The Afro-American advance., 1900-04-28
A PACIFIC CABLE.
The Laying of one Would re Attend.
ed with Many Difficulties and
Great Expense.

In view of the constant activity in
Atlantic cables which has resulted in
Il new cable almost every two years
since the first successful cable in 1866,
il stands to reason, says Scribner's /
Magazine, that the difficulties offered I
by the Pacific ocean must be very great t
for the nineteenth century to reach its I
close without definite scheme Tor |
spanning the Pacific by telegraph hav'
ing been adopted. The difficulties may
be summed up in n few words; First,
the great cost of a eoIsplete system
of cables; second. the extreme depth
of water known to exist in certain
parts of the Pacific and feared in 9TH
ers; third. the long distance between
landing points; and, fourth, the lack
of intermediate points having an ae'
tive trade The estimated cost of the
British Pacific cable. for single cable
connecting Vancouver with Australia
and New Zealand. is placed at ahout
ST,Ot0.o00. including two repairing
ships and u sum of SI75,oou for main-
tenance of the cables for six months
The president of one of the cable com
panies of New York estimates the total
capital cost of cable 70 Japan Aus
tralia and the Philippines via HAWAII
at Sl2 ,00O. 900. and the cost of mainte
nance. including two repairing ships
ana of operating expenses, at S300'oW
year.
1t is not considered that a single
cable will be sufficient to insure per
manent communication, and any
! scheme for a Pacific cable must pro
vide eventually for duplicate cables
! throughout the entire route, so that
the total capital cost of thoroughly
reliable and efficient Pacific cable sys.
tenn may be put down at approximate.
! " $4,000. COO. which would include
two repairing ships, reasonable
quantity of spare cable, and the
equipment of operating stations at
the various landing points.
One of the essential features of a
submarine cable is the speed of sig
mailing. In operating long cables very
delicate instruments are required, and
the currents arriving at the receiving
end are very feeble in comparison
with those employed in land-line sig
mailing. The longer the cable, nat
urally the feebler the impulses ar
irving at the receiving end. 4 short
cable. a cable of under 1000 miles he
ing generally considered short cable
gives a speed of signaling amply sufii
cient for all purposes. with con
4 Ig e.
the mile. surrounded by an insulating
envelope of gutta percha weighing
about an equal amount. When We
come to cable of about twice this
length il is found necessary, in or
der to get n practically unlimited
speed, that is, speed as high as tht
most expert operator can read at, Il
employ Il core of $50 poInds of cop
per to the mile. insulated with 40t
pounds of gutta pereha to the mile
These are the proportions of copper
and gutta percha in the 1894 Anglo
American Atlantic cable, which il
considered the record Atlantic cable
for speed of working, and has beer
worked. by automatic transmission
at the rate OF some 4s-words min
ute.
The type of cable proposed fo'
the Nancouyer-F Tanning section of th'
British Pacific cable, as designed b,
Lord Kelvin. is TO have a core of 55'
pounds of copper and 36S pounds
of gutta percha to the mile, and il
calculated to give speed of ~ wordl
per minute over length OF $780,
miles. II is not considered safe Il
adopt very much heavier core thar
this, for the reason that the weigh
of the complete cable with a core tina
should weigh more than about hal
ton to the nautical mile would b'
so great that picking il up for repair
from depth of 5000 fathoms would
be an extremely difficult and hazard
ous operation.
The establishment Of telegraph,
communication results in new way
of doing business and opens up new
avenues OF profitable endeavor Thi
electric current like that set aliv,
by ROYALTY or by the president Of M
exhibition. sets in motion Il variet,
of machinery that before lay dor
mant. The trade to the Pacific &
looking up, and hosts Of enterprisinl
Americans are busily engaged in look
ing up that trade A trnns-Pacif
, cable is not an absolute necessity. he
cause communication. certain. n ex
pcnsive and relatively slow. betweel
2 America and the far east ~ alread
| had over the existing system, but tha
: such n cable would soon find profit
g able traffic is not TO be questioned b.
- those who are at all familiar with III
rising volume Of trade between th
far east and America. And he II r.
d, membercd that to-day every CONNER
I cial transaction between two point
e separated by the sea. like this article
!. begins and ends with a cable
The ChIef of the Comnnchrs.
The affairs Of the Comanche trib
, I are abso1ufetE controlled by Guiana