The Express.
London, England, 1858-09-08 00:00:00

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.

A SPECIAL EDITION if the "EXPRESS,'
sentaining the results of the day's Races, is pub-
lished every evening during the Sporting Season, at
six o'clock.

Tim Atlantic Telegraph is at fault. Whether the
stoppage be a temporary or a permanent one—whe-
tber it isoaesed by some flaw in the cable within such
limits that it csa be detected and remedied—is yet to
be determined. There is no great cause for despond-
ency in the present interruption. It rather sets
forth the necessity of more cables. Now we find
that we can lay a cable two miles deep in the sea.
. _

aad that a mite so laid can be made to trsaaan

electric signals, it seems a folly to depend upon all
the chancel and accidents which may happen to •

single lino.

Daring the short time this single cable has been
laid dews between Ireland and Newfoundland, the

signals to Newfoundland have once before ceased.
Mr. WHETEHOUSE diveovered the cause of the inter-
ruption. There was • faulty portion of the cable
near Valenti& t it was fortunately seedy accessible.
As goon as it was taken up and repaired, the elec-
trical communication was n-established. This
interruption happened while the PIESIDENT'S reply
to the QUEEN'S message wee waiting at Newfound-
land to be transmitted. It must appear very
curious, if not inexplicable, to those of our readers
who are not familiar with the mode in which else-
tricel telegraphy is carried out, that while no signals
could be sent from Ireland to Newfoundland, they
could be received in Ireland from Newfoundland.
To electricians like Mr. WHITEHOUSE the cause of
this is obvious. Bat the phenomena of electrical
telegraphy are so novel to most people, that we shall
be messed if we endoevoor to make oar readers
appreeiste the obviousness of the cause.
The bond of electrical union between Ireland and
Newfoundland consirts of a copper strand, containing
seven twisted wires of pure copper. Each wire is
not much thicker than a thread of sewing silk, and
a section of the rope formed by the twisting of all
seven not much larger than the head of an ordinary
sued pin. Such is the thickness of the electrical
road to America under the depths of the ocean. The
gait& perch& coverings of this copper rope, as well
as its hempen and iron wire sheathings, are only for
the insulation and support of the precious core.
Of all the marvels of modern electricity, perhaps
the most astounding is this, that either water or
earth will serve u • Tatars wire for the Telegraph.
When the electric telegraph wee first introduced, it
was 'opposed to be nunnery to lay down, or erect,
two insulated wires, between the station, from and

to which signsis were to be received and despatched.
Supposing, for instance, we wished to communicate
between London .ad Ediabiargh ; the electrical cur-
rent weld only be seat from London to Edinburgh,
so as to record itself, upon the condition that there
should be some means by which it should travel
hack again to the place whence it started.

The electrical current could only be created in
Loradea, mad detected at Edinburgh, by the existence
of twe elsetrioal roads, oee to carry the current and
the other to return it, DO as to establish what is
called a complete or closed circuit. This required
two wires, one to carry the message shock, wave, or
current, from London to Edinburgh, the other to
return it. It was soon discovered, first, that
wherever there existed an unbroken body of water it
'sight be substituted • for the return wire ; and
secondly, that the earth itself, for all known die-
lances of electrical stations, might be similarly
need.

How it comae that earth re water acts as a slams
et enclosing or completing the electrical Mundt, is
set yet well understood. It is one of many mar
vela of science, well determined, yet hard to grasp
intellectually. Electrical waves or currents, call
them what you will, have been transmitted from
Ireland to Newfoundland through 2,000 miles of
sapper rope not thicker than • bodkie ; these ear-
rents have found their way back through the earth,
ander the depths of the Atlantic Ocean, accurately
to the spot from whence they started. How have
they found their way back again ? Has the subtle
lightning forced a path through the shortest maths-
matioal line from the spot when the copper wire
dipped into the earth at Newfoundland, to that where
the other end of the wire was buried in Ireland P
Are we to 0300thill some marv.,llous fluid flow-
ing, or some equally marvellous vibratioa of
particles of matter transmitted, by the shortest
route, between the two earth sods of the
cable, or is it diffused through the surface
of the earth for some unknown distance
on each side of this narrow path? Are we, instead
of these praxises, so hard to conceive, to rappels
the earth • great reservoir of neutralisation fee
molecular disturbance, so that the particles of the
wire being disturbed by electrical vibrations, the
earth at both ends of the wire way neutralise those
vibrations, when both the elide are in contact with
it? These are some of the scientific rpeenla-
tions as to the rationale of the fact that the earth
turves as a return-win for any lengths of electrical
cable, provided that cable be kept throughout its
whole length oat of electrical communication with
the earth.

This scientific digression is neesseary to reader
conceivable the fact stated by Mr. Wnrrenorrat,
that the transmission of signals from New-
foundland to Ireland continued uninterrupted,
while they could not be transmitted from Ireland to
Newfoundland. If the topper reps had bees sot
pletely broken acmes and the ends separated from
sontset, no signals could have been sent either way.
Bat it time existed a leakage of electricity near one;