El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-06-24
By
Frederic
]. Haskin

I hOnOr or having first suggested SUB
marine telegraphy, long before any
practical system Of telegraphy was in
vented. He spoke of the feasibility Of
such project in an address before
| the Barcelona Academy of Sciences in
| 1895, and two years later he proposed
! a connection between Barcelona and
/ the island of Majorca in the Mediterra-
! mean.
! In 1908 AIdina, nephew of Calvin,
: experimental with the transmission of
! signals under sea near Calais. The next
step was made by Schilling in 1872 when
] he succeeded in igniting a charge OF
! gunpOwder by means Of electric
spark transmitted through q subaque-
Gus conducting wire under the river
Ncva at st. Petersburg. In 1888 Sol
Paisley of the Royal British Engineers
! demonstrated the practicability of tel
egraphy under water at Chatterton,
England, and the following year, Or.
OSha ughneSsy, a director of the East
: India company, installed a telegraph
system and transmitted signals through
! insulated wire under the Hugh river,
India
Prof. Charles Wheatstone of England
was the pioneer in the suggestion that
Dover and Caiais be connected ~ a
submarine cable. This was in 1910 but
II We not until e-even years later that
the English channel was bridged by
the first successful commercial cable
in the world.
Telegraph Inventor Interested.
Between 1910 and 1851 many Ameri-
! cans had been busy making experiments
and improvements in the transmission
or signals under water. Prof Samuel
F. B. Morse, inventor of the Morse tel
egraph, and pioneer of all successful
telegraphy transmitted electric signals
under water between Castle Garden and
Governors Island, N Y, in 1912; Sam
uel COLI operated a cable between New
York, Coney Island and Fire Island in
1913; Ezra Cornell laid twelve miles of
cable and successfully operated it un-
der the Hudson river in 1S45. and J. J.
Craven Of New Jersey, in 1S47, conduct
ed a section of the New York to Wash
tngtOn telegraph line under small
creek without interrupting the service.
Pacific Cable Reaches Great Depth.
The last great undertaking in cable
laying came only few years ago
when the tremendous difficulties OF
bridging the Pacific ocean were finally
overcome both by British and American
enterprise. Not only did the great dis
tahces in the Pacific offer obstacles
but the extreme oeptn OF the ocean, pre-
scented big problems.
In one place the cable from San Fran
cisco to Manila drops TO a depth of six
miles. less SIS feet, and at another point
IT has to rise to within 500 feet of the
SURGE on a mountain peak. The first
Of the Pacific cables TO be completed
was the English line from Vancouver
to Australia, a distance Of 1886 miles
with AZ me Tanning islands
the distance between the latter point
and Vancouver being 1861 miles, the
longest span in the world. The cost of
this cable was $4,000, 900. The cost
of the cable from San Francisco to Ma |
Mia was $4,000 600.
Speed Records Astounding.
When Puck IN - Midsummer Nights |
Dream exclaimed TIL put a girdle |
TO q - c;lItE n forty rninuJes'
he proved himself but a laggard as COM |
pared with the speed of the modern |
cable One of the great feats of speed |
was accomplished during the Spanish
war when a message was sent |
from the White House in Washington /
TO New York, thence by cable to Haiti |
then TO Cuba and the battlefield at San
tlago. and a reply was received all |
within twelve minutes. But even this
record was eclipssd during the inter
national chess match of 1898 when a
message from the House of Represen-
tatives in Washington to the House of
Parliament in London was sent and an
answer received in thirteen and one-half !
seconds.
manufactured In England
Cables are manufactured principally |
IN England where factories are able to
turn out from 20 to so miles n day The
cores Of the newest cables are composed
y 3 copper wires. with u SIighter ones
wound round them forming a core one !
quarter of an inch in diameter. This is
surrounded with a skin of gutta percha
md other nOncOnducting material in
,reasing the diameter to three-quarters |
II an inch. After q casing of hemp and
,anvas tape there is an armour shield
II steel wires with every interstice
illed with an asphaItic composition.
The cables are stored until needed in :
great tanks filled with sea water in .
engths Of from two to 200 miles The |
hore ends of cables are often as large
IS a mans leg. {
Many Ships Used In Work
More than so ships are devoted ex- :
lusively 10 the work of laying and re- !
airing cables The repairs are fire. {
uently very expensive undertakings :
he point Of trouble can be located BY :
peculiarly delicate dynamometer :
which is operated on the principle of I
neasurinS the resistance offered per
meal mile of cable. Often the calcu- ,
atoms are so accurate that a ship will :
nchor within a thousand feet of the :
oint where the trouble lies. But oc- !
asionally great difficulty is encoun- :
cred. In 1900, for example. $500 900 :
Tas expended in a fruitless effort TO re-
air one Of the Atlantic cables The life
the average cable is from 20 to 80 | 4
ears
Tomorrow-Ice and Refrigeration.
I