The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-08-18
CABLE LINES NOT STRAIGHT
They Zigzag Across the Ocean Like
Railroads on the Land.
(Wa shington Star

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 il 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 vessel
is 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 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 ii is best to lay the cable Inter
esting discoveries were made about the
ocean floor between Celebes and Gaum,
but they mean more to biologists than
TO the laity.
Gable lines look straight enough as
seen on the maps. but they are any
thing but straight as they lie on the
ocean floor, DR.. Klotz of Canada said
in recent lecture that the great Pa
cific cable, 5000 miles long, between
Vancouver and New Zealand, was time
and again DETECTED from straight
line between the island stations at
which it touched in order to avoid tow
ering submarine mountains or craterS
or ground that was hard or otherwise
undesirable as a 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 in the deep seas
far from the continents, and which are
composed largely of the pulveriZed
skeletons of marine animals. Cables
last longest when they repose in these
soft beds. They are not found every
where 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 ca
bues. The United States steamer Nero
was sent to pick a route for a cable
across the Pacific, and while engaged
i'm the work she found a depth of 5.269
fathoms. or six miles-the greatest
depth in the ocean of which we have
knowledge.
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 TO its resting place. The
line paid out over the stern of the YES
sci drops instantly out of sight. but the
vessel is often twenty miles away be-
fore the cable finally rests on the bot
tom.
At these great DEPTHS the water is
very cold. The maly hundreds of
soundiugs taken during the cable sur
~eys have established the fact that
there is very little difference between
the temperatures of the deepest parts of
the oceans. Their waters are uniform
ly only a few degrees above the freez-
ing point.
II is found. also that the bottom of
the deep parts of the seas is more ia
vorable for the longevity of cable lines
| than the harder ground of the shall
lower waters nearer the coasts. This
is fortunate. for it is less expensive to
haul up and repair a cable that needs
to be raised only from comparatively
shallow waters.