The Bingham County news. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1918-1930, 1923-09-07
NEW CABLE TO EUROPE
1895 NILES LONG
American End Just Landed mt Far
R0ckaway- 10 Be Laid in IL
Years - ableships Now
mt Sea.

Work on laying a new Trans-At
lantic cable. approximately 1926 miles
long, has just been commenced with
the landing of the American end al
Far Rockaway, n. Y. 1t will not be
completed until some time late in the
fall. This cable, the first to be laid
since 1910, will extend to Havre,
France, going by the way of Canso,
Nova Scotia, and the Azores. Here a
connection will be made with a cable
already i'll operation reaching London
via Waterville, Ireland.
The new cable has the largest cop
per conductor so far used in long dis
lance submarine communication. 1t
weighs LOO pounds to the nautical
mile, as against 700 pounds per maui
teal mile in the largest deep-sea
cables laid heretofore. 1t is esti-
mated that the new cable will be cap
able Of carrying 1000 letters a min
ute-that is, 500 letters per minute
will pass through the cable stimuli
taneously from each end. When COM
pleted this cable will represent an
investment Of over $10,000,ouc.
Because of ocean currents, experts
in charge Of this cable laying expedi-
States side and work toward Europe.
With the Cableship Faradaw riding at
anchor 700 feet off shore at Far Rock
away, the American end was played
out from reels in the hull Of the ship
and carried by floats and lighter to
the shore station Of the Commercial
Cable Company When this was made
fast there the cable was submerged
and the Faraday hoisted anchor on its
maiden voyage and steamed for Nova
Scotia at a comparatively slow speed.
The Far RockawayCan section of
the cable is about 1000 miles long.
At Canso the Faraday is scheduled
to meet the Cableship Colonia, the
largest craft of her kind. From her
stern the Canso-Azores section, about
1,75O miles long, will be played out.
The Azores-Havre section now being
will not be laid until
later in the fall.
In the manufacture Of the new
cable, more than 100000 pounds Of
copper were required for Its conduc-
tor and nearly 100000 pounds of
gutta percha were used for insula-
ton, while upwards Of $4,000 miles
Of steel and iron wires Of varying |
sizes were needed to afford mechani-
cal protection to the copper conduc-
.or and gutta percha insulation.
The vital part of the cable in the
copper conductor and its insulating
envelope, usually referred to as the
core" To protect this core and give
It the necessary mechanical strength
it is "armored," that is, wrapped spi- !
rally with iron and steel wires. The |
core is first wound with jute yarns to
provide a bed for the armor wires,
md a further winding of the jute
yarn is applied outside Of these wires
md finished with a coating of pre-
ervation compound.
Near the landing places the armor
wires are large and heavy to with
tand chatting and injury from break
minimize the risk Of damage from an
hors in shallow water. The shore
nds will weigh about 20 tons to the
nile. AS the cable runs into deep
yater, the weight tapers down to
bout two tons per mile.
In deep water the armor wires are
mall, but of great tensile strength,
o that the cable may be strong
nough to stand being raised to the
urface again at some future time, II
should become necessary to make
epairs.
The deep-sea portion Of the cable
ill not be much more than an inch
nd a quarter in diameter, and, con-
AIRY to common belief, 1t will, even
the greatest depths sink to the bed
: the ocean, to lie there in the dark
ess and stiffness, from 10000 to H.
10 feet below the surface.
a