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Photo of a section of the Transatlantic Telegraph Cable used by the Anglo-American Telegraph Company in Newfoundland

A short piece of woven wire cable in a wooden box. Letters on the box lid read “Original Transatlantic Cable. 1858. Guaranteed by Tiffany & Co.”

Young, Juliana. 2022. Mount Pearl, Newfoundland and Labrador. “A Section of the Transatlantic Telegraph Cable Used by the Anglo-American Telegraph Company in Newfoundland.” Artifact 974.50.1c on loan from The Rooms, Provincial Museum Division. Admiralty House Communications Museum.

This is a section of the transatlantic cable laid by the Atlantic Telegraph Company in 1858. Telegraph cables were very intricate. Only a few centimetres in diameter, they had a copper wire core wrapped in layers of gutta-percha, tarred hemp, and then the wires you see in the image.