The Sun.
London, England, 1858-03-11 00:00:00

ME ATLANTIC TELRGRAPH.

The general programme of the second and, as -we
trust, final attempt to
. submerge this gigantic line
of electrical communication between the New and
Old Worlds is, we believe, decided on, and all the
preparations necessary to secure a successful plan of
operations are rapidly advancing towards comple-
tion. Since our last notice of the progress of this
great undertaking the machines at Glasse and
Elhot's (manufactory have been working day and
night to complete the 400 additional miles of cable
ordered before last Christmas, and intended to re-
place the 384 miles which were submerged and lost
last autumn off Valentia. This additional length
has now been completed. It is of precisely the same
kind of cable as the rest, which we have already
described—flexible, strong, small, and light ;. it has
been tested and retested to insure its perfect insula-
tion, and its completeness being thus definitely as-
certained, the last miles of it were shipped last
night on board the Adonis screw steamer for con-
veyance to Plymouth, where it will arrive on Mon-
day next. In the dockyard there, at rive ham the
main bulk of the cable, to the length of 2,200 miles,
has been stowed away in gigantic coils during the
winter, and a full staff of electricians, under the
directions of Mr. Whitehouse, have been engaged
in working messages throughout its entire length,
and generally proving the electrical fitness of the
cable to the fullest extent. The result of these ex-
periments, we are informed, has been in the highest
degree satisfactory.. Most of those acquainted with
the first efforts which were made to send messages
through the entire length of the cable know that
the retarding influence, or whatever other name
electricians may- now choose to call it, which exists
in a long conductor exercised a most serious influ-
ence upon the rapidity with which it was found
possible to transmit words through the full ex-
tent of the wire. Constant experiments, joined
with practical skill in working the wire
daily, have enabled Mr. Whitehouse to over-
come so much of this resistance that five words
per minute can now be sent through the 2,200
miles of cable at present at Keyham, and it is
fully expected that before the time comes for
its second submergement eight words will
be transmitted with ease and certainty. Te many of
our readers unacquainted with the practical work-
ing of submarine lines only eight words per minute
may appear to be but a poor result after all though
we can assure them that if ever attained it is such
an improvement in the rate of transmission as not
many ventured to anticipate who saw the cable
worked for the first time last summer. At the same
time such a result seems to show with most con-
vincing clearness that, though 480 words per hour
through this line, if it is successfully laid down,
might doubtless amply remunerate the company,
it would still be almost as far as ever from accom-
modating the ,business messages between Europe
and the New World. If, therefore, this line is
submerged this summer it will follow as a matter of
course that three or four others must be laid as well
and there seems no reason why if one can be laid
down there should not be as many telegraphs under
the Atlantic as there are now under the Channel.

