The Sun.
London, England, 1858-09-20 00:00:00

THE ATLANTIC CABLE.

BY PROFESSOR 'WHITEHOUSE, ELECTRICIAN PROJECTOR
OF THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH.
The excitement consequent upon the unexpectedly suc-
cessful laying of the Atlantic Cable, and the realisation of
electric communication with America—followed as it has
been at so early a time by a painfully ominous silence of
many days—leads me to believe that a succinct outline of the
scientific part of the undertaking would be valuable—more
especially as there are many facts of importance connected
with the Atlantic Telegraph of high interest to the public,
which can be elicited only from those whose intimate con-
nexion with the enterprise from its very birth has placed
them in a position accurately to know, as well as to chronicle
such matters.
Dismissing, therefore; entirely, every other feeling than
the interests of science, and more particularly with a view to
the progreit,throughout the world of extended submarine
electric communication, I will endeavour to lay before the
public an outline of the glorious enterprise as it has de-
veloped itself under the eyes of one of its earliest promoters.
To Professor Moore, of America, belongs the honour of the
first published opinion, in 1842, declaring the possibility of
connecting Europe and America by telegraph. The idea was
for some time compelled to lie dormant. The first step of
actual progress was the discovery of gutta-percha, and its
properties as an insulating medium. In 1847 and 1848, the
use of underground wire, insulated with gutta-percha, was
proposed and adopted in England, by Charles V. Walker,
Esq., P.R. S., and in- Prussia by Werner Siemens, of Berlin.
The first submarine experiment made in the open sea by
the use of gutta-percha was made January 10, 1849, by
Charles V. Walker, Esq. He attached two miles of insu-
lated wire, submerged in the sea, to the end of one of the
wires of the South-Eastern Company's system, at Folke-
stone, and spoke through it to the directors in London, from
the deck of the steamer.
In January, 1850, the Messrs. Brett projected and ob-
tained concessions for a line across the Channel ; in order to
secure which it was necessary to carry a temporary line
across at once, and demonstrate its capability before the Ist
September of the same year. So small, however, at that time
was the public confidence in the undertaking thus begun,
that some of the chief contributors to its success have told me
that it was not without difficulty they raised among their
friends even the very small amount required for this experi-
mental line.
Success, however, crowned their efforts on August 20,
1850, and from that day all doubts as to the possibility of
submarine telegraphs were set at rest. A cable of massive
construction was laid on September 25, 1851. On the occa-
sion of the only'interruption from accident, the vital part of
the cable (the insulated conductor) was found, except where
broken by violence, to be in as perfect a condition as the day
it was laid, the gutta-percha appearing unchanged, and in
the highest state of preservation.
Coincident with the use of the gutta-percha covered
wires, were observations made by those in charge of
various telegraph instruments, that a peculiar form of
embarrassment arose in connection with such wires. In
the course of his early experience Mr. Siemens had noticed
a new and important fact in connection with the beha-
viour of such buried wires. I make especial reference to
this because it constitutes the marked distinction between
aerial and submerged telegraph wires, and is the origin of
the many difficulties with which the latter are compassed.
He noticed, that if one pole of a battery was connected with
the earth, it, was possible to pour a current from the other
pole into the near end of a buried wire, although the far
end of this wire were retained insulated and the circuit
open ; and also that the electricity thus poured into the
insulated wire could be again drawn out or discharged from
either end at pleasure. He investigated this phenomenon ;
the result at which he arrived is given in a memoir pre-
sented to the Academy of Sciences at Berlin on April 15,
1850.

