Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1896-12-30
a RACE FoR a olRDLE.
The Contest Between the Overland
Telegraph and the Atlantic Cable


Telegraph and the Atlantic Cable
The race-course was between the Old
World and the New. The racers were
telegraph companies One was called
the Russian Overland" the other was
the Atlantic Cable
The track of the Russian" lay be-
tween New Westminster In British
Columbia, and Moscow In Russia Up
through the unexplored Fraser River
Valley 1t was to run, then on through
the untracked wilderness OF Alaska,
across Boring Strait, over the timber
less steppes of Arctic Siberia. and
along the dreary coast of the Okhotsk
Sea to the mouth of the Amoor. There
/ the American racers, called Western
Union. were to give over the race to
the Russian telegraph department,
| which was to make it's best time in
reaching Moscow.
/ Western Union said 1T would cover
the ground In about two years. The
cost would be about five millions Of
dollars; but what wa five millions of
4 dollars IL the prize could be woman
electric girdle of the earth?
/ The path of the Atlantic" cable
/ was to be on a tableland some two
miles deep in the ocean, reaching from
4 Ireland to Newfoundland.
The summer of 1865 found the world
watching this race with great inter
est. 1t opened when the feet of the
Russian expedition set sail from San
4 Francisco, northward bound. The
atlantic people at the same time
We're slowing away gigantic coils Of
i cable into the capacious hold of the
/ Great Eastern"-a new cable some
1000 miles long.
The Western Union directors were
shrewd business men. Five millions
of dollars was little in comparison with
the benefit they could receive could
they get telegraphic communication
with Europe, and they then believed
that the only way was by land. Tho
public agreed with them nearly unani-
mously. And so the two projects-the
overland and the submaripe-were
pitted against each other.
A very unequal race it seemed at the
outset. The Overland was strong and
vigorous. The Atlantic was broken
by former failures. The Overland was
popular, and had plenty OF money
back of 1t; the Atlantic was derided,
and 'only fools,' l. was said, would
invest in it,"
The feet of the Russian expedition
which sailed from San Francisco in
the summer of 1865 was quite a navy
There were ocean steamers, sailing
vessels, coast and river boats, and
Russian and American ships of The
line, with a promise of a vessel from
her Majesty's navy. The expedition
was well Differed, and about 40 men
were enlisted-men of superior ability
in every department. The supplies
embraced everything that could be
needed Thousands of tons of wire
some 300 miles of cable, insula tors
wagons, etc.
August 20, 1866, the Great Eastern
landed it's cable at Trinity Bay and
the whole world was electrified by
the news that 1t worked perfectly :
that the victory had been won. More
than that. The Great Eastern moi
long afterward picked up the cable los
the year before, and that, too, was
soon in working order. Two electric
girdles had been clasped around this
earth.
The success of the atlantic" was
defeat for the Russian" An overland
telegraph line could never compete
with the submarine cables. The frs
triumphant click, clickr' at Trinity
Bay was therefore the death-blow OF
the Russian scheme. and all work con
nected with that project was at oncS
abandoned.
But the workers-the brave men ia
ing famine among the wild Chook
ehees-buried In their lonely huts wait
Ing for some news from their com
rades, or straining every nerve to com
plete their share of the great work
how pathetic that so many of then
did not hear what had happened, il
some cases for more than a year aftei
the success of the cable!-Jane Marsl
| Parker In ST Nicholas