The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-12 00:00:00

rHE SUN, LONDON', SATURDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 12, 1864.

The Atlantic Telegraph.

The manufacture of the cable for the Atlantic Telegraph
has now made such progress that the time of its comple-
tion may be calculated to a day, and should all go well in

;be submergence of the line, there appears no reason why,

by the end of July, 1865, there should not be telegraphic

communication between England and the American con•
tinent. And, if the same amount of care and foresight
is shown that is at present bestowed upon the manufacture
of the cable, it would seem that success is certain and
assured. Any person who was acquainted with the manner
in which the first cable was prepared—the inferior quality
of its materials and the ill-usage to which it was subjected
must be struck with the great contrast now exhibited in
these points—and if with all these drawbacks, and with the

limited experience of our electricians, the feat was accom-
plished of transmitting messages to and from America,
there would appear no reason why, in the completely al-
tered state of circumstances, a grand and decided success
should not be achieved.

The Government have not, as on the former occasion,
given to the enterprising company the use of one of their

first-class frigates, such as the Agamemnon ; but they have
lent to the company two old war ships—the Amethyst and
the Iris, which have for years past been on the sick and dis-
abled list in the Medway, and which will convey the cable,
as it is completed, from the works at Greenwich to the
Great Eastern at Sheerness. The Amethyst is now lying
in the river off Greenwich, and a portion of her deck is in
course of removal, in order to take in the iron tanks in
which the cable will be coiled. The one great feature of
difference in the manufacture of the present and the former
cable is that while the one was not in water until it was

laid in the depths of the Atlantic, the other will not be out
of the water from the time of the first stage of its progress
until it is deposited in its ocean bed. This affords opportu.
nity for conducting a continuous aeries of electrical tests
under circumstances best calculated to discover any defect
in the construction. It involves, however, a very large
expenditure. In the first place, there aro six circular
iron tanks or reservoirs, about thirty feet in dia-

meter, and about twelve feet deep, erected at the
works of the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance
Company, at East Greenwich (formerly Glass, Elliot, and
Company). Into these the cable is coiled as it is formed,
and every fresh layer of the coils is submerged with water,
Each of these tanks will hold more than 120 miles of the

