The Atlantic Telegraph Part 1

The Atlantic Telegraph.

by William Howard Russell.

THE

ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH.

I shall not detain the readers of this brief narrative with any sketch of the progress of electrical science. There are text-books, cyclopaedias, and treatises full of information concerning the men who worked in early days, and recording the labours of those who still toil on, investigating the laws and developing the applications of the subtle agency which has long attracted the attention of the most acute, ingenious, and successful students of natural philosophy. For the last two centuries the greater number of those whose names are known in science have made electrical experiments a favourite pursuit, or turned to them as an agreeable recreation from severer studies. The rapidity with which electricity travels for considerable distances through insulated conductors soon suggested its use as a means of transmitting intelligence; but the high tension of the currents from friction machines, and the difficulty of insulating the conductors, were practical obstacles to the employment of the devices, some of them ingenious, recommended for that purpose from year to year. Otto Von Guericke, and his globe of sulphur; Grey, with his gla.s.s tube and silken cords; and Franklin, with his kite, were, however, the precursors of the philosophers who have done much, and whose successors may yet do much more, for the world. It is not easy to decide whether it is the man who gives a new idea to the world, or he who embodies that idea in a form and turns it into a fact, who is deserving of the credit to be a.s.signed to any invention. A vague expression of belief that a certain end may be attained at a future period by means then unknown does not const.i.tute a discovery, and does not ent.i.tle the person who utters it, verbally or in writing, to the honour which is due to him who indicates specifically the way of achieving the object, or who actually accomplishes it by methods he has either invented or applied. The Marquis of Worcester certainly did not invent the steam-engine; neither did Watson, Salva, Smmering, or Ronalds, or any other of the many early experimentalists, discover electric telegraphy. But there is a degree of credit due to those who, contending with imperfect materials and want of knowledge, persist in working out their ideas, and succeed in rescuing them from the region of chimaeras. The inventions of one render capable of realisation the ideas of another, which but for them had remained dreams and visions. The introduction of a novel product into commerce, or the chance discovery of some property in a common material, may draw a project out of the limbo of impracticabilities. A suggestion at one period may be more valuable than an invention at another, and adaptations may be more useful than discoveries. Indeed, when the testimony on which men's reputations, as finders or makers, rest, is critically examined, a suspicion is often generated that there have been many Vespuccis in the world who have given names to places they never found, and taken or received credit for what they never did.

If any person takes an interest in determining who was the inventor of electric telegraphy, he should study the works and mark the improvements of the natural philosophers of the last as well as of the present, century, and he can then arrive at some result without exciting national jealousy, or injuring individual susceptibilities. Humboldt a.s.signs the credit of making the first electric telegraph to Salva, who constructed a line 26 miles long, from Madrid to Aranjuez, in 1798. Russia claims the honour of having invented aerial telegraphic lines, because Baron Von Schilling proposed a line for the Emperor from St. Petersburg to Peterhoff, below Cronstadt, in 1834, and was laughed at by scientific Muscovites for his pains. But the Baron certainly did transmit messages along wires supported by poles in the air. The Count du Moncel, in his recent "Traite de Telegraphie Electrique," gives to Mr. Wheatstone the palm as the original inventor of submarine Cables, to which award, no doubt, there will be some dissent. Mr. Wheatstone, however, as early as 1840, brought before the House of Commons the project of a cable, to be laid between Dover and Calais, though he does not seem to have had at the time any decided views as to the mode in which insulation was to be obtained. In 1843, Professor Morse, detailing the results of some experiments with an electric magnetic telegraph between Was.h.i.+ngton and Baltimore, in a letter to the Secretary of the United States, wrote: "The practical inference from this law is that a telegraphic communication on the electric-magnetic plan, may with certainty be established across the Atlantic Ocean. Startling as this may seem now, I am confident the time will come when this project will be realised."

