As the title says , I used to hear this all the time in regard to the state department sending a cable or some such.
What exactly is it
Declan
Before radio or phones, the way to send messages across the ocean was by underwater telegraph cables. Thus, sending a cable was sending a telegram using these.
They’re probably now telephone cables, and cabling is pretty much as obsolete as telegrams, though the term remains.
Map of the 1858 Atlantic telegraph cable.
Map of current undersea fiber routes.
So this notion never went away - that transatlantic wire that carried telegrams for a considerable price now carry phone calls and emails over a fiber for next to nothing.
BTW, the story of the laying of the first transatlantic cable is fascinating. At first, no one ship could hold all the cable needed, so they tried to lay the cable for thousands of miles and meet in the middle of the ocean. That failed – the cable kept breaking.
Next, they planned to meet in the middle, splice the cable and sail away. Again, the splices would break.
They tried again. This time, they were able to complete the cable. But it only lasted around a month before it failed.
Finally, they used the Great Eastern – the largest ship of its time . It could hold the entire cable, so there was no trouble with the splice (and better cable had been developed). The Great Eastern also managed to find one of the broken cables (a heroic feat, since it was lying on the ocean floor) and get it working.
Thanks for the replies , knowledge gained
Declan