cable. Then there are four similar tanks, but considerably
larger, to be built and fitted, two each, in the Amethyst and
Iris; and when the cable is removed into them it will here
also be laid under water. There are yet three more tanks,
each nearly double the size, or 68 feet in diameter, to be put
together on board the Great Eastern, into which the cable
will be coiled from the conveying ships, and, as in the fore
mer stages, the wire will be under water. No small part of
the outlay required for the work will be taken up in this
preliminary stage of finding the means of storing the cable
while in process of manufacture and en rotae to its destina-
tion. When all is complete, and the signal is given to the
Great Eastern to go a-head, she will have a load, including
fuel for the voyage and paying-out apparatus, of 17,000
tons, and of this the weight of the cable alone will be
3,960 tons, or, including the tanks and the water, not
ar short of 5,000 tons; and if the weather be favourable
and all goes well, the line will be laid in about twelve days.
With respect to the cable itself, that is a subject which
has occupied an immense amount of attention, first in
deciding upon its proper form and constituents, and next in
securing the requisite quality of materials and workman-
ship. Upon the first point the directors of the company
very wisely resolved that they would not, as was the case on
the former occasion, take on themselves the responsibility
of deciding on a subject of which they were profoundly ignoe
r ant, and they left it to a committee, consisting of Mr Fair-
bairn, Mr Whitworth, Capt. Galion, Prof.Wheatsone, and
Prof. Thompson, to determine the conditions which, after
mature deliberation and experiment, they considered re-
quisite. One of the d fficulties which the committee had
to solve was so to arrange the various parts as to prevent
any strain upon the core, or portion along which the
electricity has to pass. There are some portions of the
Atlantic where the depth is more than two and a half miles?
and the mere weight of such a length of cable as would
extend from the bottom of the ocean to the ship would
be sufficient, unless proper precautions were taken, to
stretch or to break this inner wire. The line as first
constructed failed in consequence of this point not having
been kept sufficiently in view—its specific gravity was much
too great for its strength, and it was the strain upon the
inner core which was, probably, the cause of its failure.
The new cable, like the first one, has a centre or core formed
of 7 copper wires-6 laid round one. The weight of copper
in these wires is, however, 30elb for each nautical mile, as
against 1061 b in the first cable. This is in itself an impor-
tant point of difference, the weight of copper for the con-
ducting wires in the whole length being more than 200 tons
greater than in the first cable. The gauge of the wire used
is that known as No. 18. These conducting wires are in-
sulated by four layers of gutta percha, laid on alternately
with four thin layers of the material known as Chatterton's
compound, the diameter of the core thus covered being
rather less than half an inch,the exact figures being .464 in,
and the circumference 1.39 Lin. In the first cable the core
was protected by three coverings of gutta percha, weighing
2611 b per nautical mile—the difference between the nautical
and geographical mile is in the proportion of 2,126 to 1,769
yards—to weight of the insulator in the first cable was
2611 b, in the present one it is 4001 b per mile, For the pro-
tection of the core and the insulating portions there is a
padding or coating of soft jute yarn, saturated with a pre-
servative mixture, which is wound round and next to the
insulating outer surface of gutta percha. This will help
to resist the strain brought to bear lapon the cable when a
great length is paid out in deep water, Outside of this
padding is the coating, employed only for protective pur-
poses, and forming, of course, no part of the telegraph pro-
per. This consists of ten solid wires, of the gauge .095,
drawn from homogeneous iron. Each of these wires is
surrounded separately, with five-strand tarred manilla.
The whole of these ten strands are then laid spirally round
the padded core, and they are formed in such a manner
that when a heavy strain comes upon it the wires will
give greater strength to the cable. In the first telegraph
the protection of the core was sought to be effected by
eighteen strands of charcoal iron wire, each strand com-
posed of seven thread. like wires. These were laid spirally
round and upon the core. In paying out the cable the
whole strain came upon the core, or inner portion,
and -not upon this outer coating of wire, which really served
only to increase the specific gravity without giving addi-
tional strength. The line now in hand hate a vast superiority
over the former one in regard to its specific gravity. The
first weighed in air 20cw t , this weighs 34cwt to the nautical
mile; in water, however, the weight of the first was 13-4 c w
per mile ; the specific gravity of the second, notwithstand-
ing its greater strength and increased diameter, is but 14cwt.
When it is considered that probably some eight or ten miles
of the cable will be suspended in water between the points
on which it rests at the bottom of the ocean and the ship
from which it is being paid out, it will be seen at once how
important is this great increase of strength, obtained as it
is with so small an addition to its specific gravity. Buoyancy
combined with strength has been obtained in a vary satis-
factory manner. The hemp which surrounds the protecting
covering of the iron wires is much lighter than water,
hence the comparatively low specific gravity. The next
important point is the strength or breaking strain. This
in the first telegraphic cable was 65cwt, in the present it is
155 cwt, or considerably more than twice that of the for-
mer.

