0:02 [SPEAKER_00]: There are times when global change can impact you in ways you did not expect. 0:08 [SPEAKER_00]: Think about how the internet completely revolutionize the way we communicate, shop, and even find love. 0:16 [SPEAKER_00]: Or how the smartphone put the world at our fingertips, changing our daily lives and ways we couldn't have imagined. 0:24 [SPEAKER_00]: Or recently, how the COVID-19 pandemic changed how we work. 0:30 [SPEAKER_00]: These are things you have experienced first hand, so you know what it feels like. 0:37 [SPEAKER_00]: But can you imagine something really simple, changing lives? 0:42 [SPEAKER_00]: Like if I told you, the telegraph changed people's lives. 0:46 [SPEAKER_00]: Can you fathom? 0:47 [SPEAKER_00]: That's like? 0:49 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, this is what happened in the 19th century, and it's the reason Tiffany and company is the company it is today. 1:03 [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome back friend to Home Town History. 1:06 [SPEAKER_00]: In today's episode, we will explore the story of how Tiffany and company leveraged a transatlantic telegraph cable milestone to become a name known in every household. 1:18 [SPEAKER_00]: But before we begin, let's get our backgrounds right. 1:25 [SPEAKER_00]: When Charles Lewis Tiffany founded his store in 1837, it was considered a haven for a fluent New Yorkers. 1:34 [SPEAKER_00]: It offered imported fine-arise, like porcelain, Japanese paper mache, walking sticks, and crystal glassware, basically a wide variety of luxury items and decorative products, making 1:54 [SPEAKER_00]: Those words are exactly in the language of the time. 1:59 [SPEAKER_00]: Now the telegraph system, which allowed messages to be transmitted over long distances, using electrical signals, was developed by Samuel Morse in the 1830s and 40s. 2:11 [SPEAKER_00]: In the following years, they were able to successfully show that electrical signals could be transmitted over long distances, like from Washington, DC, to Baltimore, Maryland, and then came the step forward. 2:26 [SPEAKER_00]: The Atlantic Telegraph Company led by Cyrus Westfield, constructed the first Transatlantic Telegraph cable. 2:35 [SPEAKER_00]: Field became intrigued by telegraphy. 2:38 [SPEAKER_00]: After meeting electrical engineer, Frederick Newton, Gisborne, and 1854. 2:44 [SPEAKER_00]: Gisborne needed financing for a project, extending North America's telegraph system from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland. 2:53 [SPEAKER_00]: Field reasoned that if a cable could span the Cabot Strait, a longer one, could traverse the entire North Atlantic 3:02 [SPEAKER_00]: Theoretically, it was possible, but it wasn't without its problems. 3:08 [SPEAKER_00]: The sea floor was mountainous, and two miles deep in some places. 3:13 [SPEAKER_00]: Since no single ship could handle the cable's full length, two vessels, the British battleship HMS Agamimnon, and the US Navy's Niagara, shared the task. 3:26 [SPEAKER_00]: The project began in 1854, with the first cable laid from Valencia Island, off the West Coast of Ireland, to Bay of Bulls, Trinity Bay, Newfoundland. 3:39 [SPEAKER_00]: Unfortunately, equipment failure, heavy seas, and snapped cables plagued the early attempts. 3:47 [SPEAKER_00]: But on August 5th, 1858, the Venture succeeded when the cable ends were brought ashore, and the first communications occurred on August 16th, 1858. 4:03 [SPEAKER_00]: The first official telegraph to pass between two continents that day was a letter of congratulations from Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom to the president of the United States, James Buchanan. 4:18 [SPEAKER_00]: The news was met with joy across America's eastern seaboard. 4:23 [SPEAKER_00]: In Boston, poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow called the greatest news of the hour, the year, the century. 4:32 [SPEAKER_00]: Imagine how it felt for the person who made the first website ever. 4:37 [SPEAKER_00]: It was a side of massive change in progress. 4:41 [SPEAKER_00]: Field stayed in Newfoundland for a few days before setting sail for New York, where locals had already started celebrating, with parades, brass bands, and bonfires. 4:55 [SPEAKER_00]: The New York Times reported on August 18, New York yesterday went cable mad 5:03 [SPEAKER_00]: but that excitement was short-lived. 5:06 [SPEAKER_00]: The signal quality declined soon after that, slowing transmission to an almost unusable speed. 