When the Adonis, with the 400 recently com-
pleted miles, arrives at Plymouth on Monday next
the additional length will be immediately landed
and joined on to the coil already at Keyham. This
will raise the entire length of cable already manu-
factured to nearly 2,650 miles, or some 150 miles
or thereabouts more than the entire length with
which the expedition started last autumn. There is
no doubt, however, but that the first attempt was
made with too small an allowance for casualties,
and that consequently when the cable parted, and
about 380 miles were lost in the depths of the At-
lantic, it so reduced the length of wire remaining
at the disposal of the engineers that further perse
'Trance in the attempt became impossible. To
guard against;a recut rence of this mishap it has now
been determined to manufacture an additional 800
miles of cable beyond the 2,650 miles which we
have stated is already completed. This additional
quantity will be commenced at Glas3e and Elliot's
works on Friday next, and will be completed in a
month or so, and forwarded to Keyham to be
joined to the main coil, which will then measure
nearly 3,000 miles in length. The Niagara
and Agamemnon are again to be the vessels
employed in the attempt of this year. The
former was to leave New York, we believe, on the
Ist of this month, and is expected at Plymouth
about the 12th or 13th. On her arrival at that
port she will instantly commence taking on board
her share of the immense wire, which this time will
amount in length to 1,500 miles, instead 1,200 as
on the last occasion. On board the Agamemnon
the cable will not be coiled away in one prodigious
mass amidships, but be distributed equally on the
fore, midship, and after part of the vessel, in three
coils of about 500 miles each. By this arrange-
ment, of course, the weight of the wire is equally
distributed and the ship well trimmed. The very
reverse of this was the case last autumn, when the
weight of the whole mass was concentrated amid-
ships, and, thus balanced on the principle of a
Chinese toy, the poor Agamemnon rolled on the
least swell till ber yards almost touched the water.
The attempt to lay down the cable will be made
this year at a much earlier period than on the last
occasion. As soon as the coils, with all the neces-
sary apparatus and appointments are stored away
on board the Agamemnon and Niagara (which will
be about the beginning of May), both vessels will
leave for a short trip into deep water, when a num-
ber of experiments will be made with the paying
out machinery, and to ascertain practically if any
difficulties exist in the proposed plan for sub-
merging the wire from the centre of. the Atlantic.
These experiments will be brought to end in a few
days, and any alterations which their results may
suggest in the machinery or manner of paying out
the wire having been adopted as soon as possible
the expedition will finally start about the begin-
ning of June. All the best authorities and most
experienced seamen have been consulted on behalf
of the company as to the state of the weather in
the Atlantic in the month of June, and we believe
the result of an immense mass of testimony goes
to prove that there are some five or six con-
secutive
days in that month during which
a gale in the Atlantic was seldom or never
known to occur. The expedition will leave
these shores so as to arrive in the centre of
the Atlantic at about the commencement of these
halycon days, and the object will be, of course, to
get over the deep sea part of the undertaking before
the weather changes. The line will be joined and
laid from the centre of the ocean, the Niagara bring-
ing her end to England and the Agamemnon con-
veying het s to America. Communication by electric
signal will, of course, if the wire holds, be kept up
between the two vessels the whole way.
All these new arrangements and precautions are
the result of the experience of last year's at-
tempt, and, of course, all improvements conduce
towards the chances of ultimate success. But it is
ntleileejaggeration to say that there is one portion of
apparatus upon the fitness and proper manage-
ment of which the success or non-success of the
whole plan must ultimately depend, and that is
upon the paying-out machinery. That this ma-
chinery was bad last year, and that it was made
still worse by the most absurd mismanagement, no
one now denies ; but we trust and blieve that
there is no chance of a repetition this year of such
blunders. How the new machinery is constructed
we cuinot at present say, further than that a new
self-acting brake has been devised, which is said to
be perfect ; that all the alterations have been made
under the superintendence of Mr. Everett, chief
engineer of the Niagara, and Mr. Appold, and that
Mr. Penn, Mr. Lloyd, and Mr. Field have, we
. believe, been from time to time consulted about it.
tao far, then, it ought to be all that can be wished,
ba.,,t we hope to be able to speak more positively:on
eels point in a few days. Our readers may recollect
that 'when the attempt failed last autumn 380 miles
ofof
the were safely deposited at the bottom
of
all
0.. Since that time, to the astonishment
depth water in
west coast of Ireland and the
near in which the cable lay, it has been
underrun, a no When the last mile
as than 52 miles of it
worth
o ecr company
or aeeeasaprrecoveredsuriolsnau 0,-
1,000 fathoms, and, was raised raised it lay at a depth of
wasown,
in that depth it broke,
the remaining 330winiiiliesstaityretilstlitlhl in the bed of the At-
lantic, where they
and e end of time, a pet - manent source of wonderamusement
b to its ma-
rine inhabitants. It may, perhaps,
men-
tioning, as an instance of the erduleit otfhhum an
nature, that there are persons who think at this
330 miles is still to be recovered and utilisedthes again.
• It le, however, but fair to state that
. are in. no way connected with either the
or officers, all the latter of whom have too much
.in:these matters ever to entertain such
vettirefa.Tahaet
apvaisonwohfe the cable
firstea blale. recovereddd
egardea its
conizarering ezeb.spbiyr anloN
however, of tiantnleat 1 condition. It showed'
ing stretched
to affect the n
on o 4 the conductor.
itht
an extent

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