the.com/wires
the unglamorous nerves of civilization, carrying everything from heartbeats to lies at light speed
means Thin, flexible strands of metal drawn out into long threads, used to carry electrical current, signals, or to bind and support things.
from From Old English 'wīr,' meaning metal drawn into a thread, with cousins across the Germanic languages (Old Norse had 'vírr'). The deeper root is likely the same one behind Latin 'viere,' to plait or weave — fitting, since the earliest wire was literally drawn and twisted by hand. For most of its life the word meant the metal thread itself; only with the telegraph in the 19th century did 'the wire' come to mean the message, and later 'wired' came to mean nervy, connected, or quietly listened-in-upon.
- copper rule
- Most carry electricity through plain copper, mined for millennia
- deep sea
- Undersea cables move 99% of intercontinental data
- length
- A single home can hide miles of wiring
- sharks bite
- Sharks have attacked undersea cables, biting the hum
- tightrope
- Wire walkers cross canyons on cable thinner than thumbs
trans-siberian telephone wire — longest telegraph wire, completed 1916, connected russia to vladivostok
transatlantic telegraph cable — first successful underwater cable, 1858, connected ireland to newfoundland
golden gate bridge cables — main suspension cables, 36 inches diameter, san francisco 1937