South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1921-02-27
Progress in Spanning ''Idea
Tight" Compartments
Blooms Oceanic Real
Estate.

ASKING TON. Feb. 20
Though the laying Of three black
prosaic-loOking cables under tn c
hundred miles of sea water that sep
arate Key West from Havana has
little Of romance in il TO the casual
observer, 1t represents an important
step in mans conquest Of space and
time" says a bulletin issued from
the Washington headquarters OF the
National Geographic society.
These cables will be 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 car
ried before. II is the latest chapter
in the far from finished story OF
mans struggle to fling his thoughts
and even the intonations that
measures 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
gossip Of each others market places.
forums and boudoirs as soon as they
are known at home-started in earn
est only three quarters Of a century
ago after Samuel f. B. Morse proved
with the telegraph that distance
over land We're slight barriers TO ex-
changing signals. 1t IS perhaps lit
tie known that Morse also was one
OF the first TO experiment with un-
der-water signaling. After success
fully sending messages through a
wire laid under part OF New York
harbor from Castle Garden (now the
New York city Acquarium) to Gov
ernor's Island, he gave it as his
opinion that signaling over a proper
" built cable between Europe and
America should be possible.
First Atlantic Cable Failure.
THE first efforts 10 realize Morse
prediction, in the late forties, were
failures. Because neither cable
making nor cable-laying had been
mastered. the cable broke again and
again, and the broken end was final
y
first commercially successful sub
marine cable was laid as the result
OF the much ambitious desire to con
meet England and France. This
cable about % miles long. was laid
under the Straits Of Dover in 1851.
Then came other short ca bles: italy
20 Corsica and Sardinia. Sardinia 70
Africa. Scotland 10 Ireland. and a
length in the Black Sea.
"In 1857 Europe and America
were first connected by cable and
messages we're exchanged for sew
eral months. But the insulation Of
the cable was destroyed by currents
of too great strength and the two
continents were again without cleo
trio communication for nearly 10
years. An attempt 20 connect Eur
ope with India through the Red Sea
was the next ambitious cable project
but it. too. was a failure. The first
successful long cable. chiefly useful
for commercial purposes was laid.
httingly. enough. in the waters OF
the Mediterranean where CONNER
cial nations first sprang up. Il ex-
tended from Malta 20 Alexandria
and was opened in 1851.
No Gable News OF Civil War.
Europe remained without cable
news from tho United States during
the Civil war. but in 1856 the At
lantic was finally electrically bridged
and the connection between the old
and the New Worlds has since been
laid from France 10 the United