But for the experiments and discoveries of Oersted, Sturgeon, Ampere, Davy, Henry, and Faraday, and a long list of others, such suggestions would have remained as little likely to be realised as the Bishop of Llandaff's notions of a flying-machine, or the crude theories of the alchemists. He who first produces a practical result--something which, however imperfect, gives a result to be seen and felt, and appreciated by the senses--is the true [Greek: poietes p???t??]--the maker and inventor, whom the world should recognise, no matter how much may be done by others to improve his work, each of those improvers being, after his kind, deserving of recognition for what he does. A year before Professor Morse wrote the letter to Mr. Spencer, he took some steps to show that which he prophesied was practicable. In the autumn of the year 1842 he stretched a submarine cable from Castle Garden to Governor's Island in the harbour of New York, demonstrated to the American Inst.i.tute the possibility of effecting electric communication through the sea, and submitted that telegraphic communication might with certainty be established across the Atlantic. Later in the same year he sent a current across the ca.n.a.l at Was.h.i.+ngton. But that was not the first current transmitted under water, for as early as 1839, Sir W.

O'Shaughnessy, the late Superintendent of Electric Telegraphs in India, hauled an insulated wire across the Hooghly at Calcutta, and produced electrical phenomena at the other side of the river. In 1846, Col. Colt, the patentee of the revolver, and Mr. Robinson, of New York, laid a wire across the river from New York to Brooklyn, and from Long Island to Coney Island. In 1849, Mr. Walker sent messages to sh.o.r.e through two miles of insulated wire from a battery on board a steamer off Folkestone.

It was in 1851 that an electric cable was actually laid in the open sea, and worked successfully; and the wire which then connected Dover with Calais was beyond question the first important line of submarine telegraph ever attempted. In the year 1850, Mr. Brett obtained a concession from the French Government for effecting this object,--an object regarded at the time as one purely chimerical, and decried by the press as a gigantic swindle. The cable which was made for the purpose consisted of a solid copper wire, covered with gutta percha. When tested by Mr. Woollaston, it was found to be so imperfect from air holes in the gutta-percha, that the water found its way to the copper wire,--an imperfection which was however shortly repaired. This cable was manufactured at the Gutta Percha works, on the Wharf Road, City Road, under the superintendence of the late Mr. Samuel Statham; was then coiled on a drum, and conveyed by steam-tug to Dover, and in the year 1850 was payed out from Dover to Calais. The landing-place in France was Cape Grisnez, from which place a few messages pa.s.sed, so as to comply with the terms of the concession and test the accuracy of the principle.

The communication thus established between the Continent and England was, after a few hours, abruptly stopped. A diligent fisherman, plying his vocation, took up part of the cable in his trawl, and cut off a piece, which he bore in triumph to Boulogne, where he exhibited it as a specimen of a rare seaweed, with its centre filled with gold. It is believed that this "pescatore ign.o.bile" returned again and again to search for further specimens of this treasure of the deep: it is, at all events, perfectly certain that he succeeded in destroying the submarine cable.

This accident caused the attention of scientific men to be directed to the discovery of some mode of preserving submarine cables from similar casualties, and a suggestion was made by Mr. Kuper, who was engaged in the manufacture of wire ropes, to Mr. Woollaston and to Mr. T. R.

Crampton, that the wire insulated with gutta-percha should form a core or centre to a wire rope, so as to give protection to it during the process of paying out and laying down, as well as to guard it from the anchors of vessels and the rocks, and to secure a perfect electrical continuity.

Mr. Crampton, who had already accepted the contract for laying the cable between England and France, and had given up much of his time to the study of the subject, adopted this idea, and in 1851 he and several gentlemen a.s.sociated for the purpose laid the cable between Dover and Calais, where it has since remained in perfect order, const.i.tuting the great channel of electrical communication between England and the Continent. It was made by Wilkins & Weatherly, Newall & Co., Kuper & Co., and Mr. Crampton. The exertions of the last-named eminent engineer in laying the first cable under water, and his devotion to an object towards which he largely contributed in money, are only known to a few, and have never been adequately acknowledged.

