The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1854-09-03
From tho Quarterly Review
WHAT MAY COME OF THE TELEGRAPH

Connecting England with America geographically is at
the present moment seriously engaging the attention Of
scientific and commercial The daring engineers
sangune of the practicabity of laying submarine
cable directly the Atlantic from Galway TO Cape
Race Newfoundland. Now that we have Lieut.. Maurys
authentic determination Of the existence OF shelf across
the North Atlantic the sonndings which are nowhere
more Thin 1900 fhoms tie feasibility OF the project ia
toerably certain The principal Question is, whether
line laid electric current be passed through
5000 miles Of cable No doubt by the expenditure Of
enormous battery power this might be accomplished
through wires suspended in the els bn Il y guesso
whether It be done aloag vast length OF gutta psrc
coated wire passing through salt water There Is such
thing great Insulation. Professor Paraday hAs
shown that in such circumstances the wire becomes ISy
den JAZZ aud may be charged with electricity that
cannot without the greatest difficulty move througiE
This the objection to direct cable between the two
tnents if however it be overcome doubtless the
path would all possible cases be adopted where
nicaons had to be made between civilized countries hays
intermediate barbarous ungcnial lands To escape this
present dubious ocean path il is proposed to carry the
cable from the norhernmost point Of the highlands Of
Scotland to Iceland by the way Of Orkney Shetland and
Ferros sandso Ian 1t from Iceland acrcss ia tho ealss
point in Greenland thence DOWN the coast to Cape Fare
we'll where the cable would again take TO the water span
Daviss straits and make right away Labrador
Upper Canada to Quebec Here 1t would lock in with the
North American meshwork of wires, which hold them
selves out like open hand for the European grasp
The plan quite feasible for in part Of the Journey
would the cable be required to be than 900 miles
eng; and az Il seems pretty certain that sand bank en-
tends With good soandings al the way to Cane Farewell
there would be little difficulty In moorng the cable toa
level and soft bottom. The only obstacle that we see Ia
the strong Partially OF the Esquimaux for old iron and it
would perhaps be tempting them too much to hang their
coasts with the material just ready to their hands The
want Of settlements along this inospabe arctic coast to
protect the wire Is VIZ confess great drawback to thu
Schemes but we acy posts might be organized cmpsr
lively small COST considering the magnitude and import
ance of the undertaking The expense Of making and
laying the cable would not be mnch more than double
that of building the Westminster bridge across the
Thames.
Whilst England would thus grasp the West with one
hand her active children have plotted the seizure of the
Last Hiih the other IT is determined to pass cable from
Genoa to CORSICA, and from thence Sardinia trom tie
sonthernmost part Of the latter island CAPE Sparyenlp
to the Gulf OF Tuns another cable can be easily carried
The direction thence latter giving off coast branch 70
Agera Will he along the African shoyc by Tripoli 10
Alexandria, and eventually Arabia along the coasts
OF Persia and Beloochista until enters Scnds and
finally joins the wire at liyabad whcn in all probability
by that time viii have advanced ros Rurna across the
Indian peninsula, welcome il. America will shortly
carry her line Of telegraph to the Pacific obars c1 II
up the coast far San Francisco Can there be any
sonabc qoup tea, psiose e cad Of he oeatlry the
line advancing towards the West aud The other towards
the East-through China and Siberia-w gradually ap
proaeh each ether closely that short cable stretch
ed across Behring's Straits will bring the four quarters of
the globe within speaking distance Of each other and
enable the electric fire To put gre round the world in
forty minutes