Technicalities

The Victorian Internet is one of the most interesting books I have read in awhile. I had no idea how the telegraph worked and came into existence, much less the other signaling systems before it. And I have always wondered exactly how they got that pipeline to work across the Atlantic. It just seemed impossible. I think that has been my favorite part so far, although the book doesn’t explain the technical aspect of it very well. It just seems to me that there would be too many problems for it to actually work. The book didn’t address all the problems. It said the cable was laid on large raised plateaus in one part, but was it that way for each attempt? Otherwise the length of the cable would have to be adjusted for depth, and that wasn’t mentioned. For that matter, how was the length determined in the first place? It seemed like the cable was doomed to fail, if not by breaking every time they tried to lay it then by just plain not working. And while they explain that it wasn’t working because Dr. Whitehouse made the conducting core too small and put too much voltage in the induction coils, I can’t find anywhere that they explain what in the hell a conducting core or induction coil actually is or does. I like this book, don’t get me wrong, it definitely makes for a good story, but it really doesn’t do much in the way of explaining how the story is actually possible.