Commercial Cable Company

The Commercial Cable Company

The Commercial Cable Company was founded in 1884 by John W MacKay and James Gordon Bennett, Jr.. Their motivation was to break the then virtual monopoly of transatlantic telegraph and bring down prices (particularly for Bennett's newspaper empire).

Related Topics:
John W MacKay - James Gordon Bennett, Jr.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The technology was well established by this time and they were able to lay cables from Waterville in Ireland to Canso in Nova Scotia without the major technical problems of the first Atlantic Cable. Onward connections to New York etc were initially overland and later submarine. Connections from Waterville to Weston-super-Mare in England and Le Havre in France were soon established by the submarine route after initial use of landlines from Waterville onward to mainland Britain.

Related Topics:
Waterville - Canso - Atlantic Cable - Weston-super-Mare - Le Havre

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The company flourished and remained as a trading name even though subsumed by ITT until the 1970s at least. The undersea cables remained in use carrying telegraph traffic until 1962. In 1998 cables were briefly visible going out to sea at Waterville and are probably still there.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~