The Express.
London, England, 1858-10-07 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 7, 1858.

net to be tee sanguine of the permanent success of
the present wire. A fault which, though alight at
first, has been gradually but surely increasing,
cannot but be in the end fatal ; for though for
a time instruments of sufficient power to send, and
delicacy to receive messages through the oak, in its
increasing state of imperfection, may be found, yet
at length it must reach a condition with whisk the
most refined mechanical skill cannot cope. That the
wire is exposed to a considerable extra in at least
two places is well ascertained, and where a metallic
surfaoe through which currents of positive electricity
are passing is exposed to water, oxidation takes place
by the electrolytic decomposition of the water, and thee
the wire must soon be eaten away. This may be in
a great measure avoided by transmitting all signals
with negative currents, which would prevent the
direct oxidation of the wire by electrolysis, but at
the same time, according to the experiments
which have been made here both by Professor
Thomson and Mr. Henley, an exposed wire is
not entirely free from a species of decomposition
even when negative currents alone are transmit*
through it. It soon became emanated with a light
,caleered substance, the precise nature of which is
not quite ascertained as yet, but it is supposed to be
a combination of chloride of copper with some of the
organic compounds contained in the gotta perch*.
So no matter what may be the result of the pre-
concerted experiments at both termini of the wire,
one thing cannot be doubted, viz., that before per-
manent, certain' and rapid telegraphic communica-
tion can be secured between Europe end America,
another cable must be laid. That this present or
any other Atlantic Telegraph Company can be ex-
pected to advance the money for, and go to the
trouble of laying another cable without some further
encouragement horn both the English and America
governments, it is not reasonable to suppose. About
half a million has already been expended in merely
purchasing experience of the kind of cable most suit-
able for submersion in the Atlantic, and in the way it
should be laid. Th is enormous outlay on the gusranteed
government subsidy is counted as nothing. The
private enterprise of the promoters and shareholders
of this undertaking has already done a great deal,
and it may truly be said that the government have
not neglected to bear a share in the undertaking on
behalf of the public, se far as dockyard facilities and
the loan of ships could go ; bat considering the
great national importance of the scheme, and the
many disappointments which the shareholders have
had to encounter, the time has now come for both
the English and American governments to place
their guaranteed subsidy upa a different and more
encouraging bads. A fixed annual sum, no matter
how large, secured to the company contingent on
the moos= of their scheme, will never induce share-
holders to advance in an undertaking in which they
may spend millions before it is finally accomplished.
But if say 5 per cent. were guaranteed by the two
governments upon the total capital expended
in completing a permanently successful and
efficient telegraphic line between England and
America until the company should be paying divi-
dends to that amount, no one can doubt the Atlantic
Telegraph would soon be efficiently working. The
apparent distance of the fault from the shore does
not vary in the least degree. This would certainly
teed to show that the break really is between 260
sad 300 statute miles from the shore, or nearly the
name as the distance estimated by the resistance. It
seems almost miraculous to people not conversant
with electrical science that the position of a
in a submarine cable can be measured with I=l

