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

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

inventor and electrician. Born in Broughton,

Preston, Lancashire Preston () is a city on the north bank of the River Ribble in Lancashire, England. The city is the administrative centre of the county of Lancashire and the wider City of Preston local government district. Preston and its surrounding distri ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

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

electrician An electrician is a tradesperson specializing in electrical wiring of buildings, transmission lines, stationary machines, and related equipment. Electricians may be employed in the installation of new electrical components or the maintenance ...

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

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

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

Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island (PEI; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is the smallest province in terms of land area and population, but the most densely populated. The island has several nicknames: "Garden of the Gulf", ...

and

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

in 1852. In 1853 he went to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, 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

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

and North America. 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