The Sun.
London, England, 1866-07-27 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

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TlMES.—Within a few hours of the time when
these lines are published the world will probably
witness the completion of one of the grandest and
most beneficent enterprises of the age. Yesterday
at noon the Great Eastern was but 80 miles from
the rendezvous which is the end of her voyage ; she
was in only 130 fathoms water, and unless some
unforeseen calamity take place, London and New
York ought to be in telegraphic communication by
to-morrow morning. So wonderful an event may
excuse almost any hyperbole of congratulation. The
genius and enterprise of this country have com-
pleted a work which transcends not only experience
but fancy. Men hardly arrived at middle age re-
member a time when such an idea as an instanta-
neous communication between the two Continents
would have been looked upon as the wildest dream.
Even of late years there have been sober, calculating
people who have considered the laying of an Atlan-
tic Cable to be a mad enterprise, destined to sink
many hundred thousand pounds of capital belonging
to sanguine investors, and to remain for ever to
form a chapter in the " History of Human Error."
The immense distance to be traversed ; the great
depths at which the cable must be submerged
during part of its course ; the abrupt variations in
the bed of the ocean ; the chances of storm and fog
and iceberg, of defective construction, which might
perhaps be only detected when too late, of machi-
nery a little too stiff or heavy, which might snap the
cable by a sudden jerk, of clumsiness in some one
employed, which might frustrate all the calculations
and all the pains bestowed on the work—these, and
the many accidents which no human foresight can
entirely guard against, made some prudent people
incredulous to the last. There were not wanting those
who said that if ever a telegraphic message was sent
from London to New York it would be sent nearly
round the world, by way of Russia, Siberia, Beh-
ring's Straits, and Western America. On the other
hand, the faith and courage of the projectors have
been beyond all praise. From the first inception of
the enterprise there has been a body of able men
who have never doubted that a cable might be laid
and made to work. Year after year they have
gained a clearer conception of the task, and matured
the plans which have ended in this magnificent suc-
cess. Submarine cables have been laid on so large
a scale and under so many various conditions of late
years that the Atlantic Telegraph has had the ad-
vantage of a great accumulation of facts. The
Mediterranean lines and the sea section of the Indian
line have been full of instruction on the subject. In
some parts of the Mediterranean great depths have
been traversed, and the effect of these on the cable
has been well noted, and hints are also gained as to
the best system of laying down a line. But the
ocean which rolls between Ireland and Newfound-
land has given the most complete, though the most
costly lessons. Years roll by so quickly that it is
difficult to realise that nine of them have been de-
voted to Atlantic telegraphy. Not, indeed, that
there has been a yearly expedition ; but the first
expedition was in 1857, and since that time the plans
and experiments have never ceased. We believe it
is about twenty years since the proposal to construct
an ocean telegraph between the two Continents was
made ; but the scheme was too bold, and the ex-
perience in such matters too slight, for either the
Government or the public to undertake the work.
But year by year cables were laid in the principal
narrow seas of the world ; one had been worked from
Varna to the Crimea, and one was promised which
should deal with the greatest depths of the Medi-
terranean. While the Old World was thus gaining
the benefits of ready communication, it was not
likely that either England or America would neglect
the momentous question of their own union. To join
the two continents by such a line as had been laid
down between England and France or England and
Ireland was an obvious idea, but it needed men of
talent and courage to conceive it as a practical en-
terprise, and to enter energetically on the work.
This, however, was done, and in the summer of
1857 a company had been formed, 2,500 miles of
cable had been manufactured, and two of the finest
vessels of war in the world, the Agamemnon and
the Niagara, were ready to steam away with it.
This earliest attempt was doomed to end in speedy
disappointment. The expedition started amid the
applause and the premature felicitations of the
public, but ill-success attended it. When the ships
were but a few miles from the coast, the cable,
which •the Niagara was paying out, became en-
tangled in the machinery and parted. The squadron
returned to recover what had been laid down and
to join it, and then went again on its way. But
want of experience was fatal. As the ship came on
the sudden declivity in the ocean bed, where it
descends from 400 to 1,700 fathoms, the weight of
the cable made an increase of retarding pressure
necessary. The machinery, though devised with
great skill, appears not to have applied and re-
laxed this pressure with sufficient readiness, and
the cable snapped. There was an end of the
expedition for that year, but in 1858 another
squadron set forth, with improved appliances and
far better founded hopes of success. The ships
freighted with the cable were again the Agamem-