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

not be the slightest difference by which you can die
tinguish one from the other. This wire, which is
nearly -} 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 " core," as it is
termed, is then tested in cold water, at a tempera-
ture of 90 deg., and then under a pressure of 600 lb.
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
percha covering of the wire during in-
jury should have occurred totheitsfrtargaielesitgfurettma
the Wharf-road to North Woolwichhe
then
t the is p
detectedreeeee
before the cable is made up, and
cr
; mh
dorectohveegrientgtaisp
mo f
eseheeeadt.h i nTgh them
firstem
o ut
st ei
gis 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
water, the wires themselves, though galvanised,
are to be still farther protected from their most
formidable enemy, rust, which is done by the
coverings 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. In 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
2f 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 esta-
lished and keep in admirable working order a tele-
graph from Constantinople to Bagdad. This land
lino 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 Persian Gulf, along which this submarine cable
to India is to be laid, various predatory tribes of
Arabs claim a sovereignty, and fight for it with
more or less success, and over these lawless vaga-
bonds of the desert the Porte has no manner of
control. 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 thu tribes, who are able to
protect it against all comers, and 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 Ispahan, 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 iu from 20 to 25 fathoms of water. The
next length will be from Bushire to Mussendom,
a bold, desolate, stony headland on the coast of
Arabia. This section will be 440 miles long, and
-,ubmerged in from 30 to 35 fathoms of water. The
third length will be from Mussendom 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 40 to 50 fathoms of water.
From Gaaddel, 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 Burnaah,
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 mil(
In certain portions of the route near Bussorah,
. . _

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
r)f their operations in the Persian Gulf in January
oir February—the best time of the year in which to
than
rine sectiontall or
B°.
s:Yclith. e cable. The process of submerging it and
including the expense'sr
a grnthe shore ends is not likely to occupy more
he total. cost. of the subma-
of the line will be less than £360,000,
of laying it.-Itmes.
---------7-----

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