To see more from the AT&T Archives, visit techchannel.att.com This film follows the laying of a cable from Jacksonville, Florida, to St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. The CS Long Lines makes the journey of 1302 nautical miles. The cable they used, of the copper coaxial type (fiber optics wouldn't come into play until the late 1980s), was the very first undersea cable to use transistors in the repeaters instead of vacuum tubes. And this was 21 years after the invention of the transistor. This cable carried 845 channels, and was 1/10th of the cost of the very first undersea telephone cable, laid in 1956. You can see pictures of the cable's landfall, taken by a transmission engineer on the journey, at the Atlantic Cable site. More importantly, this was the first journey documenting AT&T's use of their newly-developed sea plow, which had been tested in 1967. In the Atlantic/Caribbean regions, undersea phone cables were frequently severed after being snagged by fishing trawlers. The sea plow, burying the cable, drastically reduced those expensive incidents. The plow, pulled by the cable-laying ship on sled-like runners, could bury cable on the ocean floor, under water up to 4600 feet deep. This particular cable was taken out of service in 1993. Currently, three cables run to this terminus in St. Thomas, all fiber optic and all put into service that same year, 1993. A Jerry Fairbanks Production Written by Robert Hecker Directed by Wallace Bennett Footage courtesy of AT&T ...
Showing posts with label Voices. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Voices. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
AT&T Archives: Voices From the Deep
AT&T Archives: Voices From the Deep Tube. Duration : 12.42 Mins.
To see more from the AT&T Archives, visit techchannel.att.com This film follows the laying of a cable from Jacksonville, Florida, to St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. The CS Long Lines makes the journey of 1302 nautical miles. The cable they used, of the copper coaxial type (fiber optics wouldn't come into play until the late 1980s), was the very first undersea cable to use transistors in the repeaters instead of vacuum tubes. And this was 21 years after the invention of the transistor. This cable carried 845 channels, and was 1/10th of the cost of the very first undersea telephone cable, laid in 1956. You can see pictures of the cable's landfall, taken by a transmission engineer on the journey, at the Atlantic Cable site. More importantly, this was the first journey documenting AT&T's use of their newly-developed sea plow, which had been tested in 1967. In the Atlantic/Caribbean regions, undersea phone cables were frequently severed after being snagged by fishing trawlers. The sea plow, burying the cable, drastically reduced those expensive incidents. The plow, pulled by the cable-laying ship on sled-like runners, could bury cable on the ocean floor, under water up to 4600 feet deep. This particular cable was taken out of service in 1993. Currently, three cables run to this terminus in St. Thomas, all fiber optic and all put into service that same year, 1993. A Jerry Fairbanks Production Written by Robert Hecker Directed by Wallace Bennett Footage courtesy of AT&T ...
To see more from the AT&T Archives, visit techchannel.att.com This film follows the laying of a cable from Jacksonville, Florida, to St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. The CS Long Lines makes the journey of 1302 nautical miles. The cable they used, of the copper coaxial type (fiber optics wouldn't come into play until the late 1980s), was the very first undersea cable to use transistors in the repeaters instead of vacuum tubes. And this was 21 years after the invention of the transistor. This cable carried 845 channels, and was 1/10th of the cost of the very first undersea telephone cable, laid in 1956. You can see pictures of the cable's landfall, taken by a transmission engineer on the journey, at the Atlantic Cable site. More importantly, this was the first journey documenting AT&T's use of their newly-developed sea plow, which had been tested in 1967. In the Atlantic/Caribbean regions, undersea phone cables were frequently severed after being snagged by fishing trawlers. The sea plow, burying the cable, drastically reduced those expensive incidents. The plow, pulled by the cable-laying ship on sled-like runners, could bury cable on the ocean floor, under water up to 4600 feet deep. This particular cable was taken out of service in 1993. Currently, three cables run to this terminus in St. Thomas, all fiber optic and all put into service that same year, 1993. A Jerry Fairbanks Production Written by Robert Hecker Directed by Wallace Bennett Footage courtesy of AT&T ...
Thursday, August 23, 2012
AT&T Archives: Voices in Space
AT&T Archives: Voices in Space Tube. Duration : 12.45 Mins.
For more from the AT&T Archives, visit techchannel.att.com This film is about the AT&T's involvement with the Comstar satellite system. At the time that this film was made, the first Comstar had not yet been launched. The first Comstar satellites were launched in 1976, the last in 1981. Comstar was a dedicated communications satellite in a 22300 mile high orbit, relaying long-distance calls—primarily within the USA Comstar relayed calls to one of seven "earth stations", a joint project between GTE and AT&T. There were four owned by the Bell System: in Woodbury, GA; Three Peaks, CA; Hanover, IL; and Hawley, NY. GTE had three, in LA, Tampa, and Honolulu. All of the earth stations, interestingly enough, were situated in bowl-shaped valleys, specifically to minimize interference from earth signals, which tended to spread horizontally. This way the earth stations had a clearer signal to the satellite, and vice versa. Even though AT&T had had satellites in space since the first Telstar was launched, the Comstars were the first really practical, high-call capacity satellites. With 140 million telephones in the system, AT&T was anticipating the limits of its system capacity all the time, developing new technologies to keep up with demand. At this time, compared to today, the phone system was relatively primitive — all calls were still transmitted via coaxial cable, and required large amounts of repeaters. Electronic Switching Stations were still extremely new, and lightwave/laser ...
For more from the AT&T Archives, visit techchannel.att.com This film is about the AT&T's involvement with the Comstar satellite system. At the time that this film was made, the first Comstar had not yet been launched. The first Comstar satellites were launched in 1976, the last in 1981. Comstar was a dedicated communications satellite in a 22300 mile high orbit, relaying long-distance calls—primarily within the USA Comstar relayed calls to one of seven "earth stations", a joint project between GTE and AT&T. There were four owned by the Bell System: in Woodbury, GA; Three Peaks, CA; Hanover, IL; and Hawley, NY. GTE had three, in LA, Tampa, and Honolulu. All of the earth stations, interestingly enough, were situated in bowl-shaped valleys, specifically to minimize interference from earth signals, which tended to spread horizontally. This way the earth stations had a clearer signal to the satellite, and vice versa. Even though AT&T had had satellites in space since the first Telstar was launched, the Comstars were the first really practical, high-call capacity satellites. With 140 million telephones in the system, AT&T was anticipating the limits of its system capacity all the time, developing new technologies to keep up with demand. At this time, compared to today, the phone system was relatively primitive — all calls were still transmitted via coaxial cable, and required large amounts of repeaters. Electronic Switching Stations were still extremely new, and lightwave/laser ...
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