内容提要：跨大西洋海底电缆线路百折不挠的铺设经过。
Before the 1850s, messages between Europe and North America were sent by ship. This took at least a week. Both places had telegraph lines and could send messages rapidly迅速地 in their own countries. But they could not be sent across the ocean.
The first attempt尝试 to lay a transatlantic cable电缆 was in 1857. Two ships carrying 2,500 miles of cable left from Europe. After laying just 380 miles, the cable broke.
The next year, the two ships met in the middle of the Atlantic. Each had half of the cable. They joined the two ends. The ships moved apart, each laying its half of the cable. It broke after 160 miles had been laid.
A month later, they tried again. Again they started from mid-ocean. This time it worked. The two continents were joined. Messages were sent for three weeks. Then the cable went dead. The amount of electrical current电流 sent through the cable was too high. It damaged the wires.
It was seven years before another attempt was made. In 1865, a single ship left Europe with 2,200 miles of cable. It got within 600 miles of North America when the cable snapped拉断. A year later, it was tried again. On July 27,1866, the cable was pulled ashore在岸上 in Newfoundland. The ship then went back to find the cable that was lost the year before. It was found 16,000 feet below the surface. The broken end was attached系 to new cable and brought to shore.
At last, Europe and North America were connected by two good cables.
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