The Sun.
London, England, 1857-07-22 00:00:00

THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH.

The operations of making the insulated wire rope
that is intended to transmit telegraphic signals
from Ireland to Newfoundland, and of transferring
it on board the Agamemnon at East Greenwich,
we have already described ; together with the ap-
paratus by which it is proposed to transmit cur-
rents of electricity through the wire. Similar
operations have been going.on at the same time at
Birkenhead, and it was expected that the last
length of the cable would be taken on board the
Niagara on Monday night. The nature of the
work bas been somewhat different in the port
of Liverpool from that at East Greenwich,
because the Niagara was obliged to lie in the
Mersey, at some distance from the shore, and as-
sistant steam-boats were required. The following
account of the important undertaking, taken from
a Liverpool paper of Saturday last, presents i•s as-
pect as seen on the Mersey :
" The cable has been conveyed to the Niagara in
three vessels of about 500 tons each, viz , the Wal-
lace, the Ellen, and the Perthshire, the last-named
having finished her delivery on Thursday night,
was replaced by the Wallace, containing the last
-280 miles of the cable. The process of delivering
this portion was commenced yesterday (Friday)
morning, and it will be completed, it is expected,
on Monday. The weight of the cable is, as nearly
as can be estimated, one ton per mile, so that the
portion conveyed by the Niagara will be 1,225
tons in addition to which there will be about 60
miles, viz., 50 miles at one end, and ten at the
other, of about six tons weight to the mile. Great
numbers of people are conveyed on board the Nia-
gara, by the Rock Ferry steamers, and with great
liberality they are allowed by Captain Hudson to
inspect the process of coiling the cable, and to per-
ambulate the deck.
" The cable is tested from time to time as it is
stowed away, and the coiling on board the Niagara
is under the superintendence of Mr. Woodhouse'
C.E., who took part in laying down the Varna and
Balsklava telegraph, and this gentleman will ac-
company Mr. C. Bright in the Niagara, to assist in
laying down the half of the cable stretching from
the middle of the A- lentic to the American
shore. These two gentlemen will have to take
alternate watch in the Niagara of the paying
out of the cable during the progress of the
work. The machinery for paying out the cable
has been made with great promptitude by Messrs.
Bright, de Berge and Co., Manchester. It includes
paying out sheaves or drums, of five feet in diame-
ter, having grooves corresponding to the thickness
of the cable, with a friction drum attached to them,
revolving three times as fast as they do, and with
breakage power to check or retard the motion of
the sheaves at pleasure. From toe hold of each
ship, the cable, passing over four of these sheaves
to a few ftet above the deck, will be dropped into
the sea over a fifth sheave, placed above the stern.
The exact amount of strain will be constantly indi-
cated by an instrument for the purpose, under the
eye of the break ITIal?• At the sides of the vessel
will hang down into the water new electrical logs,
principally due to the ingenuity of Mr. Cuarles
Bright, the Atlantic Company's chief engineer.
These immersed logs have vanes and wheels revolv-
ing at a rate proportioned to the passage of the
ship through the water, and making electric cir-
cuit which is broken at each revolution. An elec-
tric wire, from the log to the deck, ruords there
every revolution of the log, and consequently the
exact speed of the ship. It must not be supposed,
when the ships part company, tat communication
will be lost between those on board the vessels.
The electricians have hold of either extremity of
the coils of the cable, and will interchange cigna's
constantly, so that each vessel will be in know-
ledge of the other's fate, and of every incident
that may help or retard the progress of sub-
mersion, unless some unfortunate emergency
should snap the link. When the topmasts of the
ships have sunk beneath the horizon, and they are
lost to view by the look-out men, the interoceanic
current of electricity will give instant record of all
passes, until the lengthening line of cable has been
spun out from shore to shore. A bell on board
each vessel will sound every second as each portion
of the cable is payed out, and its silence will pro-
bably be the first indication of any mishap arising
from friction or over-tension of the cable, and the
vessels will have apparatus on board, worked by
a stationary steam-engine of 28 horse power ; so
that, in any such emergencies, they can be backed,
the cable recoiled until the faulty place is found,
when a piece will be cut out and the perfect por-
tions reunited with as little delay as possible. In
case of a storm, apparatus has been provided to
allow for any extraordinary strain that may occur,
and if necessary, for cutting the cable without let-
ting the outer end of it slip to the bottom of the
ocean, whence it might never be recovered. In
such an emergency there are large reels of auxiliary
cable, of great strength, which could be attached
to the end ; and these auxiliary cables can be sus-
pended from huge float-shaped buoys on the sur-
face of the water, capable of resisting a very con-
siderable strain till all dangerhas passed.
" The two vesse's, the Agamemnon and the
e Niaara sail about the 25th inst., and are to be
Niagara,
joined by her Majesty's frigate Leopold and the
•
United States' frigate Susquehanna. These are
paddle-wheel steamers of considerable power,
• and are intended to pilot and assist the
other vessels when necessary. The four steamers

Lieutenant-Colonel Gloucester Gambier, C. 8., of the
Royal Artillery, laving completed three years' service as
Lieutenant-Colonel, to be Colonel in the 'Army, under the
Royal Warrant, of 3d November, 1854.
For LieutAant-Colonel Frederick Maron Eardley Wil-
mot, Royal Artillery, to be Colonel, which appeared in
the Gazette of the 30th ult., read, Lieutenant-Colonel
Frederick Marow Eardley-Wilmot to be Colonel.
[The followining is substituted for .that which appeared
in the Gazztte of the 10th July, 1857.] •
COMMISSION SIGNED BY LORD LIEUTENANT.

Hamspabire Regiment of Militia Ensign Reginald
Charles Riddell to be Lieutenant ; Ensign Henry Edwards
to be Lieutenant.

NOTICE OF INTENDED DISTRIBUTION OF
NAVAL PRIZE MONEY.

Department of the Accountant• General of the Navy,
Admiralty, Somerset-house, July 20, 1857.
Notice is hereby given to the officers. seamen, and ma-
rines, and to all persons interested therein, that the distri•
bution of proceeds arising from the slave vessel, name un-
known, captured on the 19th October, 1855, by her Ma-
jesty's ship Plumper, will commence on Monday, the 3d
August, 1857, in the Prize Branch of 'the Department of
the " Accountant-General of the Navy, Admiralty, So-
merset-house."

Agents and other persons holding powers of attorney,
prize orders, assignments, or other instruments, by virtue
of which they may be legally entitled to claim the share of
any captor, serving in the above•named ship, are re-
quested to present the same at this office.
Any officer, seaman, marine, or other person, who may
desire to receive his share from the Collector of Customs or
Inland Revenue within the United Kingdom, is required to
intimate the same by letter to be addressed "On Prize Busi-
ness, to the Secretary of the Admiralty, London," in which
letter his own place of residence is to be precisely stated,
as well as the place of the nearest Collector of Customs
or of Inland Revenue, from whom it would be convenient
to receive such share of prize money.
The following are the shares due to an individual in
each class :
Commander 64 12 11
Third class ... . . 16 9 1

Seventh class
Eighth class
Ninth class
Tenth class