Bright, Charles Tilston (1832–1888)

English civil engineer. He became chief engineer of the Atlantic Telegraph Company in 1856. After two disappointments, in 1866 he succeeded in laying a submarine cable connecting Ireland and Newfoundland, becoming the first to establish communication by telegraph between Europe and North America.

In 1853, as engineer to the Magnetic Telegraph Company, Bright had superintended the laying of the first deep-water cable between Britain and Ireland, from Port Patrick (Scotland) to Donaghadee (Ireland). Later he laid cables in the Mediterranean, Gulf, and West Indies. With the English engineer Josiah Clark, he discovered improved methods of insulating submarine cables. He was knighted in 1858.