The attentida of Professor Faraday was directed to these
phenomena by the Electric Telegraph Company. He com-
municated the result of his inquiries to the members of the
Royal Institution on January 20, 1854. He confirmed the
conclusions at which Siemens had arrived, and also showed
that the electric currents which he employed travelled at
the rate of only 750 miles per second along buried wires.
He explained how this retardation was due to the Leyden
charge, which the current had already been proved to
confer upon the wire. In March, 1855, he confirmed some
results communicated to him by Mr. Latimer Clark, that
no increase of velocity was obtained by increasing the in-
tensity of the current by adding to the number of battery
cells. Faraday's special work as a philosopher and teacher
ended here when he had in a most masterly manner inves-
tigated a new and difficult subject.
The result of these researches, however, by no means
ended with the publication of his paper upon the subject.
A general opinion prevailed that the facts elicited by
him were such as to place an almost insurmountable
limit to the more extended spread of submarine tele-
graphs. Tile embarrassment to signalling would be
such, it was said, as to make it impossible to work
any great distance, while the delay or retardation
experienced by each wave of electric force would be
so great as to make it impossible that any but the shortest
lines could work at such a speed as to be either useful cr
profitable. Thus the probability of the accomplishment of
an Atlantic telegraph seemed to fade upon the dim horizon,
while the chance of any early attempt being made to realise
it became altogether hopeless.
It was in March, 1855, and under these circumstances,
that I was led to pursue with greater diligence the investi-
gation of the subject which I had commenced in the previ-
ous autumn. Already practically conversant with electrical
research, and with the details of every telegraph in use, their
peculiarities and relative advantages, it appeared to me that
this problem demanded for its solution a combination of
philosophical research of the most extended character, with
the most patient and unwearied assiduity in the tentative
application to practice of the principles thus elicited. Fara-
day had enriched the world with new facts, and made known
their condition and laws ; but he had left each of us to work
out their application to his own purposes and requirements.
Here then was a field upon which I entered with the ob-
ject of ascertaining, and, if true, of demonstrating the possi-
bility of working an Atlantic telegraph. This object was not
taken up lightly, or haphazard, but in full view of those
difficulties which at that time were believed by many to be
insurmountable ; of the almost interminable amount of la-
bour which for years it would necessarily involve ; of the
very large expenditure which it would require of means
drawn from the exercise of an arduous profession ; of the
injury which the so-called " dabbling in science " would
infallibly produce in my professional status and practice ;
and lastly, of the great and irretrievable blow which in all
these respects would surely follow any ultimate failure or
want of success in my undertaking.
From this time every available hour was devoted to the
practical and experimental examination of this subject. The
observation of new phenomena, I soon found, required the
construction of new instruments of research fitted for the
especial purpose of their examination. Results of intense
interest and of the highest value were thus obtained ; some
which were laid before the British Association at their
meetings at Glasgow and Cheltenham in 1855 and 1856,
with the special object of exciting an interest in and aiding
the cause of Atlantic telegraphy.
Observations upon the velocity of the electric current
under varying circumstances (amounting to many thousand
in number) were made upon different lengths of cable in
process of manufacture, and the encouraging fact was
brought to light that by simply altering the electrical condi-
tions, the transmission of a wave of force through a given
distance can be materially accelerated, and in fact that not
only can a great economy be attained in the time of transit
of each wave, but also that a proportionally greater number
of currents can be sent through the same distance in the

same time.
The limitations to the working speed of various forms of
telegraphs imposed by the electrical conditions of submarine
conductors were closely and critically examined, and im-
portant results elicited ; and here again was made evident
the necessity for a speciality in the investigations, as well
as in the instruments employed.
The effect of induction, as manifested by the retention of
"charge" in the cable, became an object of special research
—and a process was arrived at by which the amount of elec-
tricity retained and the time of its retention have become the
most valuable mode of testing the integrity of the insulation
—so perfect, indeed, as to surpass, and almost entirely to
supersede, the old mode of testing,
I greatly desired to direct the attention -of the scientific
world to the importance and the novelty of the results of
these researches as they presented themselves, in order that
the examination by other minds might severely scrutinise
and test their validity and value; but incessant and laborious
occupation in the same field prevented my carrying this design
into effect. I felt that the opportunities which at that time
presented themselves for such research were too valuable to
be lost, and that perforce I must postpone publication of
the results.
It was at this time that I received from one high in the
scientific world, Professor Tyndall, the advice which coin-
cidently with other considerations, determined the relin-
quishment of my professional position in Brighton, in the
pursuit and investigation of the great problem of Atlantic
telegraphy. Ho counselled me to give myself wholly to