighing about one ton per mile, links Britain and North America, and goes live with fireworks — then goes dead within three weeks after the chief electrician secretly increases the voltage, overheating and shorting the gutta‑percha‑insulated line. Public inquiry exposes ignored physics and advice; a rival physicist builds thicker, more flexible conductors, uses very low driving voltages, retrieves and repairs a broken cable, and ends up with two working transatlantic lines.
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chapters (9)
- 0:00Introduction to talk
- 3:22What is a telegraph
- 7:15Project failure impact
- 9:23Meet Wildman Whitehouse
- 13:17Technical disagreements
- 17:28Cable failure and blame
- 20:39Public inquiry aftermath
- 25:15Lessons for modern teams
- 28:50Cable’s eventual success
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