The Washington herald., 1908-02-09
CABLE LINES NOT STRAIGHT
Are Laid Just Like Railroad Tracks
or Dry Land.
Make Many Twists to Avoid Ocean
Mountains or Chasms Be
meath the Water.

Tho Island Of Celebes nearly half of
b7en connected by cable with the neigh
boring Island Of Borneo and also with
tie American Island OF Guam. far to the
north. It has thus been brought into
close touch with the rest Of the world.
for it Is joined to all parts Of the Eastern
Hemisphere through Borneo and 20 the
Western Hemisphere through Guam and
San Francisco. says the New York Sun.
Before an ocean cable is laid vessel
Is always sent out to make a careful sur
vey Of the proposed route The route is
picked for these cable lines just ss rail
road engineers run lines OF levels before
they finally locate railroad routes.
With piano wire for sounding lines the
cable engineer determines the levels OF
the ocean floor and secures samples Of
the bottom so that he may decide where
il is best 10 lay the cable. Interesting
discoveries Were made about the ocean
floor between Celebes and Guam. but
they mean more 10 geOlOgsts than 10 the
lalty
Gable lines look straight enough as seen
on the maps but thcy are anything but
straight as they lie on the ocean floor
Or. KlOtz. of Canada, said in a recent
lecture that the great Pacific cable. 5000
miles long. between Vancouver and New
Zealand WAS time and again detected
from a straight line between the island
stations at which it touched in order 10
avoid towering submarine mountains or
craters OF ground that was hard or other
wise undesirable as "a restingplace for
the cable
The samples of ground which cable en-
ginerrs most desire 10 bring up from the
bottom are the soft oozes or muds that
ays found only IN the deep seas far from
the continents aud which are composed
largely Of the pulverized skeletons of ma
riue animals. Cables last longest when
they repose i'm these soft beds They
are not found everywhere in tho deep
ocean. but II they are not too far away
the cable route viii be DETECTED to cross
them
A great deal that has been learned
about the ocean noOr in recent years
has been incidental 10 the laying OF ca
bles The United States steamer Nero
was sent % pick a route for a cable
across the Pacific, and while engaged in
the work she found a depth Of 5,z69
fathoms. or six miles the greatest depth
in the ocean of which we have knowl-
edge.
Thousands Of miles Of cable are laid at
depths Of three to four miles below the
surface. and because at such depths the
pressure of the water is about four tons
to the square inch the cable sinks very
slowly 10 its resting place. The line paid
out over the stern Of the vessel drops
instantly out Of sight, but the vessel is
often 20 miles away before the cable
finally rests on bottom
At these great depths the water is very
cold. The many hundreds Of soundings
taken during the cable surveys have es-
tablished the fact that there Is very
little difference between the temperatures
of the deepest parts Of the oceans. Their
waters are uniformly only a few degrees
above the freezing point.
II is found also that the bottom OF
the deep parts OF the sea is more favor
able for the longevity Of cable lines
than the barber ground of the shallower
waters nearer the coasts. This is for
tunate. for It is less expensive to haul UP
and repair cable that needs 10 be
raised only from comparatively shallow
waters.