This black & white educational film is about the cable laid by the Western Union Telegraph Company in 1928 between Newfoundland and the Azores. The plan of the cable was to secure a two-way operation between Newfoundland and the 1,400 letters per minute in each direction: cablegrams. No copyright shown, this is circa the late 1920s or early 1930s.
No Opening credits. Cables on a spool. Cables slip down into the water. People on a ship. Men row a boat to a buoy. Cable is detached from the buoy and brought to the ship. A diagram shows how the cable might look underwater. The ship that is working on this project is the C.S. Dominia. Up goes the cable layers. Men put cable on spools. All tests on the cable prove satisfactory. Men put a splice in and then ready it to put it into the sea. Another diagram shows what the cable is doing underwater. Machinery controls the spools (:06-2:48). The cable is unspooled into the ocean, a diagram shows how it falls. A man checks on the spool. Men watch the cable from inside the hull of the ship. A map shows the course the ship is following. Two men climb a ladder to the top of the mast. Clouds start to form, the weather doesn’t look good. Men sleep below in the deck. An officer rings a bell and the sleeping men jump to life and get ready. The ship sways side to side. The ships bow hits rough seas. Rough seas ahead (2:49-5:15). The helmsman steers. The water is very choppy. Below deck, the engines are throttled down. Heavy seas are very dangerous. The sea is extremely treacherous and the ship rocks (5:16-7:04). Chief Engineer studies his gauges. Pistons and engine parts on the move. The ship rocks side to side as the giant waves continue out at sea. The cable is still in the water. The waves try to break the cable but it holds firm (7:05-8:38). An officer looks out at the sea as the sun sets in the distance. A map shows the course to the Azores. A buoy is made ready for launching, the cable is wound with chains which are attached to the wheel. The buoy floats. The cable is cut with an ax. The men look overboard.Dolphins swim in the sea. A rainbow. Clouds of mist. A windmill. Azores aerial shots. The cable is brought ashore. Men pull it onto shore and then into a trench. Men on the ship perform various tasks. Diagram of a map shows the ship with the cable going to Horta, a city in the western part of the Archipelago of the Azores (8:39-11:52). Cable is heaved overboard at night. Men cut the ropes with an ax. The cable sinks to the ocean bed, nearly a mile below. Engineers check the cables course and find that it has worked out. A map shows the cable stretching from Newfoundland to the Azores. A Western Union man types a message to NYC. The cable has helped, a cablegram. Men type. A large group waves at the camera
(11:52-13:37). No end credits.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