The success of that form of cable having been thus completely established, several lines of a similar character were laid during the following years between England and Ireland and parts of the Continent: one, 18 miles long, across the Great Belt, made by Newall & Co.; one from Dover to Ostend, by the same makers and by Kuper & Co.; one from Donaghadee to Portpatrick, by Newall & Co.; one from Holyhead to Howth; and one from Orfordness to the Hague.

The superiority of a line with wire-rope cover to other descriptions of cable was ill.u.s.trated in 1853. At that period the Electric and International Telegraph Company determined upon laying down four wires between England and the Continent, but they rejected the heavy cable, and adopted the suggestion of their engineer to use four separate cables of light wire. The cost of maintaining these light cables from injury by anchors, &c., was so great that they were picked up, and heavy cables of great strength were subst.i.tuted, which have given no trouble or anxiety, and have always been in good order.

The Old World had twelve lines of submarine cable laid ere the United States turned their attention to the uses of such forms of telegraph.

Italy had been connected with Corsica by a line 110 miles long, and Denmark had joined one of her little islands to the other, ere the Great Republic gave a thought to the matter. But there were excuses for such indifference. The Telegraphic system, to which Morse, Bain, House, and others, had given such development, although the first line was not constructed till 1844, extended rapidly all over the vast extent of the Atlantic and Gulf States. The people were on the same continent, the land was all their own, their greatest rivers could be traversed by wires; and so it was that, whilst Mr. Morse was engaged in protecting his patents, and the Americans, self-contained, were not looking beyond the limits of their sh.o.r.es, a British North American Province took the first step which was made at the other side of the Atlantic to lay down a submarine cable. In 1851-2 a project was started in Newfoundland, to run a line of steamers between Galway and St. John's in connection with a telegraph to Cape Ray, where a submarine Cable was to be laid to Cape Breton, and thence the news was to be carried by means of another cable from New Brunswick to Prince Edward's Island. The Roman Catholic Bishop of Newfoundland is stated to have been the original proposer of a scheme for connecting the island with the United States, but the credit of actually laying down the first submarine cable at the other side of the Atlantic belongs to Mr. F.N. Gisborne, an English engineer. He had been previously engaged in the telegraph department at Montreal, and had some knowledge of the subject, but he happened to be in London at the time of Brett's success. On his return to America he applied himself to get up a Company for the purpose of facilitating telegraphic communication between Europe and the United States. After much difficulty the Company was formed, and an Act was pa.s.sed by the Legislature of Newfoundland, in 1852, conferring the important privileges upon it, in event of the completion of the project in Newfoundland, which are now possessed by the Atlantic Telegraph Company. Mr. Gisborne was superintendent and engineer of the Company, and he set to work with energy to construct a road from St John's to Cape Ray, over a barren and resourceless tract of 400 miles, and made a survey of the coast line, during which he was exposed to great hards.h.i.+ps. He succeeded at last in laying an insulated cable, made by Newall & Co., from New Brunswick to Prince Edward's Island across the Straits of Northumberland, 11 miles long, in 22 fathoms of water; but was not successful in a similar attempt to connect Newfoundland with Cape Breton. Meantime the Company became involved in pecuniary difficulties, and Mr. Gisborne, early in 1854, on the suspension of the works, proceeded to New York, where he hoped to find money to enable him to carry out the telegraphic scheme among the keen speculators and large-pursed merchants. Through an accidental conversation at the hotel in which he was staying, he obtained an interview with Mr. Cyrus Field. He laid his plans before that gentleman, who had no desire to resume an active career, having just returned from travelling in South America, with the intention of enjoying the fortune his industry and sagacity had secured ere he had arrived at the middle term of life. But Mr. Field listened to Mr. Gisborne with attention, and then began to think over the project--"To lay these submarine cables so as to connect Newfoundland with Maine?--Good. To run a line of steamers from St. John's to Galway?--Certainly. It would shorten the time of receiving news in New York from Europe four or five days." And so the brain worked and thought. Then suddenly, "But if a cable can be laid in the bed of these seas--if the Great Atlantic itself could be spanned?"

Here was an idea indeed. Deep and broad seas had been traversed in Europe, but here was one of the great oceans of the world, of depth but faintly guessed at, and of nigh 2000 miles span from sh.o.r.e to sh.o.r.e!

