The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-10-12
A NEW CABLE LINE
CONNECTION BETWEEN NOVA sCO-
 TIA AND IRELAND.
The Commercial Company Completes Great Undertaking by Which Its Service Has Been Improved
 Greatly.

| The Commercial Cable companys | fifth Atlantic cable from canso, Nova Scotia. to waterville. Ireland, was com pleted and put in operation on octo- Der 9th This makes seven Transe Atlantic cables worked in direct con- nection with the lines of the Postal Telegraph-Cable Company. All of them are duplexed so that their com bined capacity is fourteen messages at one time.
 The new cable is said to be the best and most expensive submarine cable ever laid. It was manufactured in London, having been begun in March, 1905. and finished and shipped on board the steamer Colonial on August 8, 1905.
 Atlantic cables are always laid from west to east, because the prevailing winds In the summer months on the Atlantic are from the west, and ships make much better weather going east ward; consequently the Colonial sailed from England to America. arriving oft the coast of Nova Scotia on August 18th. and landed the heavy shore end of the cable on the morning of August 18th. Moving out from the shore she struck 4 rock and remained fast on 1t for four days; The injYHs Hs she sus-
 
 submarine cable aboard. She was the largest and heaviest ship ever taken on that drydock, exceeding by thous- ands of tons the United States battle ship Indiana, of 10000 tons, which went into drydock there a couple of years ago. Repairs were made and the Colonial took the sea again. On September 23rd she laid her course from Canso, N. S., paying out cable. On September 2Sth she passed through a hurricane in mid-Atlantic. although on that day the weather on both sides of the Atlantic was reported fine, with gentle winds. On October 3rd she arr rived without mishap at a point 1s7 miles from the coast of Ireland. where the cable that she had paid out from the American side and the 1s7 miles of cable previously laid westward from the Irish coast by the steamship Cam bria in the month of June. The wealth. CT was heavy and the Colonial was compelled to heave to for several days. waiting smoother seas to enable her to make the final splice, which was made on October 9th.
 At some points the cable was laid at the depth of nearly three miles be- low the surface of the sea. The quan- titles of material used in the manu- facture of the cable were 1.4I1.20e pounds of copper: 799.688 pounds of gutta percha; 1.500.000 pounds of brass tape, jute, yarn, iron wire and pre- servative compound.
 The signalling speed of this cable is claimed to be fifteen per cent greater than that of any other cable of equal length in the Atlantic. The cost of the cable varied from $1,000 to $6,000 per mile, according to the character of the ocean bed and depth of water. The different diameter and weights of the sections of the cable. The cable which is laid in the deepest water is the light est, for the important reason that 1t would be impossible to retrieve heavy cable from deep water because of the enormous pressure. Cable in deep water Is practically safe from mechan- ical injury and, therefore, does not need to be so strong, 50 that the sec- tions laid in deep water are of smaller diameter and lesser cost. The sections laid near shores are of massive con- struction and very expensive In the neighborhood of the fishing grounds on the coast of Newfoundland, a type of cable midway between deep water and shore end cable is used. This inter- mediate size is made strong to resist Injuries from the anchors of fishing craft. the most prolific source of danger to submarine cables. This intermediate type is made just heavy enough to af- ford reasonable prospect of retrieving it in the event of it's being damaged by the anchor of fishing vessel