5:14 [SPEAKER_00]: The cable was destroyed after three weeks. 5:17 [SPEAKER_00]: When Wildman White House applied excessive voltage to it, while trying to make it go faster, its short life undermined public and investor confidence and delayed efforts to restore 5:31 [SPEAKER_00]: But in all that mess, Charles Tiffany saw an opportunity. 5:38 [SPEAKER_00]: For context, Charles was born into a Connecticut cotton mill family on February 15, 1812, which meant he had zero formal business education. 5:50 [SPEAKER_00]: Yet, as most people back then would tell you, one of Mr. Tiffany's most noted traits, and one that has distinguished the house in its entire career, is an instinctive avoidance of beaten paths. 6:04 [SPEAKER_00]: It was this trait that had already served him well in 1848, when he capitalized on a French Revolution to acquire diamonds from fleeing aristocrats at bargain prices, creating a sensation in New York, 6:18 [SPEAKER_00]: Now coming back, he trusted his instincts once again. 6:23 [SPEAKER_00]: It was Tuesday, August 24, 1858, when readers of the New York Times encountered an unusual classified ad. 6:35 [SPEAKER_00]: Charles had apparently acquired 20 miles out of the 2200 miles of the Transatlantic Telegraph 6:44 [SPEAKER_00]: The excess cable likely came into his possession shortly after the Niagara docked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on August 18. 6:54 [SPEAKER_00]: To his credit, it was quite a masterful move. 6:58 [SPEAKER_00]: You may be wondering what the plan was, as a fancy good store in Manhattan selling souvenirs. 7:04 [SPEAKER_00]: Charles wasn't reinventing the wheel here. 7:08 [SPEAKER_00]: He was making the telegraph line into a souvenir, the ad-rad, in order to place the cable within the reach of all classes, and that every family in the United States may possess a specimen of this wonderful mechanic curiosity. 7:27 [SPEAKER_00]: Tiffany and Company would cut it into pieces of four inches in length and mount them neatly with brass ferales. 7:38 [SPEAKER_00]: The exclusivity they were offering here, which is letting the public own a piece of history, was a way to attract the masses towards their offer. 7:49 [SPEAKER_00]: Since the cable didn't stand out visually, Tiffany obtained a letter from field, attesting to the cable's authenticity, and each souvenir purchaser received a copyrighted facsimile of this certificate. 8:04 [SPEAKER_00]: Tiffany also equipped each piece with the brass collar, inscribed, Atlantic Telegraph cable, guaranteed by Tiffany and company. 8:15 [SPEAKER_00]: This brass collar was Tiffany's stroke of brilliance. 8:19 [SPEAKER_00]: It was all about physically linking and important artifact with the Tiffany and company name. 8:26 [SPEAKER_00]: These souvenirs were priced at just 50 cents each, 8:33 [SPEAKER_00]: So they were within reach of the average New Yorker. 8:37 [SPEAKER_00]: Tiffany's market insight was actually spot on. 8:41 [SPEAKER_00]: As recounted in Joseph Proletz 1971 book, The Tiffany Touch, quote, the crowds were so great when the souvenirs were put on sale that the constabularity had to be called. 8:54 [SPEAKER_00]: These finger-length momentos made Tiffany and company a household name, not diamonds, not decorations, but a cable. 9:05 [SPEAKER_00]: The souvenirs still hold pride of place and private and public collections, including this Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. 9:15 [SPEAKER_00]: Nobody knows exactly how many telegraph cable souvenirs Tiffany created. 9:21 [SPEAKER_00]: In theory, 20 miles of wire could yield more than 100,000 foreign souvenirs, but it's clear that far fewer were made. 9:33 [SPEAKER_00]: The store also offered cable by the foot, and a variety of commemorative items, from 9:45 [SPEAKER_00]: What is certain is that the souvenirs were very popular when first sold, but demand quickly went down. 9:56 [SPEAKER_00]: One of the main reasons for this fall in demand was the fact that despite his technological revolution, the Atlantic cable never functioned reliably. 10:06 [SPEAKER_00]: The first message had taken 16 hours, and 30 minutes to transmit, as the signal weakened daily. 10:14 [SPEAKER_00]: The messages became increasingly garbled, who would want a piece of that. 10:20 [SPEAKER_00]: The last decipherable message was sent on September 1, 1858. 