The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-12 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

ordinary enterprises it is a matter of little public
moment whether men part with their money wisely or
foolishly. In the one case they will receive the congratu-
lations of their friends for their success, and will be able to
contemplate with satisfaction an increase in their means of
enjoying life ; in the latter, they will be laughed at for
their folly, and must bear the loss of their money with
the best grace they can. But the public, generally speak-
ing, are in no way interested in the result—not so, how-
ever, when the failure may prevent the realisation of a
great boon to the whole world, such as must be derived by
telegraphic communication between Europe and America.
It is for this reason I have ventured to make some reflec-
tions with respect to the present attempt of the old Atlantic
Company to resuscitate their enterprise. If they fail, the
result would be a death blow to the well-grounded hopes of
success which other routes claim to have on public

support.
The Atlantic Telegraph Company have announced their
intention of inviting the public to lay out £600,030 of new
capital, the nett proceeds of which, should they be fortu-
nate in laying the cable, they estimate at £413,000 per an-
num, producing 18 per cent, upon the new capital, 14 per
cent. upon the £462,860 of old capital previously expended,
and leaving after all a balance for reserve fund of £240,200
per annum.
The rate of working upon which this estimate is based
appeirs to have been derived fr m the limited experience
acquired upon two short shoal-water cables, in the North
Sea, and is altogether at variance with the opinions of tho
first electricians of the day, and with the laws derived from
the actual working results of longer lines, which show that
the speed of signalling is reduced inversely as the square
of the length of the cable. Hence it was that the line for-
merly laid between Newfoundland and Ireland (2,200 miles
in length) could only be worked at the rate of about a word
a minute ; and for the same reason the Government re-
cently, in laying the Malta and Alexandria cable, divided
the length into three sections, intermediate stations being
opened at Bengazi and Tripoli—not, as the Atlantic Tele-
graph Company have the hardihood to maintain, for the
sake of the few pounds of annual traffic to be got there,
but to enable the line to be worked through at a commer-
cially paying rate, which could not be effected with the
slow speed of working through the entire length of the line
in one circuit. This is one of the greatest objections to the
long route, and the company seem not altogether ignorant
of it themselves; for although they estimate their traffic
so liberally, they state that their preference shares are to be
guaranteed 8 per cent. dividend from the Government " in
case of success." It would appear from this that if the
line, being once laid, could only carry a message a day, the
Government would have to pay the working expenses of
£25,000 a year, and £48,000 dividend on the preference
shares.

The estimate of receipts to which I have referred is cal-
culated by the company upon an uninterrupted rate of
working of ten words per minute for sixteen hours out
of twenty four, or 480 messages a day, which is assumed
to be a moderate expectation, because 1,500 messages are
said to be passed daily between this country and the con-
tinent.

It must be remembered, howaver, that the continental
traffic spoken of is spread over no less than 35 conducting
wires, none of which are so long as to be materially subject
to the retardation and confusion of signals by inductive
phenomena, which are so prejudicial to the well-working of
lines of great length.
When the Government are applied to for assistance in
the construction of a line of telegraph to America,which will
no doubt be the case before long, as no less than three dis-
tinct undertaking are in the fields, it is most earnestly to be
hoped in the interests of the public that the whole matter
will be referred to a competent committee to investigate. It
will then be determined whether the direct line with its
enormous stretch in one single risk, and its great electrical
obstacles, affords' the best promise of success, and is most
worthy of aid from the public purse; or whether the several
other routes in shorter sections, by the Northern or
Icelandic route, by the A zoru, by the Canary and Cape
Verde Isl inds and Brazil, or by the Alentian Island and
British Columbia, are not, any or all of them, immeasurably
superior to the lino between Ireland and Newfoundland.
. Believing the subject to be one of universal importance,
I have ventured to lay before you these few facts and con-
siderations, so that by your kind aid the public *may well
weigh the scheme which is seeking their sanction and
support, and may fairly adjudge the best means to be
adopted for crowning with due success electrical intercourse
with the New World.—l am, Sir, your most obedient
GEOGRAPHER.