The first stage in the manufacture is carried on at the
works formerly of the Gutta Percha Company, near the
City-read, but which are now incorporated with the firm
of Glass, Elliot, and Company, under the name of the
Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Ccmpany
(Limited). There are seven copper wires to form the con-
ductor. The entire length of the telegraph will be 2,303
miles, so that there is 16,000 miles of copper wire. Every
portion of this copper wire is subjected to electrical tests
to ascertain its quality for conduction before it is allowed
to be worked up. The next stage is to coat these wires
with eight successive coats of the insulating material,
equal to an aggregate length of 18,400 miles. This core is
next covered with jute wound round it from ten strands,
making 23,000 miles of jute yarn. Then comes the
outer coating formed of the ten covered iron wires. The
iron wire itself is 23,000 miles in length, and each wire is
covered separately with five strands of tarred hemp, 135,000
miles of the latter being required, making together an ag-
gregate length of material employed of 215,500 miles, or
very nearly as much as would put ten girdles round the
earth, or form a line that would stretch almost from the earth
to the moon I
The machines at work at East Greenwich are expected,
when fully at work, to complete about 12 miles per day of
the allotted task, but in these 12 miles are wound and twisted
more than 1,000 miles of the hemp and jute strand, iron and
copper wires, and gutta percha coating. The machines
that aid in producing these 12 miles of composite rope are
each constructed upon the same principle. As many bob-
bins as there are strands to be wound or twisted are placed
in a revolving frame, and the wires or yarns from each bob-
bin, led up into a small aperture, are entwined with each
other into one twist around a central wire or core, as the case
may be. The machines for covering the separate wires are
small and the bobbins revolve with great rapidity, making
as many as 600 revolutions per minute. The larger machines
in which the cable is completed are necessarily slower
in their movements, the revolutions varying from 25 to 60.
The rope is formed by a machine working vertically, and
not horizontally,as in the smaller ones, On a circular stage,
some 12 feet in diameter, are placed 10 bobbins, much in
the same manner as the roundabouts at a village fair.
Each of these bobbins, although carried round upon the
stage, makes a revolution upon its own axis for every turn
of the roundabout. From each of these a thick strand, al-
ready prepared in other machines, passes upwards to meet
at a small opening at the top of the ascending core, and the
▪ 10 cluster around it and twine upon its surface their iron
. and hempen strands, and all go off in company to one or
I other of the great tanks prepared for their reception.
t As we have already intimated, there is an abundant sup-
; ply of electrical apparatus at the works, and carefully ad-
• justed battery power, which is continually sending its mea-
▪ sured force along the wires, so as to detect the slightest
flaw or defect in insulation, and register with unerring ac-
t curacy its extent, whether it be duo to material or work-
manship, with a facility nothing but this invisible and in-
scrutable agency can discover.—Rattway Yews.:

The Hurricane at Calcutta,

The following extracts from private letters and
reports received from Calcutta give additional de-
tails of the hurricane that caused such destruction
of life and property in the city and harbour on the
sth of October;—
_ _

Calcutta, Oct. 6.
On the evening of Tuesday, the 14th inst., the sun set
amidst clouds of a deep red, with purple veins, as if bursts
jug with passion. A gale, with rain, commenced, and lasted
all night. Next morning (Wednesday, the sth inst.) at day-
break, the wind was blowing fresh from the north-east, the
rains still continuing. Gradually it changed round to the

east, and was so fresh and the rain:so heavy that after break-
fast I put off going to office, in the hope that the weather
might improve ; the day being the first of the Doorgah
Phojah, and almost every office except the Foreign-office,
being closed for the holydays. Between half-past 10 or 11
in the morning, the gale changed to a tempest, trees split
up an cracked, and fell across the the road, so that the resi-
dents at garden reach were literally hemmed in. About 12
it would have been impossible to reach the house without

personal danger. Trees were torn up by the roots; doors
blown in breaking through their iron fastenings ; walls
blown down and the roads rendered impassable by fallen

trees and heaps of debris of broken wood and brickwork ;
while the alarm as regards the shipping in the river was

- - -
very great. This continued without intermission until 3
o'clock in the afternoon, and, indeed, continued until be-
tween 4 and 6, but at 3 o'clock, the bore of the Ganges burst
in, and then followed such a scene as I never witnessed
before. Within a few minutes, I was going to say a quarter
or an hour, but it might have been half an hour, the
water about my house was at least 3 ft. deep, if not
deeper, and a flood extended as far as it was possible to see
through the storm. Not knowing at first what was the
nature of a bore, I was much alarmed, but meantime
natives from all quarters were coming for shelter,
which, of course, I gave them, and learned that
the bore would begin to go down at 5 o'clock. The flood,

indeed, subsided, but the place was not free from water till
next morning—i.s., to-day, Thursday, the 6th.
This morning at 6 o'clock I went out, and saw trees torn
up by the roots lying in all directions. Neemuck Ghat was
impassable, but with some climbing I managed to reach the
Peninsular and Oriental Steamer-office. The Bengal was

