21st Century…19th Century…6th Century BC Skills

During July I spent some time in Ireland; in the beautiful, south-west corner that is Kerry. Whilst there, I was reading a bit of the local history and came across some quite mind-boggling technology. In a gently shelving sandy cove by Waterville lies the remains of an astonishing leap of faith by a group of Victorian entrepreneurs. Sticking out of the cliff is the tattered end of a telegraph cable that ran across 2000 miles of ocean to Newfoundland and thereafter overland to New York. The south-west tip of Kerry (Valentia island) was chosen (in the 1850s) as the take-off point and ‘Hearts Content’ bay in Newfoundland the receiving point. But in between lay 2000 miles of wild ocean that is variously 2-3 miles deep