Atlantic telegraph and Cyrus Field. 19th-century illustration and chart of the telegraph cable laid across the Atlantic in 1858, financed by US businessman Cyrus West Field (1819-1892), one of the founders of the Atlantic Telegraph Company that laid the cable. The cable-laying ships USS Niagara and HMS Agamemnon are also shown. At lower right is an illustration of the cable composition, with an alphabet telegraph chart at top. The 1858 cable ran from Ireland to Newfoundland. Land connections and proposed transatlantic cables (to France via the Azores and Gibraltar via Madeira) are also shown. Map published in Philadelphia in 1858.