Charles Tilston Bright

Sir Charles Tilston Bright (8 June 1832 – 3 May 1888) was a British electrical engineer who oversaw the laying of the first transatlantic telegraph cable in 1858, for which work he was knighted. Life Born on 8 June 1832 in Wanstead, Essex, Bright was educated at Merchant Taylors' School. At fifteen, he became a clerk for the Electric Telegraph Company and as his talent for electrical engineering became evident, he was appointed engineer to the Magnetic Telegraph Company in 1852. In that role he supervised the laying of lines in the British Isles, including in 1853 the first cable between Scotland and Ireland, from Portpatrick to Donaghadee, when he was just 21. This work, and the successful laying of other submarine cables, suggested to others that it might be possible to lay a cable across the Atlantic from Ireland to North America. Joining with Cyrus West Field and John Watkins Brett, who controlled the New York, Newfoundland and London Telegraph Company, Bright helped organise 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. Samuel Canning supported the effort on board HMS Agamemnon.