The birth of the international telegraph system. Unfortunately it feels rather like a book-length Wired article, and has no references, so it's hard to tell where to go from here. What's there is interesting, but I spotted a couple of errors (which a year later I now can't recall the exact details of, so instead I'm going to have to leave you with a vague sense of unease).
I can, on the other hand, thoroughly recommend the 19th-century novel Wired
Love
by Ella Cheever Thayer, which this book refers to — it's
available from Project
Gutenberg.
ISBN 0802716040. Search for this book on Wikipedia or isbn.nu.