Would it be within the limits of human resources to let down a line into the watery void, and to connect the Old World with the New? What a glorious thought! Was it a vision, or was it one of those inspirations from which originate grand enterprises and results which change the destinies of the world? Mr. Field terminated his reflections that night by an eminently practical measure. Ere he retired to rest he sat down and wrote two letters,--one to Lieut. Maury, U.S.N., to ask his opinion concerning the possibility of laying down a cable in the bottom of the Atlantic; the other to Professor Morse, to inquire whether he thought it practicable to send an electric current through a wire between Europe and America. Lieut Maury, in answering in the affirmative, wrote, "Curiously enough, when your letter came I was looking over my letter to the Secretary of the Navy on that very subject." And, in fact, on the 22nd February, 1854, Lieut. Maury made a long communication to Mr.

Dobbin, Secretary, United States Navy, from the Observatory, Was.h.i.+ngton, respecting a series of deep-sea soundings made by Lieut. Berryman, U.S.N., brig Dolphin, from Newfoundland to Ireland, in connection with researches on the winds and currents, carried on for the National Observatory. It is obvious that Lieut. Maury, as well as many others probably, had thought of the same idea as Mr. Field. He says, "The result is highly interesting, in so far as the bottom of the sea is concerned, upon the question of a submarine telegraph across the Atlantic;" and he goes on to make it the subject of a special report, in which occur the following pa.s.sages;--

"This line of deep-sea soundings seems to be decisive of the question as to the practicability of a Submarine Telegraph between the two continents, in so far as the bottom of the deep sea is concerned. From Newfoundland to Ireland, the distance between the nearest points is about 1,600 miles;[1] and the bottom of the sea between the two places is a plateau, which seems to have been placed there especially for the purpose of holding the wires of a Submarine Telegraph, and of keeping them out of harm's way. It is neither too deep nor too shallow; yet it is so deep that the wires, but once landed, will remain for ever beyond the reach of vessels' anchors, icebergs, and drifts of any kind, and so shallow that the wires may be readily lodged upon the bottom. The depth of this plateau is quite regular, gradually increasing from the sh.o.r.es of Newfoundland to the depth of from 1,500 to 2000 fathoms as you approach the other side. The distance between Ireland and Cape St.

Charles, or Cape St. Lewis, in Labrador, is somewhat less than the distance from any point of Ireland to the nearest point of Newfoundland.

But whether it would be better to lead the wires from Newfoundland or Labrador is not now the question; nor do I pretend to consider the question as to the possibility of finding a time calm enough, the sea smooth enough, a wire long enough, a s.h.i.+p big enough, to lay a coil of wire 1,600 miles in length; though I have no fear but that the enterprise and ingenuity of the age, whenever called on with these problems, will be ready with a satisfactory and practical solution of them.

"I simply address myself at this time to the question in so far as the bottom of the sea is concerned, and as far as that the greatest practical difficulties will, I apprehend, be found after reaching soundings at either end of the line, and not in the deep sea. * *

Therefore, so far as the bottom of the deep sea between Newfoundland, or the North Cape, at the mouth of the St. Lawrence, and Ireland, is concerned, the practicability of a Submarine Telegraph across the Atlantic is proved."

Professor Morse, in 1843, indicated his conviction that a magnetic current could be conveyed across the Atlantic, and his reply to Mr.

