The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-12 00:00:00

THE TELEGRAPH TO

If mechanical appliances are to be depended upon,
and it the most careful and experienced supervision
of all relating to the scientific perfection of a sub-
marine cable is of any avail, the whole of England
before next March will have at command a means
of daily, if not hourly, communication with Madras,
Calcutta, and Bombay. The activity of grey shirt-
ings or the dullness of mule twist ought to be known
here to the fraction of an anna every morning; and
the news from China and Australia anticipated by
exactly the difference of time between an overland
passage and an overland telegraph, which means the
difference between 30 days and five hours. So care-
fully have the plans been matured, so quietly has
the cable itself been manufactured, that the an-
nouncement that the expedition will in a few days
begin to leave these shores to accomplish such great
results comes upon us with asuddenness that is almost
startling, and the notion of being in instantaneous
communication with all India soon after Christmas
seems almost too gated and too astounding to be ca-
pable of such immeditete realisation. Suoh, how-
ever, is at least the object with which the expedi-
tion will start, and such, we have not the slightest
doubt is the object which will accomplish with
triumphant success. The Indian Government in
making their cable have proceeded so quietly that,
except to a few electricians and scientific men, the
announcement that a cable to conetect this country
with Calcutta is nearly made will, we fancy, be
quite a surprise to our readers.
The political necessity which renders it essential
for her Majesty's Government to be iti frequent
communication with the great Indian Empire it is
needless here to describe. The Government of Belch
distant possessions as India and Australia ce.n
scarcely be carried on in the bureaus of Downing-
street without some readier means of conveying
instructions than that afforded by the Post. Minis-
ters have long been conscious of this fact, and the
failure of the attempt to establish electric commu-
nication with India via the Red Sea must be fresh
in the memory of all. Profiting by the bitter expe-
riences of that unfortunate undertaking, the Govern-
ment have wisely determined to take the construc-
tion and completion of the present line to India into
their own hands. The India Board have placed the
general superintendence and control of the line
under Lieut.-Col. Patrick Stewart, R.E., an officer
as well known for his gallantry during the Indian
mutiny as for the great services he rendered the
Government by the construction and maintenance
of the telegraph lines through the wildest districts
of Central and East India. For the immediate elec-
trical and engineering superintendence of the line,
and also for the arduous task of submerging it, the
Indian Government have selected Sir Chas. Bright
and Mr. Latimer Clarke, and under such auspices
and supervision its manufacture is now approach-
ing completion at Mr. Henley's telegraph works,
North Woolwich. Whatever may be its ultimate
fate, it was quite certain that there never yet has
been a cable manufactured with such care, or one
which, in point of " conductivity" and insulation,
comes so nearly up to the standard of absolute elec-
trical perfection. The design and construction of the
cable differ very materially from any line hitherto
laid. Every operation in submarine telegraphy—
even the great Atlantic line has contributed its
quota of valuable experience; for, though success-
fully laid by Sir C. Bright and his assistant en-
gineers, in spite of the imperfect construction,
it was destroyed by the injudicious electrical
treatment it received after submersion. This
fact is now so well established that the cause of
the failure of the Atlantic cable may be consi-
dered as set at rest for ever. The insulation of that
line was not very perfect, as may be imagined from
the infancy of the science at that time, but yet the
electrical power used was such as would infallibly
break down even the most perfect cables manufac-
tured at the present day. Of this our readers may
judge when it is stated that the large induction coils
first used in signalling between England and
America were probably equal in electrical power to
3,000 battery cells, while now it is found inexpedi-
ent to use more than two or three cells in working
the longest submarine lines in existence. Some of
this great power was no doubt used in the vain hope
of forcing signals through the line at a greater speed
than the very slow and unremunerative rate at
which it has alone been found possible to communi-
cate through an unbroken length of 3,000 miles.
The result was disastrous, but the experience, though
dearly bought, has proved of great value. It has
taught electricians the value of moderating the
power used in working lines, and above all has
. pointed out the imperative necessity of having no
single section of a submarine line of more than 600
miles in length. To lay long submarine cables in a
continuous length without intermediate stations has
been found to answer no other purpose than that of
greatly diminishing the speed of working and multi
plying every imaginable risk both of manufacture
and submersion. The Indian Government, acting
under the judicious counsel of their scientific ad-
visers, have wisely determined to divide the Persian
Gulf cable into three sections, though its total
length will not exceed 1,5u0 statute miles.
The faults which led to the destruction of the Red
Sea line were of another character. Though it was
manufactured and tested with a care greatly
superior to that taken with the Atlantic cable, it
was submerged in a way which rendered its
ceasing to work a question of a few weeks more or
less. Sheathed in a covering of small wires, quite
unprotected from corrosion, it was laid without any
allowance for "slack" cable to fall into the irregu-
larity of the bottom of the sea. It consequently
lay strained across the points of the inequalities,
with a tension of several thousand pounds. As the
unprotected wires rusted away, and the suspended
portions of the line became loaded with coral and
barnacles, the whole line crumbled into hundreds'
of pieces by its own weight. This is no mere hypo-
thetical opinion, but a fact, which wairamply proved
by the expedition to the Red Sea in 1861, under
Mr. Latimer Clark. There can be little doubt that
the same cause led to the temporary failure of the
Malta and Alexandria line, as well as that laid for
the French Government between Toulon and Algiers.
To obviate this cause of danger, which in the
above-mentioned lines has probably occasioned a loss
of property to the value of over a million sterling
the Persian Gulf line is cased in 12 No. 7 gauge
bard-drawn iron wires, thickly galvanised, so as
.frettually to prevent their corrosion. But, in order'
to se,sre more effectually the permanent stability
of
wiles the
_ lie the whole finished cable is thickly coated
two servings of tarred hemp yarn, overlaid
with two
by sir Coatings Char
of a patent composition invented
les Bright and Mr. Latimer Clark. The
composition consists of mineral pitch or asphalt,
Stockholm tar
sinproportiOnasnd powdered silica, mixed in cer-
,.aild laid on in a melted state
While yet warm i passed between circular rol-
lers, which
give it t a
round, smooth surface. When
quite cold this forme a
maesv® covering of great
strength and perfect fiezibsitsve
.i
to water, and incapable ee being!' totally impervious
minute animalcules whic
destroyed by the
h existin
When such abundance in
against their
warm latitudes, and which,
the cable
is not protected a
every atom of the hemp,
as :tacks, eat
of the cable laid between Toulon the case
and Algiers.
Galvanising the wire is in itself an almost perfect
protection from rust—certainly for many years
the good condition of the cable picked up off Ire
Kooria Moria Islands, a part of which was, galvan-
ised, showed, as far as the galvanising Was con-
cerned. But, with the final protection both from
rust and animalcule which Bright and Clark's corn.
pound affords, there appears to be no reason why
this cable, when once laid in shallow or deep waters,
should not remain for 100 years to come. The
copper conducting wire is composed of four segments,
drawn into a hollow tube in such a manner as to
appear like a solid wire. By this means all the ad-
vantages of a strand wire are combined with the
condensed bulk and small surface of a solid one.
The copper from which the wire is drawn is espe-
cially selected by the engineers for its high capacity
for conducting electricity. Jt is, perhaps, not gene-
rally known that different samples of copper vary
as much as 50 or 60 per cent. in this respect,—that
is, some specimens of copper. wire will conduct elec-
tricity with greater facility than other specimens of
double the thickness, though physically there may

