The Sun.
London, England, 1858-10-19 00:00:00

NORTH ,OF EUROPE TELEGRAPH.

We 'live in an age &Submarine Telegraphs, for
since the difficult task of submerging the Atlantic
Cable has been accomplished,' hardly a week has
passed that some new telersraphic nerve has not
been laid from the English shores to those of our
continental and island neighbours. Not only have
the Channel- Islands been recently placed within
speaking distance of the metropolis, and the North
Sea at last intersected by a cable, which combines
the very necessary, but rather unusual, qualities of
being anchor as well as water proof; but even
within the last few weeks the manufacture of seve-
ral submarine cables for the Australian colonies has
been commenced. The skill in manufacturing and
laying submarine lines,'as well as the demand for
direct and rapid cOmmunication, have both increased
so much of late, that companies are now no longer
satisfied to have the messages with which they are
entrusted concentrated from all parts of Europe to
one given spot on the coasts of Holland or France,
and from thence to find their way to England
through the common highways of the Dover, Os-
tend, or the. Hague cables. While such ready and
certain means exist of laying submarine wires direct
between'_given points across the ocean as do at pre-
sent, it is never worth while to submit to the delay
and inconvenience which must be caused by having
one central station to which all messages must'be'
sent. The Submarine Telegraph Company, through
whose wires nearly all the 'communications from
the North of Europe are transmitted, have found
the delay and inconvenience of having messages on
their way to England trammelled and re-transmit-
ted through the continental over-ground lines so
great, that they have determined to submerge a
line direct across the North Sea from Englan to
Embden in Hanover, merely for the conveyance of
messages from Hamburg and the Baltic ports. The
difficulties in the way of the accomplishment of the
undertaking are -of course nothing as compared
with those which have been successfully combated
in the laying' of other cables of much smaller
length, and those which do not exist arise entirely
from the shallowness of the water, not, as is
usually the case, from its depth. Throughout the
whole line of route from Weybourn, on the coast of
Norfolk, to Embden, a distance of about-250 miles,
the depth of water never exceeds 30 fathoms, and
rarely more than from 10 to 20. Therefore, though
no strength is required in the cable to resist any
strain caused by its own weight in submersion, yet,
from its having to resist the continual wash of the
sea in such shallow water, a very massive rope has
been found "necessary.. In construction it differs
very little from the other cables submerged in the
North Sea, except in containing in the coire two
insulated conductors, each conducting wire being
formed of four fine copper wires twisted into a
strand, and insulated separately with three cover-
ings of gutta percha. The conducting wires are
twisted up into a rope with several strands of rope
yarn, which is afterwards served round with more
yarn to consolidate it into a solid coire. This is
again covered by a protecting coating, formed of
twelve iron wires, each 3-16ths of an inch in dia-
meter. The cable, when completed, is about an
inch in diameter, and is capable of bearing a strain
of 20 tons, though weighing only about three tons
to the mile. But to resist the accidents which may
occur to it in the shallow water on the coast, even
this great strength and solidity is not deemed suf-
ficient ; therefore about 25 miles of thick shore end
has been made, covered with ten quarter-inch iron
wires, which makes its strength equal to bear
nearly 40 tons direct strain. About five miles of
this thick cable will be laid on the Norfolk coast,
and twenty miles on the Hanoverian side, as the
water there is unusually shallow. The whole
length of the cable, viz., 280 miles, is completed,
and is now being coiled away on board the Wil-
liam Corry, from the works of the manufacturers
(Messrs. Glass and Elliott), at East Greenwich.
Of course the stowage of a cable of this size and
rigidity is by no means a matter of such ease as
would be imagined. The whole of has to be
coiled away by hand, a process which its great
'elasticity renders both tedious and difficult. It
is stowed away on board the ship in four great
coils, two in the hold, containing about 85
miles- each, and two on the lower deck, one
containing 85 miles of the cable and, the other
about 20 miles of the shore end. To prevent the
least possibility of a knot occurring, the coils are
made the whole width of the ship (33 feet), and 44
long. No cone is used in the centre of the coils to
facilitate the paying out, the great rigidity of the
cable rendering, all interior support to the coils,
with the exception of a few cross stays, quite unne-
cessary. The total weight of the cable is very
nearly a thousand tons, and though the sea in
which the operations are to be performed is -not by
any means a stormy one, yet it must be confessed
that the ship looks unpleasantly low in the water
even to encounter theordinary weather which may
be expected at this time of the year. However, as
Messrs. Glass' and Elliott have contracted for the
laying as well as the manufacture of the cable,
there can be very little doubt that all will be car-
ried out successfully. Of course in laying such a
strong and heavy rope in such a very shallow sea
no complicated machinery is required for the pay-
ing out. It is merely necessary to reduce the speed
of the cable to that of the ship, which can be readily
taht pleasure
difficult
operation
a
accomplished by passing the wire two or three times
e
lev
coilinge r brake.alya
over a large drum, the motion of which is retarded
o m has
a Seldheavycable
proceeded with such rapidity as it has in this in-
stance; though the work was not regularly com-
menced until. Tuesday morning last, the whole
length of nearly 300 miles will be stowed
away en
board by Thursday or Friday. The
William Corry
will leave East Greenwich probably
on Saturday,
and will at once proceed to Weybourn, from whence,
after landing the end, she will start immediately
on
-her voyage. In all probability, should the weather
be at all favourable, the absolute operation of lay-
ing the cable across the sea portion of the route will
not occupy more than two days, but for a consider-
able distance from Embden the water is so shallow
'that the cable will have to be laid to the shore
from boats. The transhipment and coiling away
the wire into these boats will of course occupy
a considerable time in fine weather, and cannot
be performed at all should the sea be rough. Sel-
dom has a cable been manufactured upon the
electrical condition of which such care and attention
has been bestowed ; every mile of it was tested
under water as soon as finished, and by this care a
very considerable fault which might hot erwise have
escaped notice was discovered and cut out.
the same method of testing been applied to the
Atlantic cable its present condition might have been
very different., Slight faults in the gutta percha
covering, which are caused either by air bubbles or
faulty joinings, may escape observation should the
wire be only tested on shore, but when immersed
in water, and curreats of the usual strength trans-
mitted through it, any slight defect which is likely
to affect the working of the line is sure to be made
instantly manifest.- This cable is,- we believe the
longest heavy cable, with the exception of that