The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1857-01-07

rage. Inc carQS OF INVITATION had al
ready been issued, and are in the hands
of those who must instead go to cele-
brate the bridegroem's nuptials with
death.
From the London Post, Dec. Al
The Electric Telegraph Over the
World.
Benjamin Franklin was a man of &C.
quirements in advance of his age. Stu
dious of the nature of Lightning, and
versed in the science of electricity as it
was then known, twas he whose sagacity
first detected their affinity, and who, in
1852, first applied conductors to the
protection of buildings, and his inven-
ton will be a constant safeguard to
property to the end of time. He, too,
took a prominent part in the war of in
dependence. He negotiated the treaty
of alliance between the United Prov
inces and France, which involved that
country in an American and European
war with England in 177S, and proba-
bly, led remotely to the great revolution
of 1889. He signed the treaty of peace
between the United States and Great
Britain in 1888; and, first Minister
from the new Republic to the mother
country, received from George the Third
the emphatic assurance that, as he had
been the last man in England who had
acknowledged its independence, SO also
he would be the last man to dispute it.
But Franklin died in 1890, long before
the heats incidental to that struggle
which freed his country had subsided,
and very bitter feelings prevailed be-
tween the two countries during the lat
ter years of his life. But what would
the father of electrical science have said
if he had known that there were chill
dren in the world which he was leaving
who would live to see the day that all
England rejoiced that such was the tri-
umph of science that the salute which
inaugurated the 4th of July in New
York might be, fred by English engin,
eer officers in London :?
Yet it is c EN- so. In no great num-
Der of months the galvanic wire will
connect England with the New World,
and early in 1858 the electric current
will carry a message or fire q gun acros
the Atlantic with a velocity that allows
no approciable measure of time. Won
derful as the project is, it is mere spec
ufat1on the thing has alEeady been ae-
complished. Already submarine teIe-
graphs, concentrated IN Loadon, trav-
erse St. Georges Channel to Dublin,
the North Channel to Carrickfergus, the
Straits of Dover to Calais and Ostend,
aud the North sea from Orfordness to
the Hague. Nor are other countries
behind hand-the Little Belt, the Great
Belt and the Sound are traversed by a
line to Karlserona, which connects Swe-
den with the rest of Europe. France
communicates with her Algerine Cover
nor by a line which passes from Spezzia
to Cape Corso over Corsica and Sardin.
ia to the neighborhood of Tunis, and
thence to Algiers by land. Even the
inhospitable Euxine has received the
beniicient messenger, and many an anx-
ious mind has been relieved by the tele-
graph from Balaklava to Viena; whilst
preparations are being made to eommu-
nicate in the same manner with Malta,
Constantinople, Alexandria, Alden, and
thence to Kurrachee, where it is to be
connected with the Indian system.
Inc lluG hulCu 10 W COuHCCI IA6 ICW
World with the Old is to at
Cork, and along its proposed route to
St. John's-a distance of one thousand
six hundred and eighty miles-the bot
tom of the sea is a plateau or long con
tinued bank, al discovered by Lieuten-
ant Maury in 1853, and so eminently
suited as the resting place of the sub
marine cable, that it has been called the
telegraph platform. It is of a tolerable
uniform depth, not more than has al
ready been successfully encountered du-
ring the greater part of the extent,
though deeper nearer the Irish coast
than the shores of Newfoundland, and
about two or three miles in breadth.
This bank is composed of a bed of the
most minute possible shells, so small as
to be scarcely distinguishable by the ma
ked eye, and of such adelicate and beau
tiful structure-apparently kindred to
those microscopic shells which form
some Of our chalks and marbles-as to
prove the complete stiffness of the wa
ter at hat depth. Indeed, it is well
known that the disturbance caused by
the waves, even the most violent storm,
ceases at a depth comparatively triaing.
St. Johns is two or three days nearer
England than Halifax; and now that a
dangerous reef, called the Merlia-Rnck-
at the narrow entrance to the harbor-
eighteen feet below the surface at low
water-has been skillfully and success
fully removed by the order and at the.
expense of the Company, the largest
steamer in the world can with safety pass
in and out of that land locked harbor,
which possesses abundant facilities for
coaling first class steamers. Crossing
Newfoundland TO Cape Ray, the cable
is laid down across the Gulf of St. Law
renee to Cape North, whence, travers-
ing Cape Bretan Island, is is carried to
Halifax, whence it-distributes messages
over the whole continent Of North
America.
Amongst the most remarkable events
of the age in which we live will be the
changes effected by this new agency of
INSTRUMENTATION. Rapidly as steam
has bridged the Atlantie-howeyer soon
as we may expect a still greater rapid
ty of Interchange of correspondence ari-
sing from the improved construction and,
to a certain degree, increased size of
ocean steamers-still there will some
time or other, be reached a limit to the
velocity with which these huge bodies
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