Field was now given with increased confidence to the same effect. Thus encouraged, Mr. Field took measures to form a Company to purchase the rights of the Newfoundland Company, and to connect Newfoundland with Ireland by means of a submarine telegraph across the Atlantic. He entered into an agreement with Mr. Gisborne for the purchase of the privileges of the Company for 8000_l._, under certain conditions. Then he put down the names of ten of the princ.i.p.al capitalists in New York, and proceeded to unfold his project to each in succession; and having secured the adhesion of Mr. Cooper, Mr. Taylor, Mr. Roberts, Mr. White, and the advice of his brother, Mr. D. Field, he called a meeting of these gentlemen at his house on 7th March. Similar meetings took place at his residence on 8th, 9th, and 10th, and after full discussion and consideration it was resolved to form "The New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company," of which Peter Cooper was President; Moses Taylor, Treasurer; Cyrus Field, C. White, M. O. Roberts, Directors; and D. D. Field, Counsel. Mr. C. Field, his brother, and Mr. White were commissioned to proceed to Newfoundland, to obtain from the Legislature an act of incorporation, and set out for that purpose on March 15th. On their arrival at St. John's, the Governor convoked the Executive Council. He also sent a special message to the Legislature, then in session, recommending them to pa.s.s an act of incorporation, with a guarantee of interest on the Company's bonds to the amount of 50,000_l._, and to make them a grant of fifty square miles of land on the island of Newfoundland, conditional on the completion of the Telegraph.

After some little delay, the Legislature, with one adverse member only, granted the valuable privileges to the Company which were subsequently transferred to the Atlantic Telegraph Company. They const.i.tute, in fact, a monopoly of telegraphic rights in Newfoundland, the value of which was enhanced afterwards by similar concessions from the state of Maine, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward's Island; and liberal encouragement from Canada.

There is much to be said against concessions, and monopolies, and patents, on abstract grounds; but it is quite clear that in certain circ.u.mstances men will not venture money and spend time, without the prospect of the ulterior advantages such protection is calculated to ensure. The Government has, however, informed Colonial and Provincial Legislatures that in future Her Majesty will be advised not to give her ratification to the creation of similar monopolies. By their chartered rights the new Company obtained the exclusive privilege for fifty years of landing cables on Newfoundland and Labrador, which embraces a coast extending southwardly to Prince Edward's Island, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, the State of Maine, and their respective dependencies; and westwardly to the very entrance of Hudson's Straits. The Company also secured a grant of fifty square miles of land on the completion of Telegraph to Cape Breton; a similar concession of additional fifty square miles when the Cable shall have been laid between Ireland and Newfoundland; a guarantee of interest for twenty years at 5 per cent.

on 50,000_l._; a grant of 5000_l._ in money towards building a road along the line of the Telegraph; and the remission of duties on the importation of all wires and materials for the use of the Company.

The Company also obtained from the Legislature of Prince Edward's Island, in May, 1854, the exclusive privilege for fifty years of landing cables on the coast; a free grant of one thousand acres of land; and a grant of 300_l._ currency per annum for ten years.

From Canada the Company obtained an Act authorising the building of telegraph lines throughout the Provinces, accompanied by the remission of duties on all wires and materials imported for the use of the Company.

Nova Scotia, in 1859, gave the Company a grant of exclusive privilege, for twenty-five years, of landing telegraphic cables from Europe on the sh.o.r.es of the Province.

The State of Maine accorded the Company a grant of the exclusive privilege, for twenty-five years, of landing European telegraph cables on the seaboard.

From Great Britain eventually the Company obtained an annual subsidy of 14,000_l._ sterling until the net profits of the Company should reach 6 per cent. per annum, on the whole capital of 350,000_l._ sterling, the grant to be then reduced to 10,000_l._ sterling per annum, for a period of twenty-five years; two of the largest steams.h.i.+ps in the navy to lay the cable, and two steamers to aid them; and a careful examination of the soundings by vessels of the Royal Navy.

From the United States the Company obtained an annual subsidy of $70,000 until the net profits yielded 6 per cent. per annum, then to be reduced to $50,000 per annum, for a period of twenty-five years, subject to termination of contract by Congress after ten years, on giving one year's notice. The United States government also granted the steams.h.i.+p Arctic to make soundings, and steam-s.h.i.+ps Niagara and Susquehanna to a.s.sist in laying the cable. A government steamer was also ordered to make further soundings on the coast of Newfoundland.

