Evening star., 1899-03-06
A TRANSPACHiC CABLE
Obstacles Which Have Only Recently Been
Taken Away.
Landing Places Now Provided for tn,
Wire. From San Francisco to
the A -'s.'a Coast.

The submarine telegraphs of the world,
and especially the practicabihty of sub
marine telegraph across the Pacific, are
discussed at considerable length in the jan
uary number of the Summary of Com
merce and Finance, just issued by the Treas
ury bureau of statistics. The statement
shows that the submarine telegraphs of
the world number 1,500 Their aggregate
length Is 10000 miles; their total cost is
estimated at s25OOOO,000, and the number
of messages annually transmitted over
them 5000, 900.
Adding to the submarine lines the land
telegraph systems the total length of tele-
graph lines of the world is $4,000 miles;
the length of their single wires or con-
ductors 3JOIO0O miles, and the total num-
Der of messages annually sent over them,
365 100000, or an average of 100000 each
day OF the 10000 miles of submarine
telegraphs about 10000 belong to the
thirty-five companies operating the COM
mercial cables, which number about 800; the
remainder are mostly short lines controlled
by governments, and connecting forts. bat
teries, signal stations, light houses, etc,
| the aggregate of government lines being
| about $50 and their total length about
| 10000 miles. In addition to this, the gov
| ernments of the world hold about 10000
miles of cable in stock for purposes,
ready to be laid at a. moments notice.
| Every body of water lying between the
| Inhabited portions of the earth, with the
single exception of the Pacific ocean, has
been crossed and recrossed by submarine
telegraph lines. Even that vast expanSe
| of water has been invaded along its
GIN submarine wires stretching along it's
western border from Siberia to Australia,
while it's eastern borders skirted with
| lines which stretch along the western coasts
of the two Americas. Several adventurous
pioneers in Pacific telegraphy have ven
tured to considerable distances and depths
| in that great ocean, one cable line running
| from Australia to New Zealand distance
| of over loo miles, and another extending
| from Australia to the French colony OF
| New Caledonia, 800 miles seaward.
Obstacles to Pacific Cable.
The chief obstacle in the past to the con-
struction of grand trans-Pacific cable was
| found in the fact that mdocean resting
places could not be satisfactorily obtained
or arranged for, no single government con-
| trolling a sufficient number of suitable land
| ing places to make this seem practicable,
| in view of the belief that the distances
| from which messages could be sent and
| cables controlled were limited.
| With landing places at Hawaii. Wake
| Island: Guam and the Philippines how
ever. no section of cable stret ching from
| the United States to Asia and touching at
| these points would have a length equal to
| that now in daily oIeration between France
| and the United States. The length of the
| French cable from Brest, France to Cape
| Cod, Mass, is $3.50 miles, while the great
| est distance from land to land on the pro-
posed Pacific route would be that from
| San Francisco to Hawaii. 2,OS9 miles, that
| from Hawaii to Wake! fIsland being 2.040
miles, from Wake Island to Guam 1.290
miles. from Guam to Manila 1920 miles.
| and from Manila to the Asatic coast $50
miles. 80
| While the depth of the Pacific is some
| what greater than that at which any cable
| has been laid, the difference between it's
| depth and the greatest reached by cables
| in the Atlantic would be very slight the
| cable recently laid from Haiti to the Wind
ward Islands being in 1900 feet of water
| while the greatest depth between San Fran
cisco and Hawaii is 1890 feet and the
| greatest depth between Hawaii and Manila
| is estimated at 1900 feet. though this esti-
mate is yet to be verified, by detailed sound
| ings.
| Otto Krummel. who Was the first to dis
| cuss the bathymetrc data and calculate
| the area and volume of the various oceanic
| basins, put the mean depth of the Pacific
| at 2160 fathoms against 2,04O for the At
| lantic, in which cables have already been
| so successfully laid. and later researches
| and actual soundings. while they have de-
| Veioped extreme depths at certain points in
| the Pacific, have not, in the opinion of eX-
| perts, been such as to warrant the belief
| that the depths along the proposed line
| would be considerably greater than those
| in which cables have been already success
| fully laid and operated.
| Commerce of the East.
It may not be improper to call attention
| to the fact that the United States now OBJ
| tains but a small proportion of the COM
| merce of Asia. which it is at present only
able to reach through the long and devious
submarine and land telegraph lines across
| the Atlantic. the continent of Europe, the
| Mediterranean, the Red sea or the Persian
| gulf, the Indian ocean. land lines across In
a in hNTT nf -sljt c
| settlements, and thence along the ASiatic
coast and among the islands of Oceanica.
| The commerce of the countries of Asia and
| Oceanfca lying commercially adjacent to
| the Philippine Islands amounts to more
| than $20O0O0DO0O annually, their imports
| alone averaging $l00,0e,N0 a month, or
| $l,2U,oOO,H0 per annum OF this enormous
| market the United States at present OBJ
| tainS less than per cent, despite the fact
| that the imports into the countries in ques-
ton are largely composed of the classes of
| articles produced in the United States and
| offered for sale by her manufacturers and
| merchants. With direct cable communica-
| ton across the Pacific, direct water COM
I municaton through a Ncaraguan canal
| and an increase in the number and ca
+ pacity of American steamships it
| seems not improper to suppose that ma
| terial addition might be made to the share
| obtained by the United States in the trade
| of that part of the world.
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