not be the slightest difference by which you can dis-
tinguish one from the other. This wire, which is
nearly s of an inch in diameter, is then covered by
the Gutta Percha Company with four distinct coats
of gutta percha, and four coats of Chatterton's com-
pound laid on alternately. This
termed, is then tested in cold water, caotrea, as it is
tempera-
ture of 90 deg., and then under a pressure of 6001 b.
to the square inch. After passing through all these
ordeals, the loss of leakage through the gutta percha
covering does not exceed 100 millionth part of the
current of electricity passing through the conduct-
ing •wire in every nautical mile. To such minute
perfection has the system of testing adopted by the
engineers been carried, that the loss of one thou-
sand-millionth part of the current by leakage could
be detected and estimated on the instruments. In
the present state of the insulation of the cable the
loss by leakage in working each section of the line
will not exceed one four hundreth part of the elec-
tric current sent through the conductor—a condi-
tion of insulation which we believe has never been
equalled by any cable hitherto manufactured.
Before being sheathed at Mr. Henley's works the
coils of gutta percha core, which are in three mile
lengths, are again tested under water for insulation
and for resistance of conductor, therefore if any in-
jury should have occurred to the fragile gutta
percha covering of the wire during its transit from
the Wharf-road to North Woolwich it is detected
before the cable is made up, and then the process
of sheathing them in their outer covering is com-
menced. The first coating outside the gutta percha
is 12 thick strands of wet hemp, and over these
again comes 12 solid No. 7 gauge wires, which
have been most carefully galvanised by Mr. Hen-
ley. The outer covering of iron wire is generally
the last which a cable receives, but in this instance,
as the line is to be laid in comparatively shallow
,eater, the wires themselves, though galvanised,
are' to be still farther protected from their most
formidable enemy, rust, which is done by the
coveri.Dgs of Bright and Clark's composition already
described.

