New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1857-05-05
THE TRANs-ArLANrIC rELEGRApH.


This fast age has accomplished SO much, has sur
mounted 50 many obstacles deemed insurmountable,
and achieved SO many triumphs formerly held to be
impossible as against the laws Of NATURE that it is
too late to go into transports of admiration and aston
ishment over any new wonder Of invention or enter
prise The men of the present day have supped as
full Of wonders as did Macbeth of horrors and yet.
although there is constant and increasing accumula-
ation, without hope Of intermisson end there is
not the slightest probability that any one will COM
plain Of surfeit it is an appetite that grows by
what it feeds upon.
We expect to announce to our readers in few days
the consummation of the latest, most novel, glgan-
tic and wonderful undertaking within the last dozen
years at leastte laying Of the teegraphic cable be.
tween the shores of America and European event
which, although secondary to and only a consequence
of the discovery Of the magnetic telegraph is yet the
most important phase Of that great work Of human
genius.
The successful construction of sub-aqueous cleo
trio telegraph across the English Channel from Dover
to Calais first inspired the confidence and determined
the attempt to connect Europe and America in the
same manner. Accordingly about four years ago, a
company was formed, consisting of the following
named gentlemen:
President Peter Cooper Treasrer Moses Tayler Elec
a a Cooper r'y
Be it remembered that this stupendous enterprise
conceived in this country and, if we mistake not
all the above mentioned gentlemen are citizens Of the
United States. charter was granted by the colo
NAL Government of Newfoundland, by which they
have the exclusive right of running line of telegraph
through the island and adjacent waters for term of
fifty years. That Government also appropriated the
sum Of 900, secured the interest $250O0O for
20 years, and presented fifty square miles Of land to
the enterprise to be selected by the company in any
part of the island. All this, we presume, is cond-
tonal upon the success of the enterprise. The com
pany then went to work. and during the latter part
last year succeeded in establishing Geographic
muncation between the United States and St. Johns,
on the western shore of Newfoundland.
The capital stock of the company amounted to
$75O OO0 and this has all been taken at S. 600 per
share.S Eghtyeght shares were taken in this coun-
try, and the remainder in England and Scotland. The
British and American Governments have lent their
assistance to the undertaking. furnishing vessels for
the laying Of the cable and agreeing to pay four per
cent on the capital for the use of the telegraph with
the understanding that if they should in any year
coed that at the usual tariff they pay such
excess .s
In the summer of 1858 and fall of 1856 a thorough
survey by deep soundings effected of the pro-
posed oceanic route of the line, between the eastern
shore of Newfoundland and the western shore of Ire
land, and the result demonstrated the existence of
regular plateau, with slight variations stretching
along the whole distance that neryenes between the
desired termnii. So far as known, the nature
Of this plateau is in every way favorable not only to
the laying of the WIRE but to its safety and preserva
ton when down-the water, at the great depth to
which it will be sunk, many hundred fathoms lying
in eternal calm and silence, whatever tempest may
rage above it.
The New York Herald gives the following deserip-
tion Of the great Atlantic cable:
The core conductor like that the gulf cable
cable will be thousand five hundred miles in length the
necessary emergency up the Inequalities
il the bed Of The and variations that may BY
strands Of best charcoal iron
mile Of the cable is hundred and twenty
miles and the WHOLE CABLE WILL REeUIRE THREE HUNDRED
The exbily Of this cable great that be
aroana the a@ without injury ' weight about pounds
the mile and its strength such that will bear
being entertained sinking bottom enough to
he e he % @k
engaged in sounding along the line Of the telegraph plateau 1t
which It protected will suffer corrosion decompoonin
short time after their submerson in doing The material Of
which they consist will into chemical with
mud in which the cable is embedded and will thus
Of caleareous sceous Substance ding
very best possible protection
The contamination of this project, so vast in con-
ception, and seemingly difficult of execution must
lead to the grandest results results easily figured
to the imagination than described with words and
the greatest of these will not be the immediate facl
ties afforded the operations of commerce, nor the
startling novelty of transmitting intelligence from
hemisphere to another in a moment of time. Every
great effort and triumph of genius gives birth to still
greater efforts, and it cannot be doubted that the
completion and successful operation of sixteen hun
dred miles of oceanic telegraph will finally result in
Geographic connection between the most remote
limits Of the civilized world. Who, with such pros
pect, can calculate the changes that in few years
may be produced in the commercial, political and So
cial relations of the world