The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-06-04
HOW THE CABLES COME.
ROUTE TAKEN BY MESSAGES
FROM TEE PHILIPPINES.
Wires Which Convey the Electric
Fluid Under the Sea From Havana
As Well As Manila.

IL IS probable that not one person in
80 who read their morning papers OF
the movements of the American fleets
in foreign waters, or crowd around in
the streets summing up the informa-
ton in the various bulletins realizes the
enterprise of the newspapers in gather
ing the news everybody is so impatient
to hear, or stops to think of the great
expense involved. There are but few,
indeed, who take time to consider that
dispatches from Admiral Dewey
squadron in the Philippines have to
travel close to 5000 miles to get to
Chicago, and that they cost more than
81 word. They do not consider that
getting news from SIMPSONS fleet in
wolves the employment Of numerous
swift dispatch boats and the payment
of cable tolls that are little less than
bankrupting. News that comes over
the cables comes exceedingly high. but
the people demand il, and the news
papers have to pay for it.
A news dispatch concerning Commo-
dore DeWey'S action in Manila bay fol-
lows an interesting course in getting
TO Chicago. It has to be laid and re-
laid and repeated from one cable office
to another. It comes across oceans.
seas, CULTS, bays. straits. mountains,
plans and valleys. AS a matter of fact,
il comes over II stretches of cable.
having a total length of 13,411 miles,
and four lines of overland telegraph of
about 1880 miles. the total distance
travelled by a news dispatch from Ma
Mia to Chicago, therefore, is more than
5000 miles. And yet it comes all that
distance frequently in less than an
hour When Deweys fleet lined up for
battle with the Spanish squadron be-
fore Manila the fact was known in
American cities 35 minutes later. 1t
took Time II hours to make the run.
9 g 9
The cable between Manila and Hong
kong was laid in 1880. 1t is 629 miles
long.
From Hongkong to Chicago a news
dispatch has an interesting and some
what roundabout trip. 1t is first put
on a cable 400 miles long and sent down
the China Sea to the cable station at
Saigon, in Cochin China. AS "Charley's
Aunt would say, that's where the
ROSTERS come from. From Saigon an
other cable, $50 miles long, conveys the
message farther down the China Sea,
and Just. outside the Gulf of Siam, to
Singapore, a British possession, down
at the end of the Malay peninsula, in
the Straits of Malacca The message
may be sent, however. across the China
Sea from Saigon to the Island of Lo-
buan, Borneo, and then to Singapore.
From there it runs on a cable up the
Straits of Malacca to the little island of
Penang, off the western coast of Siam,
the distance being 3S8 miles. At Pc
nang the message is repeated on cable
that crosses the Bay of Bengal, 1,4sS
miles to Madras, on the east coast Of
Hindustan.
At Madras the message comes above
the surface of the water, the first time
after leaving the island of Luzon and
starts on it's first ride on an overland
telegraph line. The next stopping place
is at Bombay, on the other side OF
the Hindustan peninsula, the distance
from Madras being a little more than
500 miles.
At Bombay the dispatch is relaid on
a cable, and gets under water again
to be sent $50 miles across the Arabian
Sea TO Alden, on the Gulf of Alden, down
at the bottom of the Red Sea. From
Alden to Suez, at the north end of the
Red Sea, is another cable ], 403 miles
long. At Suez the message comes out
of water again, and is sent by overland
wires about 200 miles to Alexandria, IN
Egypt and down at the southeastern
corner OF the Mediterrane Sea. 1t
requires two cable jumps to go from
one end of the Mediterranea to the
other, the midway station being on
the island of Malta The length of the
cable from Alexandria to Malta is 913
miles, and the one from there to the
station at Gibraltar is LIPS miles. From
Gibraltar comparatively short cable,
one only 337 miles long, carries the mes
sage up to Carcavellos, near Lisbon, the
Portuguese capital. The trip from Lis
bon. I'D to England is made on an S55-
mile ocean cable, the northern end OF
W hich runs to Porthcurno, the cable
station at Lands End.
@ o. @
Between America and Europe are IL
cables, connecting the English, Irish
and French stations with those on this
side. The message from Manila, on
reaching Lands End, may be sent to
America over almost any one of these.
The Commercial Gable company, which
handles the TimeS-He rald's cable mes
sages, sends them overland from
Lands End to London and back to a
station on the west coast of England.
there to be relaid across the channel to
Waterville or the south coast of Ire
land. The cable from Waterville to
America touches at .Canso, Nova SEQ
tia, and from that point the MESA ges
come down the Atlantic coast cable to
New York. There the Manila dispatch
ends its journey by sea, and is flashed
into the Times Herald office over a
special leased wire.
Not all of the cables come across the
Atlantic by the route described. Some
of them are sent direct from Sermon
Cove, near Lands End to Dover Bay,
~ CT