Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-04-07
CABLE LINES NOT STRAIGHT.
They Ziezag Across the Ocean Like
Railroads on the Land.

The island of Celebes, nearly half
of which is still almost unknown. has
now been connected by cable with the
neighboring island of Borneo and also
with the American island of Guam,
far to the north. 1t 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 to the Western
Hemisphere through Guam and San
Francisco.
Before an ocean cable is laid a ves-
sci is always sent out to make a care
full survey Of the proposed route. The
route is picked for these cables lines
Just as railroad engineers run lines OF
levels before they finally locate rail-
road routes
With piano wire for sounding lines
the cable engineer determines the lev
els of the ocean floor and secures
samples of the bottom so that he may
decide where it is best to lay the
cable. Interesting discoveries were
made about the ocean floor between
Celebes and Guam. but they mean
more to biologists than to the laity.
Gable lines look straight enough
as seen on the maps. but they are
anything but straight as they lie on
the ocean floor. DR.. Klotz of Canada
said i'm a recent lecture that the great
Pacific cable. 5000 miles long, be-
tween Vancouver and New Zealand
was time and again DETECTED from
straight line between the island sta
tions at which it touched in order to
avoid towering submarine mountains
or craters or ground that was hard or
otherwise undesirable as resting
place for the cable.
The samples of ground which cable
engineers most desire to bring up
from the bottom are the soft ooZes
or mudS that are found only III the
deep seas far from the continents and
which are composed largely of the
pulve1ized skeletons of marine ami
mails. Cables last longest when they
repose in these soft beds. They are
not found everywhere in the deep
ocean, but if they are not too far away
the cable route will be DETECTED to
cross them.
A great deal that has been learned
about the ocean floors in recent years
has been incidental to the laying OF
cables. The United States steamer
Nero was sent to pick route for a
cable across the Pacific, and while
engaged in the work she found
depth of $3.50 fathoms. or six miles,
the greatest depth in the ocean OF
which we have any knowledge.
Thousands of miles of cable are
laid at depths of three to four miles
below the surface, and because al
such depths the pressure of the water
is about four tons to the square inch
the cable sinks very slowly to its rest
ing place The line paid out over the
stern of the vessel drops instantly out
of sight, but the vessel is often twenty
rests on the bottom.
At these great depths the water is
very cold. The many hundreds of
soundings taken during the cable sur
veys have established the fact that
there is very little difference between
the temperatures of the deepest parts
of the oceans. Their waters are uni
formly only a few degrees above the
| freezing point.
1t is found also that the bottom of
the deep parts of the seas is more
favorable for the longevity Of cable
lines than the harder ground of the
shallOwer waters nearer the coasts.
| This is fortunate, for it is less eXpen-
sive to haul up and repair cable that
needs to be raised only from compar-
latively shallow waters.