The Sentinel=record., 1914-05-17
EARLY HISTORY OF
 ATLANTIC CABLE
ORIGINAL PLAN WAS TO CON- NECT NEW YORK AND LONDON
 VIA eEHRlNG STRAIT.
The Ameriean.Sb Cable Was to
 Have Been Strung by Means of 5uoys and Other Overhead Means.

ago this summer interest in the great project of connecting the American and European continents by land tele- nation of the undertaking was re- garded as practically assured. The plan was to connect New York and
 London by way of the Behring strait. Although the first ocean cable was laid in 1S51 there existed much
 skepticism regarding it and as late
 as 1865 it was declared by many to
 be of no practical use. The enor-
 nous labor and cost of laying an
 ocean cable and the unsatisfactory manner of the working of those first
 laid gave rise to the opinion that failure would be the ultimate out come.
 Perceiying the wide demand for telegraphic communication between the two continents, Perry Macdonald Collins, an American engineer of note, conceived the idea of an over land route. His plan was for pri- vate company, backed by the United i States government, to build a tele- graph line north from San Francisco, | through British Columbia and Alaska, to point on Behring strait nearest | Siberian land. Simultaneously, the Russian government was to build from St. Petersburg across Siberia to point opposite the American ter minal on Bahring strait.
 Just how the wires were to be car ried across the thirty or forty miles of water separating the two conti- nents was never fully worked out; but a series of floating buoys, or small ships, firmly anchored, was thought to offer solution of the problem.
 The enterprise advanced in due time to the point where representa- tiyes were sent to St. Petersburg to lay the plan before the Russian gov ernment. Success attended the mis- sion to the extent of a tentative agreement whereby the cZar was to order the construction of the Sibe- rian line whenever its practicability was demonstrated by the Amreican promoters. Full permission was granted for an American engineering party to explore Eastern Russia and the great Siberian wilds for the pur- pose of locating route and testing the feasibility of maintaining tele- graph lines in that region.
 Numerous surveys were made through British Columbia and Alaska and a route was practically decided upon. Nearly all of the way it led through an uninhabited country, re- mote from sources of supply, and into vast region locked in ice and snow during seven or eight months of the year. Throuehout this region, it was proposed to maintain relay stations at frequent points, where operators and linemen would always be on duty.
 From 1863 to 1865 many parties and expeditions were organized and sent out to explore and demonstrate George Kennan, afterwards well | known in the United States as a tray eler and lecturer, joined one of the l expeditions. when only is years of age, and spent over two years in | Siberia, building and operating eX- perimental lines. Kennan was an eX- pert telegrapher, and his mission was 1 to prove to the satisfaction Of the | governments and capitalists that tele- l graphic communication could be maintained constantly in the semi polar regions,
 In Siberia, the Kennal expedition 1 travelled thousands of miles by dog sled and on horseback, investigating climatic conditions and making sur .veys. Its report to the czar and to
 Jhe American promoters was that the
 project was entirely feasible. It is said that the trans-Siberian railway | subsequently followed much of the line marked cut by the Americans.
 It was while eReaged in making further surveys, lel;eving fully that the American end Of the line was al- ready under construction that a mes sage. hy courier from St. Petersburg, reached Kenaan informing him that | the enterprise had teen abandoned and ordering the expedition to return to the United States for discharge.
 The successful laying and opera ton Of the second Atlantic cable in 1865 blasted the hopes of the pro- meters of tho Americen-Siberian line. Governments and capitalists looked
 coldly upon the great outlay neces- | sary and refused to finance further eXpei lamentations. Thus all of the
 expeditions were recalled and the
 ptomot!ng company dissolved. The
 irony of fata made it possible for
 kennan. when Ee finally reached
 London. to send a message by cable
 to friends n America.
 Viewed from the standpoint of 90
 years ago, the project was one of the
 most gigantic ever considered by
 men. Tolay the undertaking is vir.
 tually accolup.ished, the only remain
 ing Ink being the bridging of Bebring