The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1857-04-20

Tie conner wire which ~ represented by the wh,o
space in the end SECTION was insulated by means of
hempen strand hich projected from The action of
by coating OF tar, pitch and india rubber About
two miles Of this wound reel placed in small
row boat, and with at the cars and Professor
Morse Al the stern the work Of paying out the cable
commenced II was beautiful moonlight night, and taose
who had prolonged their evening rambles the Battery
wondered as they gszed at the proceedings the boa
what kind "a fishing the could be- engaged in tia
required so hong hne. In somewhat than hours
On that evenal evening Of the 18th Of October 1872 he
cable" Was laid Professor Morse returned to his home
and waited with some anxiety the time when be should
be able 10 test the experiment fully and fairly. The
following morning at daybreak he on the Battery,
and had Just established rs success by the transmission
three or four characters between the termni Of the line,
when the communication suddenly interrupted, and
found impossible 10 send any messages through the
conductor The cause Of this explained by his OBJ
serving less than seven vessels lying along line Of
the submerged cable, Of which, in getting under way,
had raised on her anchor The sailors unable to divine
It's meaning, haued in about two hundred feet of it
deck and finding end cut off that portion, and carried
ii away with them. Thus ended the first attempt at sub
marine teiegraphng Then small boat was employed in
The operation, but such has been tire progress in fifteen
years that the prediction of Professor Morse is the
vessels employed in the great work of uniting two worlds
by telegraph line stretched the bed Of the Atlantic
ocesp and connecting points which between sixteen
and seventeen hundred miles distant from each other
In 1914 he another letter the Secretary Of the
Treasury In which he refers TO his experiment at Castle
Garden, and speaks Of mode Of teegraphng
rivers other bodies Of water without wires The follow
ing extract from his letter is peculiarly interesting this
time
In the autumn Of 1872 at the request Of the American
Institute, undertook 70 give 10 the people in New York
demonstration of the praccabhty Of my telegraph by
connecting Governors Island with Castle Garden dis
taDce o mle and for this purpose laid my wires pro-
pery insulated beneath the had scarcely begun
to operate and had received but three characters
when my intentions frustrated by the accidental de-
sruction Of part of my conductors by vessel which
drew them up her anchor and them OFT In the mo-
nents Of identification Immediately devised a plan for
avoiding such accident in future by arranging my
wires along the banks 81 the river 10 water
Itself 10 coHduct die electricity across The ex-
pertinent, however, deferred till I arrived in
Washington, and December l6, 1892 tested nv
arrangement the canal and with success The sim
PIE fact was ascertapsd TINT electricity could be
cross river without 0iher conductors than the water
SELF but not TIL the last autumn that had the lei
sure 70 make series of experiments
Of Us passage The following diagram viii
plain The experiment.