The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1892-03-12

conditions which cannot be fOreSeen and
cannot be controlled. A foggy day with
the Faraday in commission means an abso-
lutte expenditure ofS1200 and week of fog
gy days will bring this up nearly to $4,000,
both from the fact that observations can
not be taken in bad weather, and from the
fact also that successful graphing cannot
be conducted when the surface of the ocean
is disturbed unduly by storms clear, bright
weather is almost absolutely essential to the
prosecution of repairs.
FINDING AND REPAIRING THE ORIGINAL.
FIELD CABLE.
The finding and repairing of the original
Field cable is probably the most remarkable
triumph in the annals of the science of
navigation. When that first Field cable
was laid nobody knew as much about cable
laying as they have since found out and
no particular or especial pains were taken
to record the exact course of the steamer
and consequently the location of the cable.
1t parted in mid-ocean and for five years
no attempt was ever made to do anything
with it. At the end of that time and after
second and more successful cable had
been laid, the Faraday steamed out on the
trackless ocean to pick that cable up, did
pick it up, spliced it and finished success
fully the job of laying it. Here certainly
the difficulties in the way seemed over
whelming. The only thing the searchers
had to guide them in their search was the
log of the steamship Great Eastern, which
made known the course of the vessel GER
tainly, but not with the extreme accuracy
which was in such Il case every way desl-
rable. More than that, the cable had lain
at the bottom Of the ocean for five years.
and probably the graphing irons passed
over it number of times before they
finally grappled it. When it was got hold
of it was incrusted with all manner Of
ocean growths, and Cyrus w. Field is said
to have piece of it about yard long
covered with coral When this successful
achievement is considered, the work of
finding and repairing cable, where the
break is known to be certain number of
miles from the land and the original course
Of cable is a matter of accurate knowledge.
dwindIes into comparative insignifeance,
WHAT \ CABLE LOOKS LIKE.
1t is not generally known that an ocean
cable varies in size and that what are called
the short ends of the cable are very much
larger than the deep-sea section. AS mat
ter of fact it is made up of three different
sizes, which are graduated to each other
and spliced The diameter of the shore
end of the cable is almost as great as The
diameter of small tea-cup. This cable
weighs as much as twelve tons to the mile
It will be seen, therefore, that if the entire
length of cable were so heavy as this, the
expense would not only be enormous, but
no one steamer would be able to do the
cable laying. They woald have to go back
to the time of the laying of the first cable,
when two steamers were foInd necessary
for the service. The intermediate section
has diameter about equal to the diameter
of silver dollar and weighs, perhaps, as
much as the shore end The deep-sea Sec
ton is about the size of j0-cent piece, or,
perhaps, smaller. \ great many of the
cables which used to be extended from pole
W pun uluuld bbNh hlN ihuNAA tAldh
these cables lying at the bottom of the sea
This mid-ocean section is, Of course, the
longest of the lot; so that one vessel of
good tonnage has no difficulty in carrying
cable enough to string from Ireland over
to Nova Scotia. The Faraday, which will
lay the two new Western Union cables
from Nova Scotia down t. Manhattan
Beach, will carry both these cables, and as
the distance is $40 miles this means 1850
miles Of cable.
Any one who wants to get an accurate
idea of exactly how these ocean cables look
can easily do so by visiting any of the cable
Offices in town, and he will find sections of
the cable lying around on desks for use as pa
and in some of the offices he
will find specimens neatly framed and hung
on the wall He will not only see trans
verse sections the sizes of half-dollars,
whole dollars and teacups, but will see also
short lengths of the cable with the outer
covering stripped off, disclosing the twist
ing and Intervening of the sixteen or
eighteen wires that 90 to make up the cable
itself On the cable steamers these cables
are coiled up in so-called tanks, each tank
length OF either one or the
other of the different sizes of cables.
GUARDING AGAINST INTERRUPTION OF
LAND.
Although cable breaks are not at all in
frequent, they do not come nearly so often
as breaks in the land lines, which are, Of
course, in constant process Of repair
the March blizzard and such
storms as we have had recently the cables,
protected by thousands and thousands Of
tons Of water, passed unharmed, while the
poles ON land were stripped of their wires,
and in many cases the poles toppled earth
ward. The present break in the pool ca
bles is. the first serious break in couple of
years, and the Commercial Cable Company
has been fortunate for an equal period OF
time. 1t is because the cable pool had
been dependent on land lines from Nova
Scotia to New York, and it found out that
thep are not so reliable as ocean cables, that
the Western Union people have agreed lay
the two new cables already referred to from
Nova Scotia to New York. More rapid
work is possible over the land lines, but the
cables can be depended on for more steady
work, and that is what tells in the end.
During the March blizzard and at various
other times when the land wires have been
with by storms, the Commercial
Cable people, with cable to Manhattan
Beach, have been able to maintain uninter-
rupted communication with the other side.
aud in consequence got cable business at
these times which would otherwise have
gone to the cable pool Possibly when the
cable pool resumed business all of that
patronage did not return to it, as it is the
habit of all kinds of patronage to stick IA
little in new channel when il has once
,een diverted, and it is Cor this reason that
he cable pool has arranged for direct COM
nunication with New York and is building
he two cables mentioned, and cheerfully
akin0 the chances of course of an addi-