Long ere the Company had been placed in possession of such beneficial rights, and obtained such a large amount of favour, Mr. Field, who threw every energy of body and mind into the work, and was entrusted by his brother directors with the general management of affairs, proceeded to carry out the engagements the Company had entered into with the local legislatures. It has been said that the greatest boons conferred on mankind have been due to men of one idea. If the laying of the Atlantic Cable be among these benefits, its consummation may certainly be attributed to the man who, having many ideas, devoted himself to work out one idea with a gentle force and a patient vigour which converted opposition and overcame indifference. Mr. Field may be likened either to the core, or to the external protection, of the Cable itself. At times he has been its active life; again he has been its iron-bound guardian.

Let who will claim the merit of first having said the Atlantic Cable was possible, to Mr. Field is due the inalienable credit of having made it possible, and of giving to an abortive conception all the attributes of healthy existence.

The first step in the great enterprise, now fairly inaugurated, was the connection of St. John's with the telegraphic lines already in operation in Canada and the United States.

Mr. Field was despatched to England, as there were no firms established for the manufacture of submarine cables in the United States, to order the necessary work to be done, and to raise money. He previously ordered specimens of cable to be made, so that when he landed in England they were ready for his inspection; and soon after his arrival he entered into a contract with Messrs. Kuper & Co. (subsequently Gla.s.s, Elliot, & Co.) for a cable to be laid across the Gulf of St. Lawrence. He held interviews with eminent engineers and electricians, among whom were Mr.

Brunel, Mr. (now Sir C.) Bright, Mr. Brett, and Mr. Whitehouse, respecting his larger project, which led to extended and valuable experiments. The cable for Newfoundland was formed in three strands, and had three conducting wires; and Mr. Field undertook to lay it, under the direction of Mr. Canning. In August, 1855, the first attempt was made; but off Cape Ray a violent gale arose, and it was deemed necessary by the master of the vessel to cut the cable. This disappointment was not in the least a discouragement. Another contract was made by Mr. Field with Messrs. Kuper & Co. to make and lay a cable at their own risk, which was executed by Mr. Canning in the Propontis the following year.

The station is at Point-au-Basque, near the western extremity of Newfoundland, and the telegraph runs across the island to Trinity Bay.

The opportunities for scientific experiments afforded by the manufacture of these cables were not neglected. The possibility of transmitting signals under water without fatal loss of power from the increased length of circuit was the first fact determined. The attention of the experimentalists was then directed to ascertain whether, having regard to existing theories, it would be possible to carry even a single conductor across the Atlantic without the aid of a cable so ponderous and so costly as to render it useless in a commercial point of view. A series of direct experiments were at once undertaken, which resulted in the establishment of the following facts:--first, that r.e.t.a.r.dation of movement, in consequence of increasing distance, did not occur at a rate which could seriously affect a cable across the Atlantic; secondly, that increased dimensions in insulated marine conductors augmented the difficulties in obtaining velocity, so that bulk in a cable would not be requisite; and, thirdly, that a velocity and facility which would satisfy all mere commercial and financial requirements in a line crossing the Atlantic, might be attained in the largest circuits. The next step was to actually make signals through 2000 miles of wire. This was accomplished through the kindness of the directors of the English and Irish Magnetic Company, who placed at the disposal of the experimentalists 5000 miles of under-ground wire. On the 9th of October, 1856, in the quiet of the night time, the experiment was tried successfully. Signals were distinctly and satisfactorily telegraphed through 2000 miles of wire, at the rate of 210, 241, and 270 per minute.

There was still a matter of the last importance to be determined. Was the state of the bed of the Atlantic really such as to warrant the conclusion that a wire 2000 miles long could be deposited and remain there without injury?

Mr. Field, in order to ascertain this fact, obtained from the government of America the a.s.sistance of Lieut. Berryman, U.S.N., in the steam-s.h.i.+p Arctic, who succeeded, in July, 1856, in taking soundings across the Atlantic at distances varying from 30 to 50 miles, and, by means of scoops, or quills, bringing up specimens of the bottom, which, upon microscopic examination, proved to be composed of fine sh.e.l.ls and sand.

