e _Cyclops_, made a careful survey.
Their soundings revealed a ridge near the Irish coast, but the slope
was gradual and the general conditions seemed especially favorable.

The preliminary work had been done by an American company with Field
at the head and Morse as electrician. Now Field went to England
to secure capital sufficient for the larger enterprise. With the
assistance of Mr. J.W. Brett he organized the Atlantic Telegraph
Company, Field himself supplying a quarter of the capital. Associated
with Field and Brett in the leadership of the enterprise was Charles
Tiltson Bright, a young Englishman who became engineer for the new
company.

Besides the enormous engineering difficulties of producing a cable
long enough and strong enough, and laying it at the bottom of the
Atlantic, there were electrical problems involved far greater than
Morse seems to have realized. It had been discovered that the passage
of a current through a submarine cable is seriously retarded.
The retarding of the current as it passes through the water is a
difficulty that does not exist with the land telegraph stretched on
poles. Faraday had demonstrated that this retarding was caused by
induction between the electricity in the wire and the water about the
cable. The passage of the current through the wire induces currents in
the water, and these moving in the opposite direction act as a drag on
the passage of the message through the wire. What the effect of this
phenomenon would be on a cable long enough to cross the Atlantic wan
a serious problem that required deep study by the company's engineers.
It seemed entirely possible that the messages would move so slowly
that the operation of the cable, once it was laid, would not pay.

Faraday failed to give any definite information on the subject, but
Professor William Thomson worked out the law of retardation accurately
and furnished to the cable-builders the accurate information which
was required. Doctor Whitehouse, electrician for the Atlantic Company,
conducted some experiments of his own and questioned the accuracy of
Thomson's statements. Thomson maintained his position so ably, and
proved himself so thoroughly a master of the subject that Field and
his associates decided to enlist him in the enterprise. This addition
to the forces was one of the utmost importance. William Thomson,
later to become Lord Kelvin, was probably the ablest scientist of his
generation, and was destined to pro