driven ;shore on the Howrah side ; the Nemesis and Nubia
were both dismasted and otherwise injured, and I heard
that hundreds of poor sailors must have been drowned, and
that all the shipping in the river had been blown away from
moorings. At that time the poor fellows were even leaving
the great hospital ship the Hindostan as unsafe, and it has
since game down.
1 The King of /Dudes buildings were dismantled and
flooded, and I understood from a friend that earlier in the
morning he had seen many of the zenana ladies in a condi-
tion eminently calculated to offend their sense of the pro-
prieties, As to the masses of native huts they were simply
blown down and then flooded ; indeed, during the gale

many cad groups of poor natives with their wives and ch
dren were to be seen struggling through the flood. Bee
and mutton are said not to be in the bazaar, and the num
ber of sheep, cattle, and fowls that were carried away by
the storm and flood cannot be estimated. The Baboo who
lets out carriages in Garden Reach has lost many ponies,
and his stables are simply a marsh. Almost every tree in
the Maiden is blown down. But the terrible and almost
heartrending sight was the river. From what I have seen
I should say that there was not a ship left in its moorings,
but I hear that two have managed to keep whole—namely,
the Worcestershire and the City of Paris. At least 24
have sunk to the bottom with their crews. The Moulmein
steamer went down head foremost. Of the ships driven
ashore I can safely say there are at least 60, and I should
say 100. Many ships have been driven high and dry in
the strand by the bore. There are not six dingies in the
river, and only two or three in the canals. At seven places
n the river I saw what appeared to be from seven to 12
vessels at least jammed up in one spot; this alone would
account for 49 vessels at the least, or seven wrecks at seven
different spots. At least 300 European sailors are said to
have been drowned, and as for the natives, the accounts are
so extraordinary that I fear to give them currency. lam
afraid that something like 6,000, at least, have perished in
the bore and hurricane, and this is only one-tenth at hat
told me was the estimate of an old Calcutta merchant,
namely that 500,000 have perished.
I have seen such a vast number of wrecks and deserted
ships this morning as I hope never to see again, and, as I
am quire sure could never have been seen before since the
commencement of recorded history. The sight was made
doubly horribly by the crowd of sight-seers in consequence
cf the Doorgah Poojah holidays ; and yet most of the people
present must have suffered more or less from the storm
You will see by the newspapers that Calcutta will be with-
out gas for a few days, and this is only one of the many
devastions. Forbes, the clothier and haircutter, close to the
Foreign-office, had mbny of his hats and other goods blown
into the street and churchyard and destroyed. Thacker
and Spinks' now house is thrown down. In fact it would
require many sheets to indicate the extent of the general
disaster.
The trade of Calcutta must be seriously affected. Ex-
ports and imports must be at a dead stop for months in
consequence of the destruction of shipping. The losses to
ships' insurers must be something fearful. lam willing
to believe that there has been one hurricane or tpphoon in
Jamaica which was more terrible from being accompanied
by an earthquake, if I remember rightly; but the destruc-
tion of shipping is unparalleled.
The catastrophe is one for which nothing can be done
now. The ships are lest, the people are drowned, houses
aro damaged, and property destroyed, and the more ques-
on of repairs is the work of time.

Steamer Riever, Oct. 12, south of Sandheads,

The steamer Alphee left Calcutta on Oct. 3 with mails
and passengers for Marseilles, and while coining to an anchor
off Diamond harbour in the evening she unfortunately lost
an anchor and 70 fathoms of chain, also her port hawsepipe,
as well as doing mush damage to the portbow. The Com-
mander (Lieut. Jeheune of the Marine Imperiale), deter-
mined upon returning to Calcutta to have the damage re-
paired before going to sea ; we got back on the evening of
the 4th ; the next day Calcutta was visited by one of the
most terrible hurricanes that ever blew. The Alphee, un-
der the guidance of her able commander, escaped unhurt
throughout, and will leave Calcutta on the 3d proximo.
The steamer Riever, owned by Messrs Jardine Mathison,
and commanded by Captain Bolton, was chartered to take
on the Alphee's mails and passengers. We left our moorings
at Garden Reach at 8 a.m. on the 11th instant, and passed
the lower light at 8 a.m.

