The Sun.
London, England, 1858-09-13 00:00:00

THE ATLANTIC CABLE.

Up to a late hour on Saturday night the elec-
trician had been unable to discover the precise
locality where the interruption of the electric cur-
rent takes place. In the letter writttn by Mr.
Whitehouse, the late electrician of the company,
that gentleman holds out the hope that the damage
which has taken place would be found to be. but at
a short distance from the shore, and could easily be
repaired by the substitution of the larger cable
intended for the shore end of the telegraph. This
heavy portion of the cable, weighing about six tons
to the mile, or rather more than six times the
weight of the line which has already been laid,,is
at present lying at Keyham. It was not taken on
board the Agamemnon, for so improbable seemed
the chance of the successful submergence of the cable.
that it was not deemed necessary to send the shore
end to Valentia until the result of the second
attempt was ascertained. As soon -as the commu-
nication had been established, orders where sent for
the shipment of the shore end, and the Bilboa
steamer was sent to Keyham to take it round to
Valentia. While engaged in putting the cable on
board a message was unexpectedly received to dis-
continue the process, and leave it still at Keyham.
This message was, we understand, forwarded from
Valentia, as it was found by the electrical tests which
were applied that the interruption of the commu-
nication was not within such a distance of the
shore as would admit of the fault being
remedied by the substitution of the heavier cable.
The shore end of the telegraph is that which is most
exposed to the action of the sea, and with respect
to which the greatest fears were entertained by the
public ; but it turns out that this portion is perfect,.
and that the defective part is at a point much
further distant from the land. To many persons it
will appear impossible, by any mechanical or scien-
tific arrangement, to ascertain the spot at which
the continuity of an electric- current may cease.
It is difficult enough to conceive the practicability
of transmitting an electric spark along two or three
thousand miles of wire, or even through a much
shorter distance. But this is done every day, and
we have less doubt that the subtle fluid which starts
from London will reach Edinburgh, or the place to
which it is directed, than that the railway train
will reach its prescribed terminus. But to ascertain
the spot at which the lightning leaves its track and
escapes into the depths of the Atlantic, is a task
which would appear to be even more difficult than
for the manager at Euston station to learn, with-
out the aid of telegraph or other communication,
the place where the express train had left the line
by some unhappy accident, after it had started on.
its journey to the north. Strange as it may seem,
the electrician has the power of ascertaining, by
means of the electric fluid itself, the locality of the
tiny outlet by which it escapes into the sea. Some
time since a most ingenious piece of mechanism was
made, by which the electricity could be weighed,
the fluid being made to act upon a magnet ; and
this, upon the end of a nicely-pointed steelyard,
would tell with accuracy the weight of the current
transmitted from the other end of the wire at along
distance. Following out this experiment, we be-'
lieve first shown by Professor Faraday, at the Royal
Institution, other electricians have arranged a very
sensitive piece of machinery, by which the amount
of resistance opposed to the passage of the electricity'
by the conducting wire may be correctly ascer-
tamed. The amount of resistance offered through
the whole length of the Atlantic cable, or even
one half of it, is something very much larger
than any which can be marked by the delicate
machinery hitherto employed upon shorter
distances of wire. The consequence is, that
the electricians have not yet been able satis-
factorily to ascertain the place where the cable is.
defective. Of one thing, however, they are certain,
that is, that the fault does not occur within 20 or
30 miles of the land, and we are informed that
within the first two or three hundred miles the
continuity is still perfect and complete. Beyond
this distance all is still doubt and uncertainty, and
it is idle at present to speculate upon the subject.
Should the defect be found to exist in the deep parts
of the sea, the public must be content to hear that
for the present the Atlantic Telegraph is a failure.
It will not be possible to raise the sunken portion
of the wire, or repair it, when laid in great depths.
Within a few miles of the shore the wire may be
under-run ; but when it has been sunk at the depth
of two or three miles below the surface, the great
length of cable which would be suspended, and the
resistance which the water would give to its rising
would produce a strain upon the wire much greater
than its strength would bear. A cable which would
be strong enough to sustain its own weight while
sinking, might not possess the requisite strength to
admit of its being hauled up through the water.--.
Observer.

THE SEIZURE OF A' JEWISH CHILD

AT BOLOGNA.