The Sun.
London, England, 1857-01-16 00:00:00

INSTITUTE OF CIVIL ENGINEERS.

Among the presents announced was the portrait of
Mr. Man by, secretary, painted by Mr. Sydney Hodges,
for Mr. T. R. Crampton, M. Inst. C.E., by whom it
was presented, and to whom thanks of the meeting were
unanimously voted, and the portrait was ordered to be
suspended in the meeting-room of the institution.
The paper read was "On Submarine Electric Tele-
graphe," by Mr. F. R. Window, Assoc. Inst. C.E.
In a brief relation of the early hi-.t' ry of the Subma
rine Electric Tolegiapb, it was stated not to have been
the invention of any one person, but rather the result of
the c•mnbined researches and exertions of many experi-
menters. The first mention that the author ha I been
able to find of any method of sufficiently insulating wires
as to enable them to conduct a current when submerged
in water, was in an account of some experiments made
in India by Dr. (now SirW,B.) O'Shaughnessy, in 1839,
recorded in the Journal of the Asiatic Society. In there
exp‘riments the wire was covered with tarred yarn, and
enclosed in a split ratan, which was again enveloped in
another coating of tarred yarn.
Shortly after this, in 1840 Prof. Wheatstone gave it as
his opinion, before a committee of the Hoilse of Commons,
that a submarine communication between England atAi
France was practicable. And in October of the same
year, a paragraph in the Bulletin de l'Acadentie Royale
des Sciences de Bruxelles stated that -Professor Wheat-
stone had discovered a means of joining Belgium and
England by a submarine telegraph. The nature of the
discovery was not, however, mentioned. All these expo.
riments were made previous to the suggestion of Pro-
fessorFara,day to use as an insulating agent gutta percha,
which, up to the present time, had been universally em-
ployed. An extract from an American newspaper wa.
given, containing au account of a submarine telegraph
stated to have been successfully constructed byCol. Colt,
from Hell Gate to Firs Island, and in which it was also
said that the same gentleman bad applied to the United
States Government for funds for the purpose of forming
a telegraphic line from America to Europe.
In 1843 a submarine telegraph wire, insulated with
gutta percha, was laid by Lieut. Siemens, of the Royal
Prussian Artillery, under the Rhine, from Deutz to
Cologne, a distance of about half-a-mile. And in Jae.,
1849, Mr. C. V. Walker towed a similar wire two miles
in length out to sea, off Dover, and sent signals to Lon-
don through it.
In August, 1850, a gutta percha covered wire was
laid by Mr. Wollaston from Dover to Calais, through
which signals were sent with success, but it lasted per-
fect only about 24 hours,

On the 25:1 of September, 1851, a cable consisting
of four insulated wires incased in a sheath of ten
I No. 1 iron wires, was laid down from Dover to Calais.
by Mr. Crampton, assisted by Mr. Wollaston, and
was stated to have remained perfect to the present
. time.

It was stated that it was entirely owing to the energy
and skill of Mr. Crampton, who undertook the respons-
ible task of carrying out a scheme, up to that time leok
ed upon with distrust by some of the leading engineers
of this country and France, and believed by the public
generally to be impossible, that the world was now
indebted for the benefits of submarine telegraphs ;
and the leading circumstances of the case were
briefly explained. The author then proceeded to
give a detailed account of the construction of the
Dover and Calais cable, which was the first laid down ;
and the system of construction of all the principal sub-
marine telegraphs in Europe up to the present day, with
all particulars relative to them, was shown in a compa-
rative table.
The author discussed the respective merits of the com-
pound cable system, or the collection of many insulated
wires into one cable, as in the Calais and Ostend tele-
graphs, and the simple cable, containing but one wire, as
in ,he lines of the International Telegraph Company to
Ilolland and Ireland ; the greater faciity which these
latter afforded for repair, and the less chance of hay-
ing the business stopped by rupture, since one wire
only, and not all, wouid be affected by the cause, was
pointed out ; and it was shown that the cost of the two
systems did not materially differ.
The conductive power of submerged wires was then
theoretically investigated, and it was shcwo that a con•
siderable difference as to time existed between the
transmission of signals upon suspended wires, and upon
insulated wires immersed in water, or buried in the
earth. That while with the former it appeared that
the only limit of practical speed was the possibility of de-
ciphering the signals, that in the latter the electric cur-
rent required an appreciable period of time to arrive at its
destination, and another longer period to escape from the
wire into the earth, and that this period of time increased
regularly with the length of the wire; consequently, upon
a line formed of submerged wires of considerable length
there would always be a limit of possibility of the num-
ber of signa s that could be transmitted in a given time.
These effects were stated to be caused by lateral induc-
tion, the insulated wire assuming the nature of a Leyden
arrangement of vast dimensions where the copper. wireture
represented the inner coating, and the film of moisture
surrounding the gutta percha acted as the ouutearolrese.foeaett
ing. This latter amounted to upwards of 320
thisandproducedofis lateral
induction was chiefly the retardation.
consequently, to a certain extent, p
along aa limit to the
transmitted
quantity of messages that could be
uponelength .
,every sub.
and even
submarinele l ioffi e
up
Thisd
seffecto wmavisible
but upon the longest line yet
as not very great ; it
con
was constructed
o f
theles less
el ecnegetvhe,
retardation became a serious obstruction.
miles that the
was not until the line was prolongedw to upwards of 700
nience
It was argued, from some experiments that were made
at Labbury by Let'er Clark, upon ?,600 miles of
. Mr.
subterranean wire, that signals upon the line which was
shout to be laid down between Ireland and America
would require about 2?_,, seconds to arrive at their desti-
nation, and that after each signal, another 44 seconds
must elapse before the line was free to receive another
electric wave. Each word of average length would thus
occupy about a minute ; and each despatch of twenty
words would, with the necessary code signals, and
unavoidable repetitions, require about half-an-hour, thus
making the limit of possibility about fifty messages in
24 hours.

The author argued, that since submarine lines were
more costly than suspended lines, and nevertheless
a smaller amount of business could be sent along
them in an equal time, it was important that
no pains should be spared, whereby this lateral induc-
tion, and consequently the evils arising from it, might
be reduced, though, being in accordance with a law of
nature, it could not be entirely avoided.
The discussion, which was opened, was announced to
be continued at the next meeting.
At the monthly ba,lnt, the following candidates were
balloted for, and duly elected :—Alessrs. H. 1. Kennard,
'2. W. Kennard, T. Lambert, F. Lawrence, E. Mar-
shall, E. B. Marten, J. D. Mathews, and S. Moulton,
as associates.