The Sun.
London, England, 1862-11-14 00:00:00

CABLES.

It will be remembered that some time ago a sub -
marine telegraph cable had been wilfully damaged,
by driving a nail through the outer iron wires, and
so destroying the insulating material, rendering one
of the conductors entirely useless. This was not an
isolated instance of a submarine telegraph cable
having been most maliciously injured,• the following
will show :
The Hanoverian (Emnen) cable, belonging to
the Submarine Telegraph company, was _laid by
the contractors in 1858, and during the subinerg-
ence, when more than halfway towards the ist:and
it to
of Borkman, a considerable loss of insulation vg, as
instrument
observed, and the cable was buoyed in order to be'
agile to return to the spot if necessary, when the
whole length was laid down and the end landed.
147-',en the paying out was completed and the tele-
graphm
wereo lt hbse.
that both wires were workable, and an arrangement
attached on shore, it was found
was concluded between ti2e contracting parties for
still, repaired
aTthweoyreka.rat
elxtnhpeti
rheamd :
Inal'unofdaf c ;6tehlr :se 0
should it be requisite to do 00, within twelve
one of the wires sh za ow ,great leakage and w;as
seldom used on account of the
difficulty experienced.
hneoxd:u6c:tofierser:
in regulating the relays. In consequence of this the
directors of the Submarine Telegraph Company de-
termined that the repairs should be undertaken at
the first appearance of fine weather. On the 16tlt
of June last the company's engineer left with a
steamer for the purp•ose, and reached the Dutch coast
on the 19th of that months The weather, instead of
proving fair, as might be expb,cted at that time of
the year, was on the contrary mosl:
fault
boistrous, and
was cut
up to the 10th of August, when the .
out, there were but seven days, and thC,se not the
very fittest, in which.it was capable to ItaZidle the
cable. Great difficulties had to be encountaed on
account of its having become deeply imbeddod in
the sand off the Dutch Islands, at the, place whore
the fault was Iblinded. ' Sometimes the cable had to-
,
be grappled for some hundreds of yards away ; at
others it was only possible to get it out of the sand
at the rate of 15 or 20 feet an hour. The position
of the fault was at last reduced to within a space of
6 feet, which piece was cut out, kept intact, and
handed over to the secretary in London, so that it
might be ultimately carefully examined, and a fresh
length of new cable spliced in its place. Sir James
Carmichael, chairman of the company, some of the
directors, and Mr. France, the company's engineer,
together with Messrs. Glass, Elliott, and Canning,
were present at the examination of these ON yards
of cable, which had caused so much anxiety sad loss
to the company. Exteriorly, no fault could be fouzid,
but on minute inspection a slight indication of ma;
was observed between two of the outer wires, caused
as might be imagined by the removal of the tar, by
the abrasion of the implements used in making the
puncture. The iron wires were then carefully re-
moved, and at the particular spot it was found a
sharp instrument, such as a sailor's knife, had been
forced through the iron wires, severing the hemp
serving, penetrating and cuffing through the gutta
percb a to the copper of one wire; the incision on the
other side was not quite so &eV; proving beyond
question the malicious origin of the injury, which
must have been done either during the Wanufacture
or at the laying down of the cable. The tleason of
this fault resting so long dormant was owing to the
serving of tarred jute closing under the pressure of
the protecting iron wire of the sheathing on to the
gutta percha, it requiring some time, during which
the cable was worked, before the current forced its
way through the artificial insulation. The damaged
core is sealed up again and placed in the hands of
the secretary.