The Sun.
London, England, 1851-10-04 00:00:00

7')

[PRICE SD.

THE SUBMARINE TELEGRAPH.

come very loose and inaccurate statements having
appeared in several journals respecting the submarine
telegraph, it is desirable that a few facts should he
brought prominently before the public, to enable them
to form a correct opinion of the present condition
and future prospects of an enterprise of such import-
ance to heah the commercial and scientific world.
On tit., 19th of July last Mr. Crampton undertook
to core truct and lay down a cable containing four
el-etric wires, each insulated in two coatings of gutte percha, and the whole protected by ten strands of
galvinized iron wir, on or before the 30th of Septem-
ber. The electric wires, covered with gutta percha,
in length 100 miles, were turned out by Mr. Stat-
ham, at the works of the Gutta Percha Company,
and nothing can be more perfect than the manner in
which that order was executed. The wire covering
was ordered from Messrs. Wilkins and Weatherley,
but unfortunately a dispute respecting the patent for
making wire ropes occurred between that firm and
Messrs. _Sewall, which seriously delayed the progress
of the work, as an injunction was served by the lat-
ter to prevent Messrs. Wilkins and Co. from proceed-
ing with the order.
This was eventually compromised, and the rope
was made conjointly by the workmen of the two firms
on the premises of Messrs. Wilkins and Weatherley,
at Wapping.
The very hurried manner in which (from this un-
foreseen delay) the work had to be accomplished, pre-
vented that close attention that ought to have been
given to any fracture, however small, of the wire,
and in consequence the outer casing, though of great
strength and solidity, was not made with the same
exquisite nicety and care that had been bestowed on
the core of the cable.
On Wednesday, the 24th, the coiling of the
in the hold of the Blazer was completed, and at
cablemid_
mid-
day she was towed off by two steam-tugs, and at
three o'clock on Thursday morning anchored off the
South Foreland.
About six o'clock the engineers and gentlemen in-
terested in the experiment were brought off to the
South Foreland in her Majesty's steamer Fearless,
Captain Bullock, and in half an hour's time the tele-
graph rope was landed, and safely secured at a con-
siderable elevation above high-water mark, at the
South Foreland, immediately under the upper light-
house, and at the bottom of a shaft that descends per-
pendicularly from near the lighthouse to a level with
the beach. Through this shaft it is proposed to carry
the electric wires, and then from the summit of the
cliff to run them under ground into Dover.
The point fixed for the debarcation on the French
coast was Sangatte, a small village situated about
three-end-a-half miles, by the coast, from Calais, and
about five by the public road.
The distance from Sangatte to the South Foreland
is 21 miles, and the length of rope on board the Blazer
was 24.
Shortly after seven o'clock the fastenings at the
end of the cable at the Foreland were completed, and
the Fearless started to point out the exact course to
be followed by the Blazer, which was towed by two
tugs, one alongside and the other ahead of her.
A third tug belonging to the Government was
also in attendance.
The arrangements for payieg out the cable con-
sisted simply of a bar fixed transversely above the
hold, over which the rope was drawn as it was un-
coiled from below, and a series of breaks acting by
levers fitted to the deck, in order to arrest the passage
of the rope in the case of too rapid a delivery. On
reaching the stem the cable passed overboard through
a " chock" of a semicircular shape, lined with iron.
On starting the steam-tugs proceeded at much too
rapid a pace (from four to five knots an hour), and
consequently one of the fractured wires (before al-
luded to) caught in the friction-blocks, and, before
the way of the vessel could be checked, one strand of
the iron wire was, for a length of about 18 yards,
stripped from the cable. The steam-tug towing
ahead was then ordered alongside, when the speed
could be better regulated, and the rate was reduced
to about one and a-half to two knots an hour. About
six miles from shore it was determined to test the
wires ; but, from a misapprehension of instructions,
the telgraph instruments at the South Foreland were
not joined up with those on board the Blazer, A
steam-tug, with one of the engineers and directors on
board, immediately returned to the Foreland, when
communication was made by telegraph and fusees
fired from the vessel to the shore, and from the shore
to the Blazer.
At about mid-Channel, in tho midst of a heavy sea
and a strong wind from the S.W., an accident oc-
curred, but for which the enterprise would have
been carried out with the most perfect success ; this
was the snapping of the tow-rope (an eight-inch cable)
and the consequent drifting of the Blazer from her
appointed course to the length of a mile and a half.
Notwithstanding the delay caused by this untoward
incident the Blazer arrived off Sangatte at about six
o'clock. The evening was, however, too far advanced
and the weather too stormy to attempt a landing; and,
after embarking most of her passengers on board one
of the steamers that ran into Calais, she was anchored
for the night about two miles from the shore.
On Friday the wind blew a strong gale from the
westward, which rendered all near approach to the
shore impracticable ; but the Blazer was towed to
within a mile of the beach, when, it being considered
dangerous to leave her at anchor, the remainder of the
rope was made fast to a buoy and hove :overboard.
The steam-tugs then returned with the Blazer to
England.

