Sir Charles Tilston Bright (8 June 1832 – 3 May 1888) was a British

electrical engineer Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

who oversaw the laying of the first

transatlantic telegraph cable Transatlantic telegraph cables were undersea cables running under the Atlantic Ocean for telegraph communications. Telegraphy is now an obsolete form of communication, and the cables have long since been decommissioned, but telephone and data a ...

in 1858, for which work he was

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...

ed.

Life

Born on 8 June 1832 in

Wanstead Wanstead () is a town in East London, England, in the London Borough of Redbridge. It borders South Woodford to the north, Redbridge to the east and Forest Gate to the south, with Leytonstone and Walthamstow to the west. It is located 8 mi ...

Essex Essex () is a Ceremonial counties of England, county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the Riv ...

, Bright was educated at Merchant Taylors' School. At fifteen, he became a clerk for the

Electric Telegraph Company The Electric Telegraph Company (ETC) was a British telegraph company founded in 1846 by William Fothergill Cooke and John Ricardo. It was the world's first public telegraph company. The equipment used was the Cooke and Wheatstone telegraph, ...

and as his talent for

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

became evident, he was appointed engineer to the Magnetic Telegraph Company in 1852. In that role he supervised the laying of lines in the British Isles, including in 1853 the first cable between

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

, from Portpatrick to

Donaghadee Donaghadee ( , ) is a small town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies on the northeast coast of the Ards Peninsula, about east of Belfast and about six miles (10 km) south east of Bangor. It is in the civil parish of Donaghadee and ...

, when he was just 21. This work, and the successful laying of other submarine cables, suggested to others that it might be possible to lay a cable across the Atlantic from Ireland to

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...

. Joining with

Cyrus West Field Cyrus West Field (November 30, 1819July 12, 1892) was an American businessman and financier who, along with other entrepreneurs, created the Atlantic Telegraph Company and laid the first telegraph cable across the Atlantic Ocean in 1858. Early ...

and John Watkins Brett, who controlled the

New York, Newfoundland and London Telegraph Company The New York, Newfoundland & London Telegraph Company was a company in a series of conglomerations of several companies that eventually laid the first Trans-Atlantic cable. In 1854 British engineer Charles Bright met an American, Cyrus Field, ...

, Bright helped organise the

Atlantic Telegraph Company The Atlantic Telegraph Company was a company formed on 6 November 1856 to undertake and exploit a commercial telegraph cable across the Atlantic ocean, the first such telecommunications link. History Cyrus Field, American businessman and finan ...

in 1856 to develop a transatlantic cable, with himself as engineer-in-chief;

Wildman Whitehouse Edward Orange Wildman Whitehouse (1 October 1816 – 26 January 1890) was an English surgeon by profession and an electrical experimenter by avocation. He was recruited by entrepreneur Cyrus West Field as Chief Electrician to work on the pi ...

soon joined them as chief electrician. Samuel Canning supported the effort on board HMS ''Agamemnon''. After two failed attempts in August 1857 and three more in June 1858, Bright successfully accomplished what to many had seemed an impossible feat, completing the first Atlantic cable from Trinity Bay,

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

, to

Valentia Island Valentia Island () is one of Ireland's most westerly points. It lies off the Iveragh Peninsula in the southwest of County Kerry. It is linked to the mainland by the Maurice O'Neill Memorial Bridge at Portmagee. A car ferry also departs from ...

, Ireland, on 5 August 1858. Bright was knighted in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

just a few days later. Though widely hailed as the wonder of the age, the 1858 cable failed after only about a month of fitful service, a victim of hasty manufacture and the excessive signalling voltages used by Whitehouse. Sir Charles Bright emerged from the debacle with his reputation largely intact and went on to supervise the laying of successful cables in the Mediterranean, the Persian Gulf, and the Caribbean. He also served as a consultant on renewed efforts to span the Atlantic, which in 1866 resulted not only in the completion of the first lasting transatlantic cable, but in the recovery and completion of a cable that had snapped during laying in 1865. Bright formed a partnership with Josiah Latimer Clark in 1861 and together they introduced numerous improvements in the manufacture, testing, and operation of submarine cables. They were strong advocates of establishing a unified system of electrical units, and a number of the proposals they made in a paper presented to the

British Association for the Advancement of Science The British Science Association (BSA) is a charity and learned society founded in 1831 to aid in the promotion and development of science. Until 2009 it was known as the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA). The current Chi ...

in 1861 were later taken up by the British Association Committee on Electrical Standards and formed the foundations of the system of ohms, amps, and volts still in use today. In 1865 he was awarded a

Telford Medal The Telford Medal is a prize awarded by the British Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) for a paper or series of papers. It was introduced in 1835 following a bequest made by Thomas Telford, the ICE's first president. It can be awarded in gold ...

for a paper on the possibilities of submarine cable telegraphy from England to China and Australia. In 1870, Bright was contracted to be the engineer for the Panama and South Pacific Telegraph Company, which was planning to lay a submarine cable between Panama and Peru. However, this engagement ended in controversy when the company discovered that, at the same time as Bright was acting as engineer for the company, he had also agreed to be the sub-contractor for the Telegraph Works Company, which the Panama (etc.) Company had engaged to carry out the work of laying the cable. This ended in a court case between the Panama (etc.) Company and Telegraph Works Company, which was heard in the Divisional Court on 27 April 1875, and which gave judgment for the Panama (etc.) Company on the basis that Bright's dual engagement had given rise to an improper conflict of interest that was tantamount to fraud. That case is now a leading judicial authority in English law on third party liability for procuring a breach of duty by an agent. From 1865 to 1868, Bright was Liberal MP for

Greenwich Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...

and in 1887 he was elected president of the Society of Telegraph Engineers and Electricians (later the

Institution of Electrical Engineers The Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) was a British professional organisation of electronics, electrical, manufacturing, and Information Technology professionals, especially electrical engineers. It began in 1871 as the Society of T ...

). Bright died on 3 May 1888, at Abbey Wood, near

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. His son Charles Bright was also a noted cable engineer and historian of the subject. Bright's funeral took place at Chiswick Churchyard with a subsequent service at St Cuthbert's, Earls Court. The numerous attendees included Prince Victor of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, Robert Jardine, Frederic John Goldsmid and

David Lionel Goldsmid-Stern-Salomons Sir David Lionel Goldsmid-Stern-Salomons, 2nd Baronet (28 January 1851 – 19 April 1925) was a British scientific author, barrister and pioneer of road transport. Early life The son of Philip Salomons of Brighton, and Emma, daughter of Jaco ...

Sir Charles Bright (son)

Charles Tilston Bright's son, also Charles Bright (1863-1937), followed in his father's footsteps. In addition to cable engineering he was a pioneer in the use of radio as a communication device on both ships and planes. He was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

in 1895, and was knighted in 1919.

References

Notes

External links

*
''Hounslow Guardian'' article
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bright, Charles Tilston 1832 births 1888 deaths People educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood People from Wanstead English electrical engineers 19th-century British engineers Submarine communications cables 19th-century English people Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Knights Bachelor UK MPs 1865–1868

Life

Sir Charles Bright (son)

See also

References

Notes

External links