The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1865-03-02

vered with gutta percha, entirely un-
protected, and ten miles from shore ends
had protecting covering of iron wire.
Tho paying out was effected with great
ease, and it remained in working order
for some months till the end of the war,
when it was broken.
But a greater undertaking had been
already in contemplation. The leading
facts Of this most remarkable enterprise
are set forth in evidence taken by the
Submarine Telegraph Committee. In
1851, a Mr.. Tibbet, of New York, and a
Mr.. -0ssbome, an English engineer, de-
vised the plan of shortening the commu-
nication between America and Europe
by making st. Johns, Newfoundland, a
port of call for Atlantic steamers, and
constructing q telegraph from thence to
Join the American lines. These gentle
men obtained in 1851 an act of the Le.
gislature of Newfoundland for this pur-
pose, which act also conferred certain
exclusive privileges; but having got into
difficulties without fulfilling the terms
of the act, they induced some American
gentlemen to form a new company, called
the New York, Newfoundland and Lon
don Telegraph Company. The act Of
incorporation of this company was,
passed in 1854, and gave them, amongst
other privileges, the exclusive right for
fifty years of landing cables on the
shores of Newfoundland and Labrador,
without any conditions as to the time
within which this right was to be exer-
cised. This, exclusive right of landing
cables on the coasts of Newfound-
land and Labrador was transferred
in 1856 to the projectors of the At
lantic Telegraph Company upon the
condition that it should be exercised
before 1862. The Company obtained
from the British Government in 1856,
as we'll as from the American Govern
ment, grant of e14,00o, conditional
upon success, and pledged themselves
that the first attempt to lay the cable
should be made in 1857. 1t is believed
that the disasters of the company are
traceablo to this pledge. The cable was
hastily constructed in order to be ready
in time, and without the aid of carefully
devised experiments. The break ma
chinery was novel and cumbrous. The
whole thing was done in a hurry. The
United States ship Niagara and the
British ship Agamemnon started to-
gether with the cable from Valcntia on
the 7th o: August, 1857, with the in
tention of laying it across to Newfound~
land, in accordance with plan which
necessitated the junction of the two
sections of the cable in mid ocean as
soon as one vessel had paid out its cargo,
whatever the weather might be. After
paying out about three hundred and
thirty-fve miles, the cable broke on the
11th of August in two thousand fathoms
of water. The expedition then returned
to Plymouth.
The vessels started again from Cork
on the 18th of July, 1858, and accom-
plished the laying of the cable between
Newfoundland and Valentia on the 9th
Of August, 1858, with apparently COM
plete success. From the landing of the
cable till five days thereafter, mere indi-
cations of signals were received, although
signals were being regularly sent. On
the fifth day, strong induction coils hav-
ing been applied at Newfoundland, the
signals were easily read. The first
words were, "Please repeat power.
The Queens message to the President
occupied sixteen hours in transmitting,
which is explained by its having been
stopped in the middle during some ope-
rations in the harbor Of Valentia and
by the necessity of repeating parts over
and over again. The signals continued
to be received-sometimes better, some.
times worse. They would suddenly
show satisfactory indications for time,
then fail again; but they gradually be-
came weaker. The variations in the
strength Of the signals appeared to
be due to the effect produced by