On Saturday the weather continued unfavourable,
but Captain Bullock proceeded with the Fearless to
the buoy off Sangatte, and having hauled up the end
of the rope he towed it some hundred yards nearer
the shore, and then again moored it.
On Sunday the wind shifted more to the south-
ward, and moderated. Accordingly, the engineers
and managers of the Gutta Percha Company took on
board the Fearless a large coil of gutta percha roping,
and, after hauling up the end of the telegraph cables
the first wires were carefully attached, and at half-
past five in the afternoon a boat landed them on the
beach at Sangatte. The moment chosen for landing
was low water, and the coil of gutta percha ropes was
immediately buried in the beach by a gang of men in
attendance up to low water-mark, and even to a short
distance beyond it. Thence to where the cable was
moored did not much exceed a quarter of a mile.
The telegraphs were instantly attached to the sub-
marine wires, and all the instruments responded to
the batteries from the opposite shore. At six o'clock
messages were printed at Sangatte from the South
Foreland, specimens of which
.ilaptain Bullock took
over to Dover the same evening for the Queen and
the Duke of Wellington.
On Monday morning the wires at Sangatte were
joined to those already laid down to Calais, and two
of the instruments used by the French Government
having been sent to the South Foreland, Paris was
placed in immediate communication with the English
Court.
Experiments were then tried by firing a cannon on
the ramparts at Calais by means of electricity passed
along the submarine wires from England, all of which
were perfectly successful.
On Monday evening, at six o'clock, the Mayor
and Corporation entertained the gentlemen connected
with the submarine telegraph at dinner at the Hotel
de Ville, and on Tuesday morning the French man-
of-war steamer Ariel, Captain Arpin, took them back
to England.
On Tuesday afternoon Mr. Wollaston, civil engi-
neer, accompanied by Sir James Carmichael and Dr.
de Hamel, of the Academy of Science of St. Peters-
burgh, proceeded to the South Foreland, where, in
the presence of the other gentlemen, Mr. Wollaston
tested the sub-marine wires with a galvinometer, and
pronounced their insulation to be perfect.
The telegraphs used on this occasion have been
those of the French Government, invented by M.
Foy, Henley's magnetic, Reid's double needle, and
Brett's printing telegraph. In spite of much knock-
ing about and rough work, both on board and on
shore, the instruments have all worked admirably.
The gentlemen connected with the Submarine Te-
legraph Company, who gave their aid on this occasion,
were Mr. Crampton, C. Mr. Wollaston, C.E., Mr.
Statham, manager f the Gutta Percha Company, and
Mr. Branton, his assistant, to whom the concession
was granted by the French Government for establish-
jug the telegraph, Mr. John Brett and Sir James
Carmichael, Bart., directors.
France, and Professor Jacobi, were also
M. Alphonse Foy, the director of telegraphspresent
ing
in
'
the first part, and Dr. de Hamel, of St. i
etersburgh
during the latter part of the work.
beeni d ande Henleyaph ie
machines.atte nded in charge of
their Messrs.urespectivee Much
hasll
telegraphic rsaid of the foolhardiness of starting
during the prevalence of the equinoctial gales and the
period of the strongest tides to lay down the sub-
marine cable. This, however, was inevitable, as the
company were under engagement to the French Go-
vernment to establish a communication between the
two coasts by the Ist of October, and as the cable was
not shipped an board the Blazer until the 24th of
September, there was but little time to carry out so
novel and so difficult an undertaking.
The communication is now made, and when the
short distance of gutta percha roping at Sangatte is
replaced by a properly protected cable, it will, we