Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1908-08-20
THE ATLANTIC CABLE.
ssmi.CeRteRRial..of Its Laying Occurs
Tedsy---The First Message Was
Sent by Queen Victoria to PrcSi.
dent Buchanan,
Especial to the ARGUs.)

New York, Aug. 17.-Today is one
notable in h history of submarine tel
sgraphy. Just so years age on Angus
IL, 1858, the first cable message wa
sent cross the Atlantic. The message
was of 80 words and was from Queel
Victoria to President Buchanan. It
took 81 minutes to transmit. To-day
some % ,OOO, 600 words are SEM by cable
between America and Europe each yeaI
and the various lines have a capacity
of loo, 600. 900 words. But it was the
little message sent so years G today
that afforded the first tangible proc:
that one of the greatest attempts of man
in the field Of science had succeeded.
When a little company of men, head
ed by Cyrus w. Field, began to ergan-
ize for the OF bringing the old
world and the new within speaking
distance by mean of a protected thread
of wire across the Atlantic, they were
hooted at as madmen. Capitalists who
invested their money in the scheme
become bereft Of reason. Few imagined
the feat possible.
The first step in the program was to
be the laying Of a cable across the gull
Of the st. Lawrence, from Cape Ray
Cove to Cape North. The first trial
was disastrous, because of a furious
storm, but in the following year the
cable was successfullylaid. Newtound-
land vas to be the western terminus.
The work of laying the cable between
Newfoundland and Ireland was then
begun. The first attempt was a fail
ure. After 800 miles of the wire had
been spnn out the cable broke. A Sec
ond and a third attempts were made
and finally on August 5, 1858, the east
ern end of the cable was laid in Trinity
bay, Newfoundland. Twslvedayslater
the famous messages were sent and re-
ceived between Queen Victoria and
President Buchanan.
But the scheme was not yet destined
to g the fruits of victory. Soon after
the initial message had been sent and
the press of the world had sounded loud
praises in honor of the trinn phi, the
cable was again severed and the work
of years was undone. In 1865 another
unsuccessful attempt was made to lay
a tive cable was completed. In 1869 the
French Atlantic cable was completed,
this being the first submarine line to
stretch actually from the shore of Amer
lea to the shore of Europe. The land
ing of the American end of the French
and was the occasion for a great eels-
bratien.
The cable service of most direct i'm
portancs to the general pablo is that
Of transmitting the reports of crops and
general commercial conditions of the
widely separated nations. This ssrv-
ice is infinitely tied up with a most
interesting compilation of these reports,
a system which enables the exporter
in New York, Seattle, Or Galveston,
and the dealers in Chicago, Minnsapo-
lis and other cities to govern their bust
moss by worldwide conditions.
In the early days it cost 500 to send
q message across the Atlantic. The
cable companies made a charge OF SIS .
word, and the minimum amount of
words to be transmitted was fixed at
20. Recent development at cable max
ing and operating, combined with COM
petition between cable companies, have
proved instrumental in bringing down
the cable tolls. Big businesses use the
cables eagerly and vast sums of money
are annually expended by boards Of
trade exporting houses and news
papers in obtaining information from
foreign countries.