Editing Submarine communications cable (section)

===First successful trials===
After [[William Fothergill Cooke|William Cooke]] and [[Charles Wheatstone]] had introduced their [[Cooke and Wheatstone telegraph|working telegraph]] in 1839, the idea of a submarine line across the Atlantic Ocean began to be thought of as a possible triumph of the future.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Abildgaard |first=M. S. |date=2022 |title=The question of Icebergs: a cryo-history of Arctic submarine cables |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/polar-record/article/question-of-icebergs-a-cryohistory-of-arctic-submarine-cables/451A8E2657363D298C58EA70D92F6FDB |journal=Polar Record |language=en |volume=58 |pages= |doi=10.1017/S0032247422000262 |bibcode=2022PoRec..58E..41A |issn=0032-2474}}</ref> [[Samuel Morse]] proclaimed his faith in it as early as 1840, and in 1842, he submerged a wire, insulated with tarred [[hemp]] and [[Natural rubber|India rubber]],<ref>{{cite web |title=[Heroes of the Telegraph&nbsp;– Chapter III.&nbsp;– Samuel Morse] |url=http://www.globusz.com/ebooks/Telegraph/00000013.htm |website=Globusz |access-date=2008-02-05 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2008-12-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081201131615/http://www.globusz.com/ebooks/Telegraph/00000013.htm}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bl_morse_timeline1.htm |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120709103139/http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bl_morse_timeline1.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 9, 2012 |title=Timeline&nbsp;– Biography of Samuel Morse |publisher=Inventors.about.com |date=2009-10-30 |access-date=2010-04-25 }}</ref> in the water of [[New York Harbor]], and telegraphed through it. The following autumn, Wheatstone performed a similar experiment in [[Swansea Bay]]. A good [[insulator (electrical)|insulator]] to cover the wire and prevent the electric current from leaking into the water was necessary for the success of a long submarine line. [[Natural rubber|India rubber]] had been tried by [[Moritz von Jacobi]], the [[Prussia]]n [[electrical engineering|electrical engineer]], as far back as the early 19th century.

Another insulating gum which could be melted by heat and readily applied to wire made its appearance in 1842. [[Gutta-percha]], the adhesive juice of the ''[[Palaquium gutta]]'' tree, was introduced to Europe by [[William Montgomerie]], a Scottish surgeon in the service of the [[East India Company|British East India Company]].<ref name=Haigh>{{cite book|last=Haigh |first=Kenneth Richardson |title= Cable Ships and Submarine Cables |year=1968 |publisher=[[Adlard Coles]] |location=London |isbn=9780229973637 }}</ref>{{rp|26–27}} Twenty years earlier, Montgomerie had seen whips made of gutta-percha in Singapore, and he believed that it would be useful in the fabrication of surgical apparatus. [[Michael Faraday]] and Wheatstone soon discovered the merits of gutta-percha as an insulator, and in 1845, the latter suggested that it should be employed to cover the wire which was proposed to be laid from [[Dover]] to [[Calais]].<ref name="guarnieri 7-1">{{Cite journal| last= Guarnieri|first=M.|year=2014|title=The Conquest of the Atlantic|journal=IEEE Industrial Electronics Magazine| volume=8| issue=1 |pages= 53–56/67|doi=10.1109/MIE.2014.2299492|s2cid=41662509}}</ref> In 1847 [[Carl Wilhelm Siemens|William Siemens]], then an officer in the army of Prussia, laid the first successful underwater cable using gutta percha insulation, across the [[Rhine]] between [[Deutz, Cologne|Deutz]] and [[Cologne]].<ref>{{cite journal |title=C William Siemens |journal=The Practical Magazine |date=1875 |volume=5 |issue=10 |page=219}}</ref> In 1849, [[Charles Vincent Walker]], electrician to the [[South Eastern Railway (UK)|South Eastern Railway]], submerged {{cvt|2|mi|0|disp=flip}} of wire coated with gutta-percha off the coast from [[Folkestone]], which was tested successfully.<ref name=Haigh/>{{rp|26–27}}