Frederic Newton Gisborne (8 March 1824 – 30 August 1892) was a

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inventor and electrician. Born in Broughton,

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, he left England in 1842 for a trip around the world, finally settling in Canada in 1845. By close study he became an expert

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, and original improvements in methods and instruments soon attracted so much attention that he was appointed superintendent of the lines of the

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government at Halifax. After studying the problems of ocean telegraphy, he laid the first deep-sea cable in

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n waters, between

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and

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in 1852. In 1853 he went to

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, where in 1854 he became associated with Cyrus W. Field. On the organization of the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company, he was appointed the chief engineer. The new company intended to lay the first deep-sea telegraph cable between

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and

. In 1879, Gisborne was appointed superintendent of the Canadian government telegraph service, which position he held until his death. Among his numerous inventions were an anti-induction ocean cable, electric and pneumatic ship signals, an anticorrosive composition for the bottoms of iron ships, and an electric recording target.

References

* * Charles Dawson,"The First Submarine Telegraph Cable in America", 1852.

External links

The Frederic Newton Gisborne Collection at the Victoria University Library at the University of Toronto
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gisborne, Frederic Newton 1824 births 1892 deaths Canadian inventors People from Broughton, Lancashire Canadian electrical engineers