The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1908-01-21
CABLE LINES.
They Zigzag Across The Ocean Like
Railroads on The Land.


Railroads on The Land.
The Island Of Celebes, nearly half Of
which Is still almost unknown, has nov
been connected by cable with the neigh
boring island Of Borneo and also with tng
/ American island Of Guam. far to the
north. II has thus been brought into
close touch with the rest of the world
for il is joined to al parts Of the East
ern Hemisphere through Borneo and tc
the Western Hemisphere through Guam
and San Francisco.
Before Nh ocean cable is laid d vessel
il always sent out TO make a careful
survey Of the proposed route. The
route is picked for these cable lines
| just as railroad engineers run lines ot
levels before they finally locate rail-
road routes.
With piano wire for sounding lines
the cable engineer determines the levels
or the ocean floor and secures samples
of the bottom SO that he may decide
where it 4 best TO lay the cable Inter
esting discoveries were made about the
ocean floor between Celebes and Guam,
but they mean more to geologists than
TO the laity.
Cable 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 iii 4
recent lecture that the great Pacific
cable, 5000 miles long, between Van
couyer and New ZEALAND was time and
again detected from a straight line be-
tween the island stations at which IL
touched in order to avoid towering sub.
marine mountains or eraters or ground
that was hard or otherwise undesirable
Al 4 resting place for the cable.
Tsa samples of ground which cable
engineers most desire to bring up from
the bottom are the soft oozes or muds
that are found only in the deep seas.
far from the continents and which are
composed largely 81 the pulverized
skeletons OF marine animals. Cables last
longest when they repose in these soft
beds. They are not found everywhere in
tho aeep ocean. but If they are not too
far away the cable route viii be de-
Elected TO cross them.
A great deal that has been learned
about the ocean floors IN recent years mas
been incidental To tie laying of the
cables. The United States steamer
Nero was sent to pick route for
cable across the Pacific, and while en-
gagged in the work she found 4 depth
Of 5.269 fathoms, on SIX miles, the great
est depth III the ocean Of which we nave
knowledge
Thousands of miles Of cable are laid
at depths Of three Or four miles below
the surface, and because at such depths
the pressure of the water il about four
tons to the square inch the cable sinks
very slowly to it, resting place. The
line paid out over the stern of tie yes
sci Is often twenty miles away before
the cable finally rests ON the bottom.
At these great depths the water is
very cold, The many hundreds of souri,
ings taken during the cable surveys
have established the fact that there il
very little difference between the TEN
perature Of the deepest parts of the
ocean, This waters are uniformly only a
few degrees above the freezing point.
II il found also that the bottom Of
the deep part Of the seas is more favor.
able fer the longevity Of cable lines than
the harder ground Of the shallower
waters nearer the coasts. This = fortu
nate, for it IS expensive to haul up and
repair cable that needs to be raised
only from comparatively shallow
waters-New York Sun.