rative accuracy by expatiates.. parilermed
end of its length ; but in reality the process is very
simple. The resistance which each mile of cable
offers to a given electric current is accurately known,
therefore the resistance which the cable offers to a
known current would give the number of miles that
the fault is distant along the cable, supposing
'that the fault is of sufficient size to offer
no resistance itself to the serape of the whole of the
current. It is, therefore, evident that where the
nature and size of a fault is not ascertained, its dis-
tance from any given point cannot be made known
with any oertatnty by this method of measuring;
for should the lose of insulation be small, and in
itself offer great resistance to the passage of the
current, this cannot be taken into account ; but the
resistance must be measured as miles of distance
from the fault to the point of observation. It is
knowledge of the uuoertainty of this method of mea-
suring the position of a fault under certain circum-
stances which encouraged the idea so long be-
lieved by many, that the injury to the cable was
I within a moderate distance of the shore. Thus,
1 for the present, the cable must be considered
a failure, at least as regards its paying and
I working properties ; nevertheless, in spite of
all obstacles, the attempt has demonstrated the
ease, and indeed almost certainty, with which
under ordinarily favourable circumstances a sub-
marine cable 11C1016 the Atlantic can always be laid,
and all the theories of the cross currents which were
to break the cable, the floats which were aelommuy to
buoy it up, and, above all, the idea that it could
never sink to the bottom, are set at rest its ever.
The cable has been laid, and has been worked
through ; and really when we look for one moment
at what that coil has had to undergo, from the day
the first mile of it was made up to the present time,
it seems nothing lees than marvellous how it has
been submerged, and still more astounding that any
signals ever came through it. The plan upon
which the Crystal Palmas is built was first drawn
oat upon ...hest of blottiog-paper by Sir Joseph
Paxton while travelling to town in a railway
carriage with Robert Stephenson. In like man-
ner the first rough idea of the Atlantic Te-
legraph, and the kind of cable which would be ne-
°smeary to carry it into effect, was discussed for the
first time one night as Mr. Brunel, Mr. Glass, Mr.
Canning, and, we think, Iffir Charles Bright, were
travelling together from Milford to London. It was
then agreed that strength, flexibility, and lightness
were indispensable mechanical conditions in any
rope to be submerged in the Atlantic, and one
covered with thin steel wires, it was thought, would
best snit the requirements of the case. Some time
after this, when our capitalists were willing to sub-
scribe the money, upon the representations of Bir
C. Bright, Mr. Pield, Mr. Brett, and Mr. White-
house, the plan gradually assumed a tangible shape,
sad then some samples of steel rope were made by
Glue and Elliot. Iles.; were, of course, beautiful
specimens of manufacturing skill, very light, and as
flexible as cord. and at the same time would bear
a strain equal to ten tons. The expense, how-
ever, of the steel wire, the very limited
supply of it that could be obtained at one time, put
steel-covered ropes out of the question. Various
other specimens of win covered rope were then
made by the came firm, and a variety of experiments
tried to ascertain the kind of rope which would be
cheapest and at the same time best adapted, as re-
gards strength and lightness, for the purpose. At
length one specimen was made which was supposed
to contain all the essential qualities, and which,
though made of the best charcoal iron, only cost
1001. a mile. The breaking strain of this cable was
81 cwt., but it was found by using charcoal iron of
an inferior quality the rope could be made at 901. a
and economy carried the day, and this rope
was decided upon. This alteration in the quality of
the iron, though only a saving of 101. per mile, re-
duced the breaking strain of the cable to 62 cwt.
All the risks to which the success of this hazardoas
undertaking was exposed commenced with the
manufacture of this rope. The Grata Pemba
Company, as all who have to do with submarine
lines know to their cost, have a complete
monopoly of the manufacture, and rule all mutters
connected with their patent for insulating wires
' ; with absolute 14w. None could be present, on the
part of the Atlantis Telegraph Company, to en that

the use wee reperlyhtwWed, semi notisalo what-
ever exists but that in too many planes the insulation
wen most defective. Many of these defame, no doubt,
arose has the bad meti# of covering the wire with
its gotta percha condotirlaich the company them-
selves use, and much /teen the negligence of the
UM. Irt saying this, however, we by no mesas
wish to blame the individuals of the company, who
wan heart and sold in favour of the telegraph;
bat they, like others, had to trust to their workman,
who, in hurrying over more that 3,000 miles of wire
-left * too many places poorly covered. On the
very pike where the splice was made, in the centre
of the Atlantic, an air bubble, almost the size of •
oodbe-bean, had to be cat out. How many hundreds
of similar places might there have been that
were never seen. The defective centering of
the copper conductor in its gutta perch*
covering was also, no doubt, a source of
many serious faults, for the reason that the gutta
percha, being very thin in some parts, allows the
powerful electric currents from the induction coils
to pierce it and touch the outside wires. Once this
which is technically called " blowing a hole,"
in a cable takes place, such a loss of * signalling
1111.1112 t ensues that the cable is rendered whiner or
a peat augmentation of battery power is ondesall
iteltiWZ ; and when this last remedy is sealtAti to
the Me Deems& larger and Lower until thrilliee,
getting freely to the wire oxidate§ it away in a
very short time. Such ackdents have frequently
occurred in the cables between England and the
sagas, and there is not the least doubt that there
ere many moors of such faults along the Atlantic
wire. However the continued rips and little injuries
to which the coils were exposed only commenced
after the manufacture was ()amplest*. The rope was
coiled and uncoiled repeatedly In the hold of the
Agamemnon, and during the first expedition of
1857 it was exposed to such heat as with the
superincumbent pressure of the whole mass
must have still more distorted the centering
of the conductor in its gutta percha insulating
medium. It was again uncoiled at Keyham, in con-
sequence of the eagerness of the American officers to
be " quit of England." The Niagara's portion of the
cable was flung out in heaps with such reckless
haste that half of it was not passed through the tar
tanks. The rust consequently began to work its
way through the mull wires, and whole miles of the
cable were thus rendered useless and had to be cut
away. During the winter it remained at Keyhaas,
we believe, it was not once properly tested ander
water. And for the experiments necessary toreador
the working through it easy such a constant succes-
sion of powerful coil currents were always paring
as must have infallibly discovered and penetrated
any badly insulated spot of the copper conductor.
It was again on board the Niagara and Agamemnon
in the beginning of the present year, and
subsequently during the first memorable
cruise, tossed for many days and nights
in two vessels labouring heavily in one of
the most terrific storms that ever swept
scram the Atlantic. After this it was again brought
back to Quenstown, and again seat across the
ocean in the almost hopeless chance of laying the
cable with the reduced quantity and almost disabled
ships. As we have said, taking all them things into
consideration, it is a wonder how the cable could
have been laid at all in one piece, and no one had
certainly any right to expect that it world ever be
a working cable. A good deal of attention has
lately been turned to the question of rope-covered
wire, and there is now no doubt bat that all future
attempts to connect Europe with America will be
made with sables so constructed. At the same time
it will not be strands of hemp loosely thrown round
the gotta PMehanvered wires that will make a nor-

