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4 unusual facts about Cyrus West Field


Charles Tilston Bright

Joining with Cyrus West Field and J. W. Brett, who controlled the Newfoundland Telegraph Company, Bright helped organize the Atlantic Telegraph Company in 1856 to develop a transatlantic cable, with himself as engineer-in-chief; Wildman Whitehouse soon joined them as chief electrician.

Cyrus West Field

During the Panic of 1857, Field's paper business suspended, and he was kept from going under by his neighbor in Gramercy Park, Peter Cooper.

Together with Peter Cooper, Abram Stevens Hewitt, Moses Taylor and Samuel F.B. Morse, in 1854 he laid a 400-mile telegraph line connecting St. John's, Newfoundland with Nova Scotia, where telegraph lines from the U.S. terminated.

Field, British Columbia

The town was given its name by the CPR in December 1884 to honour American businessman Cyrus West Field, who was instrumental in establishing trans-atlantic telegraph service.



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