Slowdown Delayed; Cooldown Ahead of Schedule

On August 16th, 1858, the first telegraph message was transmitted across the Atlantic on a cable newly laid on the ocean floor. The line speed was slow and the cable failed a few weeks later but it was a start. By the late 1860s, a second cable, made of better material, was in operation and telegrams began to be sent more regularly, cutting the time required for transatlantic communications from weeks to minutes.