10:24 [SPEAKER_00]: The cables useful live had lasted roughly three weeks, but eventually, reports revealed that the cables two-thin copper core and high voltage induction coils had doomed it. 10:39 [SPEAKER_00]: Field stalled for time, but eventually admitted to the associated press on September 24th. 10:50 [SPEAKER_00]: the public, which had hailed him as a hero, quickly turned on him. 10:55 [SPEAKER_00]: Some even claimed that the transit-oriented cable had been its game. 11:00 [SPEAKER_00]: And since the marketing tactic was closely associated with this cable, the effect reflected in the fall and demand for the souvenirs created by Tiffany. 11:10 [SPEAKER_00]: Understandably, citizens disillusioned by the cable's failure, have little interest in 11:18 [SPEAKER_00]: On October 5th, Tiffany placed another ad in the Times, announcing that his company would dispose of the remainder of the telegraph cable, now on hand by the mile, at a very low price. 11:33 [SPEAKER_00]: It's clear Tiffany had plenty of stock left. 11:36 [SPEAKER_00]: The New York Historical Society has a box of 930, Tiffany's souvenirs. 11:43 [SPEAKER_00]: Apparently donated by Field, 11:46 [SPEAKER_00]: Later, in 1974, George McGowan, of Lake George, New York, found nearly 40 crates of souvenirs, each containing a hundred pieces. 11:59 [SPEAKER_00]: That same year, a California gold and silver broker called L'Anello Reserves began selling a similar quantity of cable sections for $100 each, which is about $620 today. 12:15 [SPEAKER_00]: With a steep price tag for its cable segments, La Nello apparently had enough unsold stock to donate a box of 100 to the American History Museum. 12:26 [SPEAKER_00]: According to curator Wallace, 99 remain in the museum's collection. 12:33 [SPEAKER_00]: The last of the 100 was later gifted to the Houston Museum of Natural Science. 12:39 [SPEAKER_00]: This is not to be confused with the failed strategy. 12:42 [SPEAKER_00]: It was far from that. 12:46 [SPEAKER_00]: The main thing achieved here was establishing Tiffany and Company as a brand. 12:52 [SPEAKER_00]: Something you were likely to own a small part of in your own home. 12:56 [SPEAKER_00]: At just 50 cents, no less. 13:00 [SPEAKER_00]: This is seen in the fact that in recent decades, many Tiffany cable souvenirs have surfaced out of state sales and auctions, fetching high prices. 13:11 [SPEAKER_00]: The presence of the Tiffany and company brand significantly increases their value, says Manhattan antique dealer George Glazer, who estimates he's sold around 50 Tiffany cable souvenirs. 13:25 [SPEAKER_00]: He says, there are some cable segments that float around that don't have the label in the middle, but people don't want them as much. 13:33 [SPEAKER_00]: They have a lower value, even though they're unquestionably identical and authentic. 13:39 [SPEAKER_00]: People want the Tiffany name. 13:42 [SPEAKER_00]: The Tiffany name was out there, known to everyone. 13:48 [SPEAKER_00]: In the following years, this was seen as an example of innovative marketing, the set of precedent for Tiffany and company's business practices. 13:58 [SPEAKER_00]: They continue to leverage significant events and milestones to enhance their brand image and attract new customers. 14:06 [SPEAKER_00]: just like Charles Tiffany did all those years ago. 14:10 [SPEAKER_00]: For example, Tiffany's reputation for quality and craftsmanship was further cemented by its role in designing and producing the Vince Lombardi trophy for the Super Bowl, or recently when they took advantage of AI tools to improve the online shopping experience. 14:29 [SPEAKER_00]: Essentially, 14:35 [SPEAKER_00]: In itself, it doesn't have much to it, but it makes it easier for buyers to visualize what the product would be like. 14:43 [SPEAKER_00]: Kind of reflecting the in-store experience, Tiffany and Company is known for. 14:48 [SPEAKER_00]: And that wraps up today's episode. 14:56 [SPEAKER_00]: All of it comes down to two major factors, Charles is marketing genius and his entrepreneurial 15:05 [SPEAKER_00]: Charles Lewis Tiffany trusted his instincts and it worked better than he probably anticipated. 15:10 [SPEAKER_00]: Or maybe he did know all along because he is just that good. 15:17 [SPEAKER_00]: Either way, it's a valuable lesson in marketing. 15:21 [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for listening to Home Town History. 15:24 [SPEAKER_00]: Be sure to follow along for more interesting stories from the past.
Show full transcript (112 segments)