As capital was needed for the execution of the enterprise which the confidence of moneyed men in the United States did not induce them to supply, and as it was desirable to enlist the support of the capitalists of Great Britain, Mr. Field was now authorised to form a company, with branches in both countries. Having secured the services of Mr. Brett, Mr. (now Sir C.) Bright, Mr. Woodhouse, and others, on the 1st of November, 1856, as Vice-President of the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company, he issued an elaborate, able, and argumentative circular in London, headed, "Atlantic Telegraph," and made a tour through the great towns, addressing meetings in support of the project.

On the 6th of November, 1856, the prospectus was issued, with a nominal capital of 350,000_l._, represented by 350 shares of 1000_l._ each, and within one month the entire of the capital had been subscribed for, and the first instalment of 70.000_l._ paid up.

One hundred and six shares were taken in London, eighty-eight in the United States, eighty-six in Liverpool, thirty-seven in Glasgow, and the remainder in other parts of England. Mr. Field stood as subscriber of 88,000_l._, and represented all America.

But it was not only from the public of Great Britain the project met encouragement. Ere the new company was formed, Mr. Field (13th September, 1855) addressed Lord Clarendon, requesting aid, and protection and privileges, and on the 20th November received a reply from the Secretary to the Treasury, engaging to furnish s.h.i.+ps for soundings, and to consider favourably any request for help in laying the Cable, to pay 14,000_l._ (4 per cent. on capital) as remuneration for Government messages, till the net profits were 6 per cent., when the payment was to become 10,000_l._ for twenty-five years, and the Royal a.s.sent was given to the Act of Incorporation of the Company July 27th, 1857.

Mr. Field received far more encouragement in Great Britain, in Parliament and out of it, than he did at home. His bill was nearly rejected in the United States Senate, and it is stated only twenty-seven shares of the first stock were at first subscribed for in the States. On the motion of Mr. Seward, a resolution was pa.s.sed in the Senate, United States, on the 23rd December, in compliance with which the President transmitted a copy of an application from the New York Office of the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company, dated December 15th, in which the Directors set forth "their earnest desire to secure for the United States Government equal privileges with those stipulated for by the British Government in a work prosecuted thus far with American capital," and then recounted the terms agreed to by the Lords of the Treasury. On January 9th, 1857, Mr. Seward introduced a bill in the Senate to give and receive precisely the same privileges on the part of the United States Government. It was violently opposed, was only carried by one vote, and was not approved till March 3rd following.

The money being now forthcoming, the Provisional Directors of the Company proceeded to order the Atlantic Cable. Mr. Field was anxious that the order should be given to the firm which had manufactured the St. Lawrence Cable, but the Board thought it would be better to divide the contract, and on the 6th December, 1856, they entered upon agreements with the Gutta Percha Company for the supply of 2,500 miles of core, consisting of copper wire, with a triple covering of insulating substance, at 40_l._ per mile; and also with Messrs. Gla.s.s, Elliot, & Co., of East Greenwich, and Messrs. Newall & Co., of Birkenhead, respectively, for the supply from each of 1,250 miles of the completed Cable for 62,000_l._ Within six months from that day, namely, on the 6th of July, 1857, the entire Cable was completed.

The policy of dividing the contract for the manufacture of the Cable was questioned at the time. When one portion of the Cable was to be made at East Greenwich and the other at Birkenhead, how was it possible that there could be any uniformity of supervision, any integrity of design, or any individual responsibility? Again, how was it possible that the textile strength or conducting power of the Cable could be tested as satisfactorily as would have been the case were its manufacture entrusted to one firm? And, as it happened, the twist ran from right to left in one half, and from left to right in the other half of the Cable.

Before the prospectus was issued, every attention was paid that the characteristics of the Cable should be suited to its work; that it should not be too dense, lest its weight should render it unmanageable in the sea--nor too light, lest it should be at the mercy of the currents as it went down. It was decided that it should weigh a ton per mile, should be just so much heavier than the water which it displaced in sinking, and of such structure as could be easily coiled and yet be a rigid line, while its centre should be composed of wire capable of conveying electrical symbols through an extent of more than 2000 miles, and should retain complete insulation when immersed in the ocean. It was a subject of close and anxious inquiry how to obtain a Cable of this form and character. No fewer than sixty-two different kinds of rope were tested before one was determined on.

