The Sun.
London, England, 1857-09-10 00:00:00

RAILWAYS-FOR CASII.

fr. c. it c.
Orleans 1,377i— Western 705 --
Northern
Lyons and Med 862.— New Ditto
Now Ditto Bl7'2— Grand Central -
Genova -
Midi ...

THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH)

Mr. Cyrus Field has addressed the following
letter to the editor of the Times :

"Sir,—Having been connected with the Atlantic
Telegraph Company from its commencement, and being
in every way deeply interested in its success, I ask the
privilege of reply to the statement in your money article
of the 4th inst., wherein it states as follows :
" ' It is reported that the Atlantic cable is not likely
to prove available for either of the projected Indian lines
of telegraph. It appears that in its present coiled state
it generates or absorbs a great amount of heat, and a
fear is entertained of its being ruined by the temperature
to which it would be subjected in twice crossing the
tropics. It has been found that extreme haat in the
parts under pressure forces the copper wire to the sides
of the gutty percha, and destroys insulation.'
"On the evening of the day on which your article ap-
peared I proceeded to Plymouth, and, having callA to
my aid the electrical and other officers of the company,
there was made a most minute examination of the cable.
"This examination enables me to state that the re-
perts to which you allude respecting the generation of
heat in the cable are simply a mistake, and experiments
instituted there and since my return to London enable
me also to state that no heat exists in the bold either of
the Agamemnon or Niagara beyond what is natural ;
and that the cable tests as perfectly through its whole
length as it did the day it was put on board ship, and
there is nothing in its own nature, or the mode in which
it is coiled, that leads to the slightest apprehension for
its safety, or for any injury from the pressure to which
it is subjected. The cable is laid in regular strata,
mathematically true—coil upon coil—and the maximum
pressure upon the very lowest coil or flake is less than
281 b. to the square inch.
" Severe experiments made and vouched for since:your
article was written show that the cable remained abso-
lutely perfect and uninjured at a temperature of 135
deg. Fahrenheit, under a pressure for several hours of
considerably more than six times that to which it is sub-
jected in the lowest coil of the Agamemnon.
" As regards the sale of the cable, I would inform You
that the suggestion did not come from the Atlantic Com-
pany, and when the proposition for its purchase was
made them, first by the Red Sea Company and then by
Sir W. O'Shaughnessy for the Persian Gulf, they only
consented to entertain it on the condition that they
could contract for a similar one to be made and
ready for them in time to secure its being laid at the
earliest practicable moment in the spring. On these con-
ditions, and at the price stated; they were willing their
cable should be appropriated to the Indian service, which
was represented to them as most pressing.
"Before I conclude I would make one remark. no: in
reply, but simply in reference to the mass of inaccuracies
which your correspondent "B." circulhted in your paper
of the 28th Aug. last. The company have nothing to
conceal. All their acts are open to public scrutiny ; but
it is obvious that they cannot be expected to answer all
communications that appear in the public prints.