History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications
from the first submarine cable of 1850 to the worldwide fiber optic network

1924 New York - Azores Cable

The 1924 New York to Horta, Azores cable was manufactured by Telcon for the Western Union Telegraph Company and laid by CS Colonia, assisted at the New York end by CS Robert C. Clowry. The cable was completed on 20 September 1924, and was the first commercially operated cable to use permalloy (developed by the Western Electric Company of the USA). The permalloy loading enabled this cable to operate at about four times the speed of a conventional cable of the same length.

The copper conductor [a] is wrapped with flexible copper tape [b]. Next is the permalloy tape [c], whose magnetic properties give the cable its increased speed. Then follows a thick covering of gutta percha insulation [d], a wrapping of jute [e], eighteen steel armor wires [f], and an outer wrapping of hemp cords [g].

The 1926 cable on this route also used linear loading; the 1928 cable used taper loading.

See also Cal Sheckler's account of the diversion of the Azores-Emden section of the 1926 Western Union cable during World War II, for the use of the Allied Forces in France after D-Day.

Information from Haigh and Casper; illustration from Casper.

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