In the Cable finally adopted, the central conducting wire was a strand made up of seven wires of the purest copper, of the gauge known in the trade as No. 22. The strand itself was about the sixteenth of an inch in diameter, and was formed of one straightly drawn wire, with six others twisted round it; this was accomplished by the central wire being dragged from a drum through a hole in a horizontal table, while the table itself revolved rapidly, under the impulse of steam, carrying near its circ.u.mference six reels or drums each armed with copper wire. Every drum revolved upon its own horizontal axis, and so delivered its wire as it turned. This twisted form of conducting wire was first adopted for the rope laid across the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 1856, and was employed with a view to the reduction to the lowest possible amount of the chance of continuity being destroyed in the circuit. It seemed improbable in the highest degree that a fracture could be accidentally produced at precisely the same spot in more than one of the wires of this twisted strand. All the seven wires might be broken at different parts of the strand, even some hundreds of times, and yet its capacity for the transmission of the electric current not destroyed, or reduced in any inconvenient degree. The copper used in the formation of these wires was a.s.sayed from time to time during the manufacture to insure absolute h.o.m.ogeneity and purity. The strand itself, when subjected to strain, stretched 20 per cent. of its length without giving way, and indeed without having its conducting power much modified or impaired.

The copper strand of the Cable was rolled up on drums as it was completed, and was then taken from the drums to receive a coating of three separate layers of refined gutta percha; these brought its diameter up to about three-eighths of an inch. The coating of gutta percha was made unusually thick, for the sake of diminis.h.i.+ng the influence of induction, and in order that the insulation might be rendered as perfect as possible. This latter object was also furthered by the several layers of the insulating material being laid on in succession; so that if there were accidentally any flaw in the one coat, the imperfection was sure to be removed when the next deposit was added.

To prove the efficacy of the proceeding, a great number of holes were made near together in the first coating of a fragment of the wire, and the second coat was then applied in the usual way. The insulation of the strand was found to be perfect under these circ.u.mstances, and continued so even when the core was subjected to hydraulic pressure, amounting to five tons on the square inch. The gutta percha which was employed for the coating of the conducting strand, was prepared with the utmost possible care. Lumps of the crude substance were first rasped down by a revolving toothed cylinder, placed within a hollow case, the whole piece of apparatus somewhat resembling the agricultural turnip machine in its mode of action. The raspings were then pa.s.sed between rollers, macerated in hot water, and well churned. They were next washed in cold water, and driven at a boiling-water temperature, by hydraulic power, through wire-gauze sieves, attached to the bottom of wide vertical pipes. The gutta percha came out from the sieves in plastic ma.s.ses of exceeding purity and fineness, and those ma.s.ses were then squeezed and kneaded for hours by screws, revolving in hollow cylinders, called masticators; this was done to get the water out, and to render the substance of the gutta percha sound and h.o.m.ogeneous everywhere. At each turn of the screw, the plastic ma.s.s protruded itself through an opening left for feeding in the upper part of the masticator, and was then drawn back as the screw rolled on. When the mechanical texture of the refined ma.s.s was perfected by masticating and kneading, it was placed in horizontal cylinders, heated by steam, and squeezed through them by screw pistons, driven down by the machinery very slowly, and with resistless force. The gutta percha emerged, under this pressure, through a die, which received the termination of both cylinders, and which at the same time had the strand of copper wire moving along through its centre. The strands were drawn by revolving drums between the cylinders, and through the die. They entered the die naked bright copper wire, and issued from it thick, dull-looking cords, a complete coating of gutta percha having been attached to them as they traversed the die. Six strands were coated together, ranging along side by side at the first covering. Then a series of three lengths of the strand received the second coat together.

The third coat was communicated to a solitary strand. The strand and its triple coating of gutta percha were together designated "the core."

[Ill.u.s.tration: F. Jones, lith from a drawing by R. Dudley

London, Day & Sons, Limited, Lith.