Jump to content

The Paying-out Machinery in the Stern of the Great Eastern

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Paying-out Machinery in the Stern of the Great Eastern
ArtistRobert Charles Dudley
Year1865
MediumWatercolor and gouache on graphite
Dimensions17.2 cm × 26.7 cm (6.8 in × 10.5 in)
LocationMetropolitan Museum of Art, New York City

The Paying-out Machinery in the Stern of the Great Eastern is a watercolor by British artist Robert Charles Dudley. The work is available in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[1]

Description

[edit]
A photograph of the Great Eastern's cable-paying machinery, circa 1870s

Dudley's watercolor depicts a large piece of cable-laying machinery on the rear deck of the iron sail steamer SS Great Eastern. The machinery was used to lay (also referred to as "paying out"[1]) the first transatlantic undersea cable. Upon its completion in 1866, the cable allowed telegraph messages to be sent across the Atlantic; these took minutes to travel between North America and Europe as opposed to the 10 days it took for contemporary mail carriers to make the crossing.[1][2]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c "metmuseum.org". www.metmuseum.org. Retrieved 2018-09-23.
  2. ^ "SS Great Eastern and the story of the transatlantic telegraph cable". BT.com. Retrieved 2018-09-23.