‘id/p pen hewn in with the
sea linen as the wire are now twisted by the
mends, esseidne." In fact, rope-covered wire would
have to be ask by Glass and Elliot or Newell just
in the same amber, and on the same plan, as the
win covered Gables are now made by those firms.
nAle:adur we believe a splendid specimen of a rope-
a wire, almost buoyant in water, eminently
strong, sad flexible as cord, is now in promos of ma-
nufacture by Mears. Glass and Elliot, but more
than this it te not desirable to mention at present.
There is one difficulty which many suppose will
influence the rumen of the deep-sea cables in no
slight degree—namely, the pressure to which all
cables must be subjected at great depths. Sem
people are sufficiently ill informed to deny that there
is any pressure exerted by the water of the ocean at
the bottom at all. Sued absurd blunders only arise
from ignorance of the difference between density
and weight. It does not follow that because water
is almost inoomprenble, that it weighs nothing, no
more than it follows that because • block of granite
is not antic it dam not press upon the spot on which
it math The pressen of the water at the bottom
of the Atlantic averages about two tons and a half to
the square inch. It is a simple matter of calculation
to ascertain the fact. At such a pressure as this
wrought brass can be saturated with water like a
sponge, and a block of it so saturated requires days
for it to one out
i
It is true that t is a very porous substance,
bat were the very beat east iron hydraulic machines
to be subjected to such &pressure as two or three toes
to the inch, the water would be forced through than
Ills. dew. A gates pendia covered wire has sets-
jinn to such a pressure under water for an bear or
ea, Sad its eleetrial eondition was found rather im-
pend. However, to render this experiment man-
Ode, the pressure should have been continued hr a
noels looser period, for it may still happen, though
it is certainly unlikely, that a leag esatisoad peer
sure of the water might penetrate the tette pram
is phase when air bubbles existed, amid thee give
rise to faults. This idea is supported by the brew-
ledge of the fact that under easeiderable gassers
✓ata percha is reduced to half its balk. Tiles
when a cable is submerged to a graddegth, the nil
of hemp sad gads prcha become smaller, leaving
the *viral iron wires by which it is earreasded sleek.
Bbeald the cable in thiscoodition happen to net across
a sham however small, the outside wires would have
to elongate considerably before any strain can come on
them ; the ooil in the mean time being subjected to
tension, the insulating medium is likely to be cracked
and destroyed, and • raw wire left exposed to the
salt water. This fact is directly against the use of
gutta perches as an insulating medium in deny-sea
cables. Indiarubber is quite incompressible and im-
pervious to water at any pressure, but it is not
quite so good an Initiator as gutta percha. It may
be worth the consideration of those interested in the
manufacture of insulated wire to try if a mixture of
the two substances might not be to some degree free
from the defects of either separately. The india-
rubber might impart to the rata percha some of its
incompressibility and elasticity, while the gutta
might make the indiarubber a better tau-
toe. The expense of insulating wire by then
means would not be great, if, indeed, it would be as
costly as using gutta percha alone. Thus it may be
seen that, if the present cable should ultimately
prove a failure, the experience which has been ac-
quired with it will certainly ensure the success of all
future deep-sea lines.

The ebenbers of parliament for PlybooriNf reel
their ometituests and oleo et the Mechanics' leadtate as
Teettley .'..rocs—Samuel Be,ira Reid. Wier
XL White. who 'yoke loatost &we he woe warmly adored
by the mooting , sitar which met eiellekte Nue lieu • ht.
tertateetiott Wei exposited by • IMP POT la lhe an%
that maptrata resolutions " • 11111/11111111 "
the two member Amid be pat to the meilles. nle ewes
wee weetelehly adopted; the reeellelba Mee. et Yr.
W a". OMMI4 asobettatly, bee doe le emir of Mr.
WWI rod ofit ease vim opposition vrta.
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