New-York tribune., 1867-03-06
OCEAN TELEGRAPHS.
LETTER FROM PETER COOPER.

To ck Editor or The 1fIotae
SIR regret to have read an editorial in your issue
of Friday the 1st inst. upon A new Atlantic Iele-
graph Company which not only does great injustice
to the proprietors Of ''the existing Atlantic Cable
but it is calculated TO mslcad the public and excite
prejudice against their proprietors.
I am reluctant to believe you intended TO do an In
Justice, or knowingly iinfict an undeserved injury
As one of those proprietors, allow me to say that
they have NOT ATTEMPTED to thwart the plans TO get
anew line lines from the United States to France"
aoT to prevent the passage of bill Incorporating
"new Atlantic Telegraph Company" nor Z" to hurry
thor bill cup in the House, All they have done,
or proposed to do was to ask tho Legislature not 10
deJar them for 20 years from the right eiertendng their
cables TO- and landing them upon, the shores Of New
York :" and when this request was made tswas found
that,the Committee of the House, actuated by its
own sense of justice, had so amended the proposed
bill as to protect them in that right; and as 80
amended had ordered it to be reported. If this pro-
ceeding of the Committee and ouIselves'was wrong.
they and ourselves are open to your censTe and we
(as we presume is tho COmmitteo arc willing 70 sub
nit to the Judgment OF the public tho propriety oil
our acts.
The "proprietors Of existing lines" have not
thought Of the Russian Cable people," and the an
nsuncement of the suspension of their work was
seen with as much surprise by them by yourselves.
These proprietOrs have cause TO regret, moro than
Yourselves such suspension, as had every reason
10 believe that the Russian Overland Telegraph
would have been an essential and prOntaDle Ieeuer
to the "existing Atlantic cables"
Tho apprehension that because the existing ca
bles have their terrnni on British territory VIII
necessarily be under the control OF the british COY
ment and the messages on them be subject to the
''gecret inspection of that Government, s as ground
less rs unjust but, if they would be none tho less
snbiect 60 such control and inspection If one Of their
pi IA fba of Npw-NOYl the
is that all tho lines leading to and from the cables
at Hearts Content are under the direction and con-
tro of citizens of the United States, while the neu
traty of these cables and the free transmission OF
all messages them, assured by all the Govern
ments of Europe and by that of the United states.
No secret inspection would avail the InguSh 10Y
eminent as these messages can be and are sent IN
cipher known only to the Governments themselves
The English Government could no more interfere
with these messages than could the Government or
the UnitedStates of France, or any other ms was
so apparent to Congress that the entertaining ana
effective speech" you refer to had no other result
than 10 convince Congress- of'the bitter hostility OF
tho speaker to the English Government and to the
prosecution OF the enterprise.
All now know how the Gable was grappied ana
raised from the deepest bed of mid-Ocean, IN 1906
and none doubt that II could be so raised again
How easy therefore would il be, should the English
Government, in violation of its pledges, seek to to
destroy their neutrality, interrupt the toe passage
Of messages. and appropriate them to ls own USE TO
again raise them and, by severing destroy forever
their usefulness to all As this could be done With
whether laid direct from the United States TO France
or 10 any other country. Why then seek to prelu-
dice the propietors OF these Gables by anblng ine
cmbcrs bitterness and strife left by the Rebellion
and the Trent affair.
II isnow moro than thirteen years since an ocean
telegraph WAS suggested and. its work begun ~ my
self and associates. But few fOIAd willing to
embark IN the enterprise: learned men pronounced
the scheme Wild and visionary. and, rs with the
case Of the Sirius IN ocean steam navigation, demon
sratcd Theoretically first that cable could not be
successfully submerged across the ocean; then that
n submerged, the electric current could not pc sont
through its great leIsG then that " ~ Could Dc so
.cnt the transmission would be- so slow aS 90 bo
of no practical us: then, that such se Coulu not De
COMMUNICATION thrrc months without burning throu gh
and DESTROYING the insulation Notwithstanding al
which and undeterr'd by repeated failures. the
proprictor. continued to pcrScycTc, and alter an
expenditure oi over SIH"pWp, sloois,uiJ , iu "a ~
caAlgs Though both u which the electric current ~
Transmitted with % apidity and dlHpatch lmit,d
only by the capacity 81 the human eye 10 ioilO~ te
signals and oi human iinHcrS TO manipulate inc IN
strumcnts Instead of being DESTROYED, the cable
improves with are. and now, after eIght months OF
constant use 10 has becn shown that battery hclh
by single yslet cap is sufficient to transmit tue
e..ltrc spark lfom end 70 end A..
instead of the transmission being slow, these two
cables have been shown capable oi TJl5inutmg
twenty times The business offered and done ana
will dOlbti,s ho sufficient 20 transmit all tLat may
Oiirr foI years 10 come.
Yonr npprrhcn ion o. being cleft TO the tender
mrrrics Ut tho existing Companies is'gr0undca, rs
pr-scn hy no f,ct tiiat.n1t outstanding tho At
lanGc Company myself and associates who began
and pcr-oyrIcd in the work. have. - yct received
NO dividends our stock the rate, !!ayc been ro-
duccd onc.halt: are now proposed 10 hc further TO.
duced another one-half and viii doubtless continue
T. be- reduced unli Che use of these cables shall be
put within ,hc reach of alt and they thereby become
mc,.,necfs bcaling knowledge aud rcli yiun oil man
Throughout the world.
zOur wof. il not set done. Further explanations ~
myself and associates arc beng made To bIinR
thc-A cable, to the United States and 90 submit
whether that work should now be arrested by an
act OF the Legislature excluding III for twenty years
90. fIlfIt tft
II tLO,, seeking "a Albany the incorporation OF
new Atlantic Company desire, they can obtain To-
day the control OF the tID cables and lines 10 the
United Statea by purchasing controlling interest
la the stock Of existing companies. at rates which
would give them the entire stock for lcss money than
thoy would be required to cNpcnd, IN constructing
and Inting the tao cable, now laid am. yours
respectfully. PETER CooFhE'
Aer York, sfarch Z. i}6I.