The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1921-03-17
Modern Lessons In
GEOGRAPHY
SUB-SEA

Though the laying of three black
prosaic-looking cables under the hun
dred miles of sea water that sep
arate Key West from Havana has lit
tie of romance in it to the casual OBJ
server, it represents an importanr
step in mans conquest of space anC
time" says a bulletin issued from
the Washington, D. G. headquarters
of the National Geographic Society
"These cables will for the first
time carry the voices of mainland
America to the Queen of the Antil-
les and bring back answering voices
and at the same time they will be
carrying the sound of spoken words
for a greater distance under water
than they have ever been carried be-
fore. 1t is the latest chapter in the
far from finished story of mans
struggle to fling his thoughts-and
ever intonations that measure his
feelings-to his fellows at the ends
of the earth.
progress is spanning the salt
water that divides the world into
what were once idea tight compart-
ments-and which now know the Cos
sip of each others market places,
forums and boudoirs as 500 as they
are known at demonstrated in ear
nest only three quarters of a century
ago after Samuel F. B. Morse proved
with the telegraph that distances over
land were slight barriers to exchang-
ing signals. 1t is perhaps little known
that Morse also was one of the first
to experiment with underwater sig
mailing. After successfully sending
messages through a wire laid under
part of New York harbor from Castle
Garden (now the New York City
Aquarium) to Governors Island, he
gave it as his opinion that signaling
over a properly built cable between
Europe and America should be pos
sible.
First Atlantic Cable a Failure
ssThe first efforts to realize Morse's
prediction, in the late f~orties, were
failures. Because neither cable
making nor cable-laying had been
mastered, the cable broke again and
again, and the broken end was final
ly abandoned in mid-Atlantic. The
first commercially successful subma-
rine cable was laid as the result of
the much less ambitious desire to
connect England and France. This
cable, about rs miles long, was laid
under the Straits of Dover in 1851.
Then came other short cables; Italy
to Corsica and Sardinia, Sardinia to
Africa, Scotland to Ireland, and a
in the Black Sea.
SIN 1857 Europe and America
first connected by cable and
messages were exchanged for sever
al months. But the Insulation of the
was destroyed by currents of
TOO great strength and the two con-
were again with electric com
nunication for nearly ten years. An
attempt to connect Europe with In
liza through the Red Sea was the next
ambitious cable project but it, too,
vas a failure. The first successful
ong cable, chiefly useful for com
n%ercial purposes, was laid, fttingly
enough, in waters of the Mediterran-
IAN where commercial nations first
prang up. 1t extended from Malta
o Alexandria and was opened in
.861.
No Cable News of Civil War {
Europe remained without cable {
lews from the United States during
he Civil War, but in 1866 the Allan
ic was finally electrically bridged,
nd the connection between the Old ]
nd the New World has since been J
ontinuous. In 1869 a cable was laid l
ON France to the United States. :
,ther cables were laid from the I
british Isles and later direct connec-
on was established between Ger
lany and America. By the begin
ing of the World War thirteen
.ans-atlantic cables were in opera
on between Europe and the United
"Once the north Atlantic was
ound by the great metal strands,
lese ~far-reaching tentacles of mans
.telligence began to stretch out un-
sr the waters of all the earth's !
cans. The British Isles were tied to
-4,.1~+ H. 40 Llac ,~onaA ! liz