Punch,  49 (1865), 35.

Messages from the Great Eastern (From Our Special Correspondent)  [2/4]

Anon

Genre:

Serial, Diary, Spoof

Subjects:

Steamships, Telegraphy, Disease, Meteorology, Engineers, Electricity, Religion, Accidents


    Continuing Mr Punch's representative's diary from the Great Eastern, this article includes a description of his nausea. His 'gentleman' friend informs him that the condition 'arises from the effect of the telegraph cable, the iron in water acting as a chalybeate'; later in the voyage, he tells him that the reduction of his nausea is due to the 'galvanic action being reversed by the electricians'. The representative observes that electricians used one end of the cable to direct a lightning flash into a source of illumination on the sea-bed. Reports that on Sunday the cable 'loses a certain and appreciable quantity of power' due to the Sabbatarianism of the Scottish sailors. Later notes that James Anderson has orders to 'throw all the electricians and machine people overboard' if 'any accident happens to the Cable'.



© Science in the Nineteenth-Century Periodical Project, Universities of Leeds and Sheffield, 2005 - 2020

Printed from Science in the Nineteenth-Century Periodical: An Electronic Index, v. 4.0, The Digital Humanities Institute <http://www.sciper.org> [accessed ]