JUNE - JULY 2001

Your Engineering Heritage:

County Kerry Transatlantic Cable Stations

by Michael N. Geselowitz

July 2001 will mark the 135th anniversary of the laying of the successful transatlantic cable between Valentia, County Kerry, Ireland, and Heart's Content, Newfoundland, now in Canada. In July 2000, at the request of the IEEE United Kingdom/Republic of Ireland Section, the cable station at Valentia was designated an IEEE Milestone in Electrical Engineering and Computing; sister stations in nearby Ballinskelligs and Waterville were designated similarly. Their Newfoundland opposites were designated IEEE Milestones a few years earlier.

Plaques at the County Kerry transatlantic cable stations read:

On July 13, 1866 the Great Eastern steamed westward from Valentia, laying telegraph cable behind her. The successful landing at Heart's Content, Newfoundland on July 27 established a permanent electrical communications link that altered for all time personal, commercial and political relations between people across the Atlantic Ocean. Later, additional cables were laid from Valentia and new stations opened at Ballinskelligs (1874) and Waterville (1884), making County Kerry a major focal point for global communications.

As with all IEEE Milestones, the events themselves are being recognized, not the sites. But all Milestone plaques must be placed in appropriate sites that are permanent and accessible to the public. At one extreme a plaque might be in a museum that has frozen an original achievement in time; at the other, it may be a mere roadside marker near a site that no longer exists.

The County Kerry case is somewhat between the extremes. The cable stations closed in 1966, and their structures and equipment remain in varying states of decay. The local residents are currently working to turn them into a museum, and the IEEE Milestone designation has greatly aided their cause. Meanwhile, the sites are accessible and well-marked; they also have the advantage of lying in the "Ring of Kerry." With its natural beauty and archaeological sites, Kerry is one of Europe's major tourist regions. Add to that its location just south of the Shannon International Airport, the connecting hub between North America and Europe, and engineers wanting a "busman's holiday" could do worse than to visit the site of the first major triumph in global telecommunications of the modern era. More about the County Kerry transatlantic cable stations can be found at their web site, www.kerryweb.ie/cablestation/index.html.

For those in North America rather than Europe, the Heart's Content end of the cable illustrates an IEEE Milestone that has been placed at a museum. Newfoundland is another lovely tourist destination, and the museum contains many interesting artifacts and images related to early transatlantic telecommunication. IEEE Canada maintains a web site on the Milestone at www.lark.ieee.ca/library/hearts-content/heart.htm. This site includes a link to the museum's web site.

For more on the IEEE Milestones program, go to www.ieee.org/organizations/history_center/milestones_program.html.

Michael N. Geselowitz is Director of the IEEE History Center at Rutgers University. He can be reached at m.geselowitz@ieee.org. Visit the IEEE History Center's Web page at: www.ieee.org/organizations/history_center/.