Evening journal., 1913-08-27
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
The Faith That Survived the
Failure Of the First Cable
By Holland.

BY Holland.
In the course of conversation which
had with Cyrus w Field at his home
in New York city in the early fall of
1877, few hours after his arrival from
Europe he narrated to me the story Of
the way in which the inspiration for the
laying Of the cable across the Atlantic
came 70 him and also of the wonderful
rapidity, in fact instantaneous action.
which characterized the organization of
a company to carry out out this plan.
II was all done. Mr.. Field said. in four
evenings and at meetings held at the
house of Peter Cooper. who was then Of
great national reputation by reason of
the establishment of the great Cooper
Union building.
asked Mr. Field if there ever was
q time when he or any of his associates
despaired of the success of the Atlantic
cable Notwithstanding the fact that
after the first cable was laid and a few
messages mad heen sent across from
lrelanl TO Newfoundland. whereby ex-
changes Of coneratulation between
President Buchanan and Queen Victoria
were made, 1t became impossible any
longer TO work the cable. Something
had happened to il. and the eynics de-
clarcd that the whole project had been
proved to be 2 monumental folly
II don't think there was a moment
from the inception Of the plan for laying
a transatlantic cable until il became
commercially workable chiefly through
the invention Of Sir William Thompson
llfterwards Lord Kelvin. when Peter
Cooper or Marshall Roberts or I despair
ed in the slightest degree Of the ultimate
commercial success of the project" he
replied
II sometimes think that we had our
worst setback and an experience which
would have been very trying TO any men
of less courage than Peter Cooper and
Marshall o. Roberts at the time when
the first cable broke about four hundred
miles out al sea.
There are good many men Of
financial resources and Of ability who
would have been inclin d to say n
they had been associated with us,
The parting of this cable four hun
dred miles out at sea is a perfect
demonstration that IL Is physically
impossible TO build a cable strong
enough to extend more thad four
hundred miles from the shore But
Peter Cooper and Mr.. Roberts took
the other view. They we're in perfect
agreement with me that the parting of
the cable almost half way across the
ocean simply was a warning to us
that we had not constructed it prop
erly
"The fact that the cable became
dead after a few messages had been
sent across did not particularly dis
mrh any of us. We had put down a
cable. II was there. and We knew that
one message-very faint. It is true,
but readable-h gone from New
foundland TO Ireland. II told of an
accident to a Cunard steamship.
1--WE knew all that It vas necessary
to do was to secure the right kind OF
apparatus 10 send the messages
through the cable, and Sir William
Thompson's invention showed us that
we were right
I'VE suspended work simply be-
cause Of our civil war which came
on just after the first cable was laid.
As soon as the war was over We re-
sumed the work. and in 1866 we
demonstrated 10 the world that our
theory was correct
81 remember an interesting con-
versation ! had with Lord Clarendon
only a few weeks before the steamer
started out 10 lay The first cable. I
met Lord Clarendon at a dinner. He
was a perfect type of the real Eng
lish gentleman. He talked TO me for
an hour about the cable and ] saw
that he was immensely interested in
the project He asked me what we
could do in case we lost the cable az
sea and I told him that We would
simply charge II to profit and loss
and Immediately order the construc-
tion of new one.
Il met Lord Clarendon several
months after the first cable parted
and he said to me laughingly, I
suppose you charged of that first
cable-the one that parted-to profit
and loss. for that is what you told
me you we're going to do If you had
an accident
Yes. I replied, that is exactly
what we did We charged off that
cable to profit and loss. When we
had laid the new cable across the At
lantic we hoped 10 be able 10 pick up
a part of the old one. splice II and
carry IL across the Atlantic. n we
can do that II will become a revived
asset"