We will commence with the steamer Bengal (Peninsula
and Oriental), which vessel lies on the northern bank of
thr river high and dry. I fancy there will be great difficulty
experienced in getting her off. The steamers Nemisis and
Fubia are in their moorings apparently in a very battered
state. A little below Garden-house Point lies the French
ship Admiral Casey, also high up the bank and much da-
maged ; below this are a number of steamers and flats which
once formed the fleet of the Oriental Island Steam Company.
They are most of them helpless wrecks.
The Gogra is the only one remaining at her moorings,
and as far as I could see she is much damaged. Next comes
a noble iron ship, the Royal Alexandria, very high up the
bank, but not injured. A ltttle above Sankrale Bazaar are
the ships Lady Rawlins= and a French vessel (name un-
known)—they are a long way np in the fields.
The villages of Sankrale and Oloobariah are almost
swept away, With the exception of a few native oraft
there are no more wrecks until wo come to the once noble
ship Baron Renfrew ; she is lying a total wreck in a creek
a little above Diamond Harbour. The pilot, captain, and
crew were saved. At Diamond Harbour almost everything
is in ruins. The Bentinck (late hospital ship) has gone
about a quarter of a mile inland ; the Custom-house is
down, and the whole place looks quite deserted. The hulk
which was in use for the preventive offioers to put off from
went down at her anchors. Below Diamond Harbour is
Kantabariah Point ; there lies the tug-steamer Alligator,
apparently uninjured, but a long way inland.
lialfway between Kantaberiah and Middle Points is the
wreck of the ship Ally, a vessel of about 1,000 tons burden.
She left Cacutta on the 4th inst. under pilotage charge of
Mr E. Worthington, commanded by an European master,
having the usual complement of officers and about 50
Lascars, also 300 native emigrants for the Mauritius ; she
was at anchor at Middle Point, and, having driven in the
early part of the gale, she grounded on a land bank and
capsized. The only persons saved are eight or ten of the
emigrants. Soon after the storm I proceeded down the
river for the purpose of making a search for my poor friend
Worthington, bat I only succeeded in finding one of the
coolies in the vicinity of the wreck of the Raron Renfrew.
He states that.all the Europeans, including the captain's
wife and three children are drowned. He also states that
Mr Worthington walked the deck giving his orders in a cool
and collected manner up to the time of the ship capsizing;
that when she commenced to heel over the crew were in the
act of cutting away the foremast; he remembers nothing
more but that he got hold of a piece of wreck, and, after
drifting about several hours, he found himself on terra
firma.
The Martaban, one of Broklebank's fleot, drove over all
the sands from Saugor to Cowkally, leaving 120 fathoms on
one chain and 90 on the other. The steamer Alexandra had
as miraculous an escape.
Most of the people, including the postmaster and his
family, were drowned at Kedgeree. In fact, from Hoogly
Point down to Saugor the river banks are strewed with dead
bodies and the carcases of cattle. I found the navagation
from Mud Point to sea most intricate, as there is hardly
a buoy in its place. Both Gaspar lights are gone, and there
are only the deb? is of three of the buoys left in the Gaspar
Channel. We passed two troopships in the Eastern Chan-
nel—the Conflict and the Sydenham. They came in after
the gale, and report having had nothing bat light weather
to the southward.
The lower floating light was in position, which circum-
stance leads me to believe the pilot brigs are safe, although
not yet returned to the station. The steamer Celerity has
been de patched in search of them.
There was a ship at anchor off Saugor before the gale,
called the Colombo. Sho had a pilot on board, and was
outward bound. lam afraid she has foundered, as nothing

has been seen of her since. We passed the passenger ship
Nile about 200 miles to the southward of the Sand Heads,
She showed her numbers and house-flag, and apparently
all were well on board.
Madras,—On arrival here we learn that the British India
Steam Company's steamer Orissa, on her passage from the
Sand Heads, picked up two Lascars belonging to the Bri-
tish India Steam Company's steamer Persia, which vessel
is reported by the Lascars to have been lost during the
hurricane at the mouth of the river.
P.S.—I forgot to state that the tug-steamer Defiance
rode out the gale oft Middle Point. The captain informed
me that she only shipped one sea, which slightly damaged
her starboard paddlebox. She is decidedly the class of boat
for the Hoogly.