The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1866-08-01
THE ATLANTIC CABLE.

1ankee genus anu pcIeietcuce nave "oH
arm put grdle round about the earth in
forty minutes" was the promise of 'that
shrewd and knavish sprite, called Robin
Goodfellow" Science has consummated the
midsummer Nights Dream of poetic fan
cy; and the labors Of the tricksy elf have
been rivalled By the achievements of Mas
sachusetts boy. OF more profit, too, is the
work done by the latter than the fairy per
formances of the vagarish messenger of
sJealous Oberon' While this "merry
wanderer Of the night sped tower hill, over
dale: through brush, through briar; over park,
over pale through food, through fire. en-
gagged in no mightier work than changing a
pearl in every cowslip's ear" or lurking in a
gossip's bowl, our more practical and utilita-
rian Yankee perfects for us q sask that binds
continents bene6cally together, and will
prove, if its self enduring, an enduring good
to the nations.
One of the marked utilities of the !ciyihza.
ton of the present is indicated BY the rapid
ity with which scientific principles and in
ventions, once developed, are applied. 1t
were an old usage that led the ancients and
still leads many peoples to convey, by signal
6res on mountain nights and hill-tops, the
story of invasion or expulsions of victory or
defeat The flag stations and telegram Offices,
side By side, during our late war, were . COM
pendium Of history, the conjunction Of ex
tremities of times, the coRsummate posi-
bilities of the present illustrating and estab-
fishing the unapprehended prophetic possibil-
tiles ofthe past, and ofthe yet uncivilization of
to-day. The Roman Generals would spell
out dispatches, by means Of fires Of different
substances; and in recent years the march of
Fremont in the extreme West was telegram
med by the Indians in similar manner
Science has given to christendom a more eff
fective mode Of communication.
The invention of MORSE was the result Of
series of scientific experiments and discov
cries, more or less directly related, following
the discovery in 1929 of the fact that the
electric shock could be transmitted long dis
tances through conducting media with great
rapidly. In l747 DR.. WArsoS found that the
be made use of to complete the electric cir.
cult. He transmitted shocks across the
Thames and New rivers, by wires supported
on poles, as our telegraph<ines are at pres
ent, the circuit thus traversed being about
two miles Of wire and two of earth In 1894
REIzES, German, employed the electric
spark for telegraphing in q very ingenious
manner. he so arranged series of lines
and interrupted spaces upon strips of tin foil
that when these spaces were illuminated
by the electric spark, the letter or figure was
formed. In 1897 Dos SALIVA, Of Madrid,
constructed a signal telegraph twenty SIX
miles in length, and assumed the practica
bility of sending dispatches by eommunica-
ton through the sea. Then followed through.
out Europe, and this country as we'll quick
ened investigations into the availability Of
electricity as a communicating agent II
was in 1882, while coming from France,
that, engaged in conversation upon
the subject Of electricity, there flashed upon
the mind OF Prof. s. F. B. MORSE in almost
perfect outline the system Of telegr.phinp
which is henceforth indissoubly connected
with his name and his fame. 1t was not nm.
til 1887 that be was ready to make public his
system perfected in detail, and it was not IN
til 1874 that he sent his first message between
Washington and Baltimore. There was a |
reverent humility in that that first message !
was, Behold! What has God wrought -
The practicability of submarine telegrsphs
for short distances wac already established
before, in 1854 Cyrus W. FIELD formed the /
idea of thus connecting the New World with |
the Old. Born in Etockbridge, Massachus
sets, in 1919; seeking and obtaining clerk
ship in store in New York at fifteen years
OF age making himself one Of New Yorkis /
merchant princes in few years, and retiring |
from bushes; with large business sagacity
and world of Yankee drive for him to think /
OF the matter has been fos him to devote him +
self to the achievement of his purpose with /
persistence and unt,ring energy tina, after re- /
psated efforts have brought s result which pro. |
misses to be q success.
The enterprise was one which vas frausht |
with difficulties, to other than the confidence |
Of science and genius, insurmountable. By
precarious tenure it holds now to safety. I
Throughout its length the wire is given to the
uncertain keeping Of the ocean one inch Of /
breakage or defect or flaw in two thousand I
miles Of wire makes the whole line useless,
SO easily may this occur, that it seems almos,
impossible that the line should continue for
any great length of time in perfec. working
order throughout its whole extent. Blu, the
possibilities Of science are boundless; and
since the Atlantic Cable has been SO success
fully laid, We viii hope that it will continue to
work well. Thus will the commerce of the ma.
IONS anu 'hier"'' .enal smi,y be enlarged and
s'feng'neoea' nag NO continents be perma.
nen.'y oeneh'ied ~ the sagacity and indom.
i.a0'e perseverance OF one man, and he an