The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1857-05-07
TEE PACIFIC
Commercial Advertiser.
THURSDAY. A Z

ONE of the greatest experiments which the
world has yet witnessed, will be tested in the
course of the present or succeeding month-that
of uniting the eastern and western henispheres
with a Geographic cable, by which communica-
tions can be simultaneously conveyed from one
to the other shore. The last advices from Lon
don report that 1000 miles of the submarine
cable were finished and ready to lay down. The
entire length required is 5000 miles of cable,
which has no doubt been completed ere this.
This enterprise has been undertaken by a COM
pany organized in England with a capital of
S1,700, 900, The British Government offers the
company about $40, 900 annually for several
years, for official use Of the line, with the condi-
ton that it shall have priority in all messages;
unless in case the American government shall do
as much, (Which the latter has done,) and these
two nations are to take precedence Of all others,
but each in the order Of application.
Cur readers have no doubt already seen some
accounts of the survey Of the route Of the ocean
through which the cable is to be laid. It is to
be laid between Newfoundland and Ireland, which
is the narrowest part Of the Atlantic. Nature
has done her part toward this great enterprise.
Repeated explorations, the first conducted by
LISIlJSndnG Hl6uLys u Ss NJ d1Io 1HLGSIly
that made by the steamer Arctic, have shown
that from Newfoundland to Ireland there stretches
across the oceans bottom an elevated plateau, or
table-land, which presents a uniform soft or mud
surface, and the greatest depth of which, occur
ring at Is miles from the middle, is only 1920
feet, or a little over two miles. Not only is this
plateau thus elevated, but it seems also to mark
the line of still Uater across the Atlantic; and it
is thus doubly indicated as the true site for the
present enterprise. Here the Gulf Stream from
the south and the arctic currents from the north
seem to meet and very nearly counterbalance each
other; a fact that doubtless has had much to do
with the building up of the plateau in the first in
stance.
At the middle of this ocean ridge, some time
this summer, it is expected that two vessels will
meet, and, sailing away to either shore, will reel
off, as they 90, a cable of twisted copper wires,
surrounded by others, of iron, the single strands
of which would make a length of 500 900 miles.
When they reach the respective shores, if they do
so without accident, the cable will be laid: and
although only an inch and a quarter in thickness
near land, and three quarters Of an inch thick in
mid-ocean, yet its whole weight is to be such as
to part the stoutest cable, in case of its ever being
caught by a ships anchor; and SO it is safe from
annoyance, at least from this source.
As this Atlantic Ocean telegraph is now a fixed
fact, a few details as to its working arrangements
NAV not come amiss. There are still many peo-
pie SO unthinking as to inquire what is the prac-
teal use of telegraph across the Atlantic ferry;
and others of a practical turn of mind, ask how
much will it cost for messages. In the first place,