Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1879-02-26
CABLE CELEBRATION.
Silver Jubilee of Submarine Telegraphy.
New York Herald.

On the 10th OF March next MIR. Cyrus
w. Field will give a grand dinner party
IN celebration of the twenty-fifth ami
versary of the formation of the com
pany, by New York merchants, to es-
| tabllsh Geographic communication
across the Atlantic ocean. Invitations
for this most interesting jubilee, hand
somely engraved on beautiful cards,
have been sent to distinguished people
In all parts of the world. The festival
Gramercy Park. Fer. b.
We are SO familiar with the use OF
the telegraph across the ocean that we
are apt to forget how recent thing it
Is and that the Originators of the great
enterprise are still among us. lis only
| a quarter of a century since the project
was first conceived The 10Th OF March,
1884, is the date of It's birth, and so of
the birth of deep-sea telegraphy. On
that day was signed the agreement to
organize the New York, Newfound-
land and London Telegraph Company"
(if certain privileges could be obtained
from Newfoundland), the object of
which was stated in the very first
sentence of his charter to be ''to estab-
lish a line Of telegraphic communica-
ton between America and Europe by
way of Newfoundland" The company
was formed in private house-that of
Mr.. Cyrus w. Field-and composed
of but five individuals; Peter Cooper,
Moses Taylor, Cyrus w. Field, Mar
shall o. Roberts and Chandler White.
Mr.. David Dudley Field was present as
the legal adviser Of the company, and
went with his brother and Mr.. White
to st. Johns to obtain the charter. Mr.
White soon after died. and was succeed
ed by Mr.. Wilson G. Hunt. These five
gentlemen are all still living, to see the
great results Of the experiment then
first made to carry the telegraph across
the ocean. Small attempts had been
made IN Europe to transmit messages
under water-first across the kiver
Rhine, but half a mile wide, and next
across the British Channel The first
attempt to unite England and France
was made in 1850. A copper wire COW
cred with gutta percha, was laid down
between Dover and Calais, about TWEEN
ty-one miles, but communication was
Kept up but for very brief period. The
next year it was replaced by a cable of
four wires, which is still perfect. A
few other sea cables were laid, but only
in shallow water, and for short distan-
ces- the, longest, chat to Holland, being
but 40 miles, and in water only a few
fathoms deep. This American COM
pany was the first who proposed to span
the ocean. AS soon as the line had
been completed to Newfoundland, Mr..
Cyrus w. Field went to London, and
there, in 1856, organized the Atlantic
Telegraph company.
Its first attempt was made in 1857, but
the ships had sailed but little over
800 miles from the coast ofIreland when
the cable broke and the expedition
returned. The next year 1883 the at
tempt was renewed in a different man
ner. The American and English ships
Of war, the Niagara and Agamemnon,
called for the middle of the Atlantic,
where they were to join cables, and sail
east and west to carry the two ends to
their respective shores. But before
they.sreached mid-ocean storm arose,
and the Agamemnon had a narrow es-
cape fro:n foundering; and when at
last the cable was joined it was broken
several times in the attempt to lay 1t,
and the expedition returned to ENGLAND
almost in despair. sas
| One more effort. however, was made
that summer, and with success. The
cable was stretched from shore to shore
and messages passed between Europe
and America. But communication
continued only. three weeks, nor was it
re-established till eight years later lin
1869, after. two new cables had been
manufactured Zone of which, after
being paid out 1000 miles in 1866, was
broken in mid-ocean and fshed up the
year, after and carried to the shore OF
NEWFOUNDLAND, mainly by the exer-
tons of the same interchangeable spirit
which had originated the project and
urged it forward in spite Of all obstaclas
for twelve years. t
But the success of that first Atlantic
telegraph in 1858, brief though it was,
had demonstrated the possibility of
crossing the ocean, and so led the way
| for all after triumphs in deep-sea
telegraphy. It had proved that cable
over 1000 miles long could be laid in
water over two miles deep. After that
nothing seemed impossible. Cables
were laid in, the. Mediterranean, in the
Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, and
thence across the Arabian Sea to India,
and across the Bay of Bengal to Bur-
NAH, and down the Malayan Peninsula
to Penang and Singapose,o and pthe
Eastern coast of Asia to China. and
across to Japan, while southwark lines
were carried to Java and across that
island and the surrounding seas to
Australia and to New Zealand. In this
Western Hemisphere cables were laid
to Cuba and the other West India
| Islands, and down the coast of South
America to Brazil and the Argentine
| Confederation.
Thus, within quarter of a century,
submarine telegraphs have been carried
across almost all the seas and oceans OF
the globe Except the broad Pacific,
which yet remains to be cOnquered),
bringing into close communication all
parts Of the civilized world. Many who
bore an honorable part in these great