The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-07-30
Previous Attempts 20 Lay the Gable.

The first attempt to stretch telegraphic wire
across the bed OF the Atlantic was made in the
summer of 1867. The cable was coiled half on
board the United States steamship Niagara,
and half on the British steamer Aqdme,nnOn.
They began to lay 1t in mid-ocean on the 26th
of June, the Niagara proceeding towards the
American coast, the Agdplemnon towards Ire
land. After the wire had three times broken,
the attempt was given up. The following
August II was renewed on a different plan. Toe
shore end was made fast at Valencia Bay, and
the Niagara began paying out on the 7th, the
purpose being that the AgdmenlnOn should
begin operations when the Niagara had eX-
hausted her half OF the cable. On the llth,
after 335 mile had been laid, the wire broke
again. The third attempt was made with the
same vessels in 1858. The ends of the cable
were Joined in mid.ocean on the 29th OF July,
and on the 9th of August the two ships arrived
simultaneously at their respective destinations.
For few days 1t was possible to talk across the
ocean. Mr.. Buchanan and Queen Victoria eX
changed friendly greetings, the people went
wild with reioicngs; the mysterious De Sauty
issued his brief bulletins; then the electric cur
rent grew weak and uncertain; a few faint
quiverings were felt, and all was still. Some
unknown cause at the bottom of the sea had
destroyed the insulation, and the wire was
useless.
But Mr.. Cyrus W. Field, who had fathered all
these enterprises, was not man easily daunted.
He had proved that cable could be laid between
G1eat Britain and America, and he believed that
it was possible to make one which would work
when it was laid. Certain defects in the paying
out machinery, anG the more serious faults in
the construction OF the cable itself, were avoided
the next time and on the 2lst OF July, 1855, he
sailed again from Valencia bay, paying out the
costly rope over the stern OF the Great Eastern.
We all remember how an accident to the ma
Chinerv caused the loss of the cable when the
voyage was more than half over; how they
grappled it three times, In % miles Of water, out
had no rope strong enough to lit it on board
and how the enterprise was then abandoned for
the year.
Every repeated attempt has been preceded by
great improvements in the manufacture of the
cable, the appliances for laying IL, and the in
struments Tor signalling. The first undertaking
was but a crude affair in comparison with that
OF 1866. The cable, in 1858, had a breaking
strain OF little over three tons or was capable
OF bearing five miles of its own length in water.
| The present one will bear a strain of eight tons,
! or twelve miles OF Its own length in water.
| Then, slight defect of insulation was fatal;
| now, so wonderfully have telegraphic instru-
ments been improved that 1t is easy to work
| through a submarine cable with a foot Of its
| copper conductors stripped bare to the water.
But our means for flashing intelligence
| between the two hemispheres will not be
| limited to this Atlantic cable. There is NO
! doubt that the magnetic wire which now unites
| the opposite coasts OF our own continent will
| soon stretch through the wilderness of the
| remote northwest, crossing Behring Strait and
place us in communication vita Eastern Europe
| through the Russian territories of Asia. A line
| perhaps from behring Strait through China
| will connect u at Calcutta with the great Indo
| European line: and so the unconscious prophecy
| OF Shakspere will be fulfilled, and eirdle be
| put around the earth in less than forty minutes
| Many man already old will live to see the day
when those who questioned the fec ,lbllity OF an
| Atlantic telegraph will be classed With the igno
| rant people who abused John Watt for WASTING
his time over tea-kettle, and the complacen
| savant who proved, not a generation ago, tina
no steamship could ever cross the ocean.