During* the whole time the cable is at Mr. Hen-
ley's the current is kept always through it, so that
the slightest possible defect in the wire can be
detected. la addition to this, the very able
electrical staff test every portion regularly twice
a day for insulation and resistance of con-
ductor. When everything has been done which
the most jealous care and the most fastidious
scientific skill can suggest it is passed out on the
river side of Mr. Henley's factory and coiled
away in tanks filled with water; and even here
perpetually watched and tested. There are upwards
of 900 nautical miles of it thus manufactured
lying at Mr. Henley's works—huge coils of thick
black-looking rope, nearly lain, in diameter,
weighing nearly four tons to the mile, and
2-1 tons in water, and costing as nearly as
possible £2OO per mile—the cheapest, strongest,
and, electrically speaking, the most perfect cable
that has ever yet been made. Three hundred and
fifty miles more of the same kind have yet to
be manufactured—to which, however, the great
resources of Mr. Henley's factory are quite equal—
in the time that yet intervenes before the last
ship which composes the expedition will leave
this country in September. We have hitherto
spoken of this cable as the Indian wire, but, strictly
speaking, it ought to be called the Persian Gulf line,
and it is down that route it is to be laid to connect
Kurrachee with the present land line to Constanti-
nople. Colonel Stewart has himself during two
years travelled through and examined the various
overland routes which have been from time to
time suggested for a part of this line across
the Turkish portions of Asia Minor. One of
these has been selected from the greater ease with
which land lines are erected and kept in repair
as compared with submarine wires, and also be-
cause along at least three-fourths of the entire
route the Turkish Government have already este-
liehed and keep in admirable working order a tele-
graph from Constantinople to Bagdad. This land
line runs from Scutari on the Bosphorus across
Asia Minor to Diarbekir, thence to Mosul (the
ancient Nineveh), and thence to Bagdad. It hap-
pens, however, that over the broad tract of country
which intervenes between Bagdad and the head of
the Prsian Gulf, along which this submarine cable
to India is to be laid, various predatory tribes of
Arabs c'aim a sovereignty, and fight for it with
more c,r less success, and over these lawless vaga
bonds of the desert the Porte has no manner of
cJutrol. Always quarrelling among themselves,
they agree only on the one point of disobeying and
defying their nominal lord the Sultan, which they
always do with impunity at least, if not success.
These people will require skilful handling, and the
land line from Bagdad will probably be taken along
the frontiers of Arabia, through the territories of
the most powerful of th 3 tribes, who are able to
protect it against all corners, aad whom a subsidy of
£l,OOO a year will at once render most zealous. By
this route, for a length of some 300 miles, it will
pass to the head of the Persian Gulf at the estuary
which marks the junction of the Tigris and
Euphrates—a miserable Eastern township, called
Shat-el-Arab.
It is not intended, however, to rely solely upon
this land route. Another land line will very pro-
bably be taken from Bagdad over the frontier of
Persia to Teheran, thence to Ispahao, and so on by
Shiraz down to the shore of the Persian Gulf at
Bushire. Thus, even in case of the Arabs proving
refractory, there will always be the land line
through Persia to Bagdad, and so on to Constan-
tinople and. England. From the estuary at Shat-
el-Arab the submarine portion of the line is to be
laid in three sections; for, though the length of the
whole is only 1,250 nautical miles, yet the Govern-
ment have most wisely determined to avoid the
fatal dangers which always beset telegraphy through
long deep-sea routes by making no less than three
breaks at the stations at which the cable will be
landed. The first length will be from the head of
the Persian Gulf at Shat-el-Arab to Bushire, a dis-
tance of 170 miles, along which the cable will be
submerged in from 20. to 25 fathoms of water. The
anext
bold, lengthdesoi
desolate,
etoillbneyfrom Bushire to Mussendom,
Arabia. This section
headland
400 nm
itl
ehse
ocnoga,s ta
nodl
Mubmerged in from 30 to 35 fathoms of water. The
third length will be from IVlussendom to Guaddel, a
small city on the Mekran coast, o n the frontier of
the Kelat territory. This portion will be 400 miles
long, and laid in from 9e) to 50 fathoms of water.
From Guaddel, a short length of land line is now
almost complete along the coast, giving direct com-
munication with Kurrachee, and thence all over
India to the very frontiers of Burmah,

At all these breaks or stations in the Persian
Gulf the extreme shore ends will be very massive
coated with galvanised iron wire of almost tenfold
strength, and weighing as much as eight tons a mile.
In certain portions of the route near Bossorah,
where there is any danger to be apprehended from
small coasters anchoring, the weight of the line will
also be increased by the extra thickness of its wires
to nearly nine tons a mile—enough to shield it from
any risk from the little anchors of the native boats
which are likely to come there. In short, as far as
depends on minute care and a wide scientific expe-
rience, the whole cable is likely to be as perfect as
skill or ingenuity can make it. The vessels which
are to take this line will probably leave England
about the end of next month, arriving on the scene
of their operations in the Persian Gulf in January
or February—the best time of the year in which to
laythe cable. The process of submerging it and
securing
se n
c t itohes
o f the
shore ends is not likely to occupy more
than a month or so. The total cost of the subma-
rinene will be less than £350,000,
the
including
expenses of laying it.—Times.

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