Not much has changed in all these years. The ship carrying the cables moves along the ocean slowly unwinding the cables as they sink to the ocean floor. The SS Great Eastern was actually the first in laying out a successful trans-Atlantic cable back in 1866. Back then it was used to transmit telegraph messages. From 1956, it started carrying telephone signals.
Modern cables in comparison are much thinner - about 3 inches across. At the deepest point in the Japan Trench, cables go as deep as 8,000 metres deep in the ocean. That's the height of Mt.Everest!
An optical fibre looks something like this. Many fibres bundled within a larger shell protecting it.
The shell includes -
Polyethylene
Mylar tape
Stranded metal (steel) wires
Aluminum water barrier
Polycarbonate
Copper or aluminum tube
Petroleum jelly (this helps protect the cables from the water)
Optical fibers
These cables transmit videos, GIFs, information and articles like the one you're reading right now. They are the reason we get to download and stream things in a matter of milliseconds. Incredible.
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