Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1892-11-17
SUBMARINE CABLES.
Their Manufacture and the ships from
which they Are Laid.


The manufacture Of submarine cables
has until quite lately never reached a
large scale in any country except England:
Some years ago Alessrs. Pirelli established
factories at Spezzia and Milan, Italy, for
the purpose Of engaging In the manu-
facture of submarine cables, and with
the assistance Of the Italian Government
they have laid few short cables in the
Mediterranean, but they have never had
an opportunity of carrying out any really
important cable-laying work. When, IN
1859, the French Government insisted on
assuming control of the telephone, and
bought out the Paris Telephone Com
pany, the la:ter, which had already
begun to dabble in submarine telegraph
ENTERPRISES, decided TO invest its capital
In submarine cable factory. Work on
this was begun in 1860, and last summer
full fedged submarine cable factory
was inaugurated ut Calais. The company
has orders for considerable amount OF
cable, and expects in future to do all the
work that the French Government may
require. In America, although sub
marine cables of great excellence have
been made for many years by such firms
as the Bishop Gutta Percha Company
and A. G. Day, these have only been in
comparatively short lengths, for river and
harbor crossings. To the Bishop Gutta
Percha Company, believe, belongs the
honor of being the only American manu-
facturer that has ever shipped a subma-
rine cable abroad.
A word or two is now in place about
the ships from which cables are laid and
| ~ kses.
was the only vessel atloat that could ship
the entire Atlantic cable. She took it all
on board with ease, and could have
managed another had it been necessary.
The capacity of the Great Eastern, which
magnificent failure, by the way, was
lately disposed of for old metal, was 90
900 tons. To-day there are three or four
completely equipped telegraph steamers
| of about one-quarter the tonnage OF the
| disintegrated leviathan which are easily
capable of laying an Atlantic cable in
single voyage. The fleet of cable ships
to-day numbers about forty vessels,
ranging in size from few hundred tons
up to five thousand. The majority of
| these electro mechanical crafts are re-
pairing ships belonging to the various
telegraph companies and government add
| ministrations which own submarine
cables. These repairing ships are sta
toned at points of vantage along the
| great lines of cable communication,
ready to steam off at moments notice
| to the locality of any fault or break that
may occur The construction companies
| own between them some ten or twelve
ships, most of them large vessels Of
several thousand tons burden with one or
two smaller and more nimble steamers
that do useful service in surveying, as
consorts for their more bulky sister ships,
and for laying short cables.
The two largest ships, the Silvertown
and the Faraday, were both designed for
cable-laying purposes. The first named
vessel is provided with most enormous
tanks, measuring tifty-three feet in
diameter by thirty feet deep. She has Il
larger carrying capacity than any other
telegraph steamer afoat. On one ex-
petition she sailed from the Thames with
nearly 2,400 miles of cable, weighing
A, $50 tons, and a considerable quantity
of coal, of which very necessary com
modify she has accommodation for up
ward of 2, 300 tons. The large tanks of
the Silvertown enable her to pay out
cable at very high rate of speed, such
huge coils unwinding very readily. The
Faraday was designed by the late Sir
William Siemcns especially for submarine
cable laying. She was built the same
fore and aft, and is provided with a
rudder at the stem as well as at the
stern; it was thought that this arrange
ment would greatly facilitate maneuver-
| ing when the ship was engaged in some
of the more delicate operations incident
to cable laying that require very careful
handling of the vessel, but as matter OF
fact the peculiar build of the Faraday
has not been found of any particular
benefit in this respect. Electricity.