French Cable Station Museum

02653 Orleans, MA, United States of America (USA) (Massachusetts)

Wikipedia:
The French Cable Station was built in 1891 by the French Cable Company, which was installing numerous cables in Cape Cod throughout the late-19th century. By 1898 the station was the terminus of a 3,200-mile (5,100 km) long trans-Atlantic telegraph cable called "Le Direct." When France surrendered to Nazi Germany in 1940, it was taken over by the federal government for security reasons, but wasn't returned to the company until 1952. The company resumed operations until 1959. After being purchased by 10 prominent Orleans citizens in 1972, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places the same year.

From Museum's website:
EXHIBITS

Superintendent Office

This office is essentially as it was through the years. Look around and you will see the walls are covered with a few photos and news articles of major events in the history of the station. Some of these were given to the museum by the Smithsonian Institute. By the superintendents desk is an early copy machine (non photographic). Every letter written was copied before being sent.

Testing Room

This room contains equipment that was used to determine the location of a fault or break in the cable. Some of the equipment is still operational and can be demonstrated. Also in this room is one of the most unique instruments in the world. It is the Heurtley Magnifier used to amplify the weak signal coming from France. It was developed before there were vacuum tubes. There are only three in existence in the world today.

Repair Room

This is the room that held the equipment used to repair the cable and equipment. In this room are found samples of the early submarine telegraph cable and cables that have been under the sea for decades. On the walls are photos of a repair operation at sea. In a sealed glass cabinet in the hall are many interesting items including an original Tiffany and Co. Wooden box containing a sample of the 1858 cable. Cyrus Field had sold the cable to Tiffany immediately after the success of the first transatlantic cable in 1858.

Operations Room

This was the heart of the cable station. This was where the messages from France were received, recorded, and retransmitted to rest of the country. Most of the equipment still functions and can be demonstrated.

In this room is a portion of the “Artificial Cable” or “Balancer” which enabled duplex (Two directions at once over a single cable) operation of the cable in an extremely clever manner.

10 miles north, at Marconi Beach Road, remembers a landmark to

Marconi station

A Marconi station built in 1902 at South Wellfleet, Cape Cod, Massachusetts (initial callsign CC, MCC 1908 to 1911, finally WCC from 1911,) transmitted its first telegraphic message via spark gap transmitter in 1903 from what is now known as the National Park Service "Marconi Area," about a mile north of the entrance to "Marconi Beach". Marine radio traffic carried before the station closed in 1917 included news and telegrams for passengers of the RMS Lusitania, distress calls from the RMS Titanic in 1912 and a message between the American president and the British king in 1903.

The South Wellfleet antennas and equipment were dismantled by the U.S. Navy in 1919, replaced by Marconi's new receiver station built in 1914 in Chatham, Massachusetts and its paired transmitter station also built in 1914 in Marion, Massachusetts. The South Wellfleet site is now part of the Cape Cod National Seashore.

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