The druggist's son

Charles Tilston Bright was the third son of Brailsford and Emma Charlotte Bright. Tilston was his mother's maiden name. His father is described by the Dictionary of National Biography as a "druggist". He was born in Wanstead, London, on June 8, 1832, less than a year after Faraday's discovery of elec­tromagnetic induction and in the same year that Morse had his first thoughts about electric telegraphy.

Though later he was to mix with university professors of world renown there was to be no university education for Bright. At the age of 15 he went straight from the Merchant Taylors' School into the employment of the Electric Telegraph Company, the company formed to exploit the Cooke and Wheatstone patents. He had joined the oldest telegraph company in existence: it had been formed just two years earlier.

After about five years he moved to the rival Magnetic Telegraph Company. His brother Edward, also an engineer, became manager. In this post, Bright helped to wire up Britain, laying an extensive network of land-based telegraph lines, with thousands of miles of underground wires between major centers including London, Manchester and Liverpool. After becoming Engineer-in-Chief of the company he got his first taste of submarine telegraphy, laying a six-wire cable between Portpatrick in Scotland and Donaghadee in Ireland. Under the Bright brothers, the Magnetic Company prospered.

This cable between Britain and Ireland came after earlier failures. The water was deeper and the currents faster than in previous operations. Bright took charge of the cable-laying machinery. The whole cable was manhandled out of the hold of a steamer, over a pulley, round a drum which measured the speed, and then several times round a brake drum before passing into the sea. It was laid on May 22, 1853, and had a long and successful life. Bright stayed with the Magnetic Company as chief engineer until 1860 and served a further ten years as consultant.

Patents

During his time with the company he received a number of patents concerned with improving telegraph equipment. Two are particularly noteworthy. One awarded in 1855 suggested replacing visual indications at the detector with acoustic ones using two bells, which became known as Bright's Bells. One had a high tone, the other a low one and they were used on the West Indies network. The other, earlier, patent was awarded jointly to the brothers in 1852 and contains what seems to be the first suggestion of a resistance box for giving a variety of fixed resistance values. This patent covered 24 distinct inventions and marked the arrival of the brothers, and especially Charles, as important figures in telegraph engineering.

A first attempt

With Bright having linked Ireland to Great Britain, and Gisborne and Field having tied Newfoundland to the American mainland, it was natural that all should consider the Atlantic.

Field was unable to raise the necessary capital in America and so, with Samuel Morse assisting, he sailed for Britain. On September 29, 1856, John Brett, Charles Bright and Cyrus Field pledged themselves to form a telegraph company to operate a telegraph between Ireland and Newfoundland. The company was registered on October 20. Many famous names were associated with it including William Thomson (Kelvin), Isambard Kingdom Brunei and Samuel Morse. The required finance of £350 000 was raised in a fortnight. Bright became chief engineer, and his colleague from earlier ventures, E.O. White house, was appointed the company's "electrician".

Field's "dynamic energy" pushed the project ahead at breakneck speed. Bright objected to the size of the single conductor and wanted it increased, but was overruled. He also wanted the two ships involved to start laying by splicing the cable in mid-ocean and then sail for opposite shores, but was again overruled. Kelvin wanted to wait for the completion of the Great Eastern, which was to be the biggest ship in the world, and he found variations in the quality of the copper core. Field again ignored the warnings: he had ships on loan from the respective navies and wanted to lay the cable in mid-summer when the weather could be expected to behave.

The cable was loaded into the USS Niagara and HMS Agamemnon and the shore end landed at Valentia in Ireland on August 5, 1857. When laying began the cable broke after only five miles. When it broke again after 380 miles the end was lost and the attempt abandoned. The cable was stored for the winter while additional lengths were manufactured ready for a fresh attempt.

As Bright put it, "It has been proved beyond a doubt that no obstacle exists to prevent our ultimate success; and I see clearly how every difficulty which has presented itself in this voyage can be effectually dealt with in the next". He was a little optimistic.

The original backers put up more cash, the two navies agreed further support of ships and men, and the paying out machinery was redesigned. The following summer the fleet re­assembled and sailed for mid-Atlantic, Bright's plan now being adopted. The two lengths were spliced and cable laying began again; but again the cable broke after 160 miles and the ships returned to base independently.