Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1896-11-26
A RACE FOR A GIRDLE.
Contest Between the Overland Telegraph
and the Atlantic Cable.

and the Atlantic Cable.
The race course was between the Old
world and the New. The racers We're
telegraph companies. One was called the
Russian Overland" the other the AT
lantic Cable
The track of the Russian" lay be-
tween New Westminster in British Co
lumbia and Moscow in Russia. Up
through the UNEMPLOYED Fraser River wax
ley it was to run, then on through the
untracked wilderness of Alaska. acIoss
Behring strait, over the timberlesS steppes
of Arctic Siberia, and along the dreary
coast of the Okhotsk sea to the mouth
of the AMOR: There the American rae
ers, called Western Union. We're to
give over the race to the Russian tele
graph department, which was to make
it's best time in reaching Moscow
Western Union said it would cover the
ground in about two years. The cost
would be about $5,OOO,OO0: but what was
S5.O00.0 600 if the prize could he woman
electric girdle for the earth?
The path of the Atlantic cable was
to be on tableland some two miles deep
in the ocean. reaching from Ireland to
Newfoundland.
The summer of 1865 found the world
watching this race with great interest.
1t opened when the fleet of the Russian
expedition set sail from San Francisco.
northward bound. The "Atlantic' people
at the same time were slowing away gil
gantic coils of cable into the capaciouS
hold of the Great Eastern--a new cable
some 1000 miles long.
The Western Union directors were
shgewd business men. Five millions OF
dollars was little in comparison with the
benefit they would receive could they get
telegraphic communication with Europe.
and they then believed that the only way
was by land. The public agreed with
them nearly unanimously. And so the
two projects-the overland and the sub
marine-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
it; the Atlantic was derided, and "only
fools" it was said, would invest in it.
The fleet of the Russian expedition
which sailed from San Francisco in the
summer of 1865 was quite navy. There
were ocean steamers, sailing vessels.
coast and river boats and Russian and
American ships of the line, with a prom
Use. of vessel from her majesty's navy.
The expedition was well differed. and
about 100 men were enlisted-mcn of
superior ability in every department.
The supplies embraced everything that
could be needed. Thousands Of tons of
wire. some 300 miles of cable, insulators.
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 it worked perfectly-that the vie
tory had been won. More than that
The Great Eastern not long afterward
picked up the cable lost the year before,
and that. too, was in working order
Two electric girdles had been clasped
around the earth.
The success of the Atlantic was
defeat for the Russian" An overland
telegraph line could never compete with
the submarine cables. The first triumph
ant "click. click" at Trinity bay was.
therefore. the deathblow of the Russian
scheme, and all work connected with
that project was at once abandoned.
But the workers-the brave men fac
ing famine among the wild Chookchees.-
buried in their lonely huts waiting for
some news from their comrades. or
straining every nerve to complete their
share of the great work-how pathetic
that so many of them did not hear what
had happened in some cases for more
than a year after the success OF the
"a bile ST Nicholas