When the SS Great Eastern laid the first working transatlantic telegraph cable in 1866, a message that had taken ten days by steamship suddenly crossed the ocean in minutes, and the financial markets of London and New York were forced, within a single trading week, to invent the modern concept of synchronised global price. (opens in new tab)

On the morning of July 27, 1866, the SS Great Eastern dropped anchor in Heart’s Content, Newfoundland, with 1,686 nautical miles of insulated copper cable trailing behind her across the floor of the North Atlantic. The cable’s other end sat in Valentia, Ireland. Within hours, an operator was tapping out test signals that crossed to […]