Evening star., 1924-09-05

Active work in laying the first sub
marine cable between the United
States and Italy began last Tuesday.
This is the first direct connection
this country has ever had with
southern Europe. and It is the first
| submarine cable to be furnished with
rermalloy as casing about the cop
per cable. by which the cable mag
netism and demagnetism are greatly
increased, and it's carrying capacity
in telegraphic service is enhanced
five or six times that Of any of the
old cables.
1t will be recalled that during the
war this country had occasion to
make strong diplomatic protest 20
Great Britain over the delays In
transmitting even the most important
state messages over the cable lines
| passing through England to the
european continent. Some such de-
lays cited by our State Department
amounted to five or six days en- route
Making due allowance for the extra
ordinary Cutting of the cables by
war conditions, there is still a chronic
condition OF oyercrowding of existin q
cables
This 'glutting is not due to slow
ness or the operators, for the actual
sehoihs OF message Is not done by
hahd, as in the case Of sending a tele-
gram from a small country station,
but is t,cked off by an automatic ma
chine. The limit Of capacity depends
upon the quickness with which the
cable can be cleared Of it's residual
| magnetism after each letter or other
ucK, Tor all this residual masne-
| tism must be drained out of the
wire after each letter before another
| letter can be sent
fermalloy, which consists of a
mixture OF 80 per cent nickel and 90
per cent iron, was discovered within
the last two or three years by DR..
II. ID. Arnold and G. w. Glenn OF the
Engineering Foundation, who found
that this alloy, properly made. had
the greatest sensitiveness to mag
netizing and demagnetizing Of any
known metal
ihe new cable with the permalIoy
casing will be able to carry I, 500 let
ters per minute, which will mean that
AZ least six automatic sending ma
| chimes will be required to keen il IN
TO capacity. That will amount 10
more words than the most rapid fire
orator uses. or than the most expert
stenographer can record.
* X
The Morse dot and dash system is
not used in cabling. When a mes
sage is prepared for sending it is
written on what looks like a. type-
writer keyboard. which operates a
system of perforating needles, in
place of type and ribbon. These
needles punch little holes into a rib
bon OF tough paper in sets and com
oinations which represent letters. AS
many operators as are needed may
thus be employed in transcribins 2
messages to the paper bands Then
the bands with their perforations are
run through another machine
equipped with similar needles, which
however connect with the electric
current Of the cable. The needles
fall into the perforations of the pa
per ribbon, thereby closing or OPEN
ing the circuit of electricity at the
receiving station across the ocean.
which controls the movements of a
glass siphon needle or pen, through
which a fluid ink is flowing This
pen" automatically writes wavy
line upon a paper ribbon-making a
continuous record of hills and hol-
lows, whose every undulation or set
of undulations. above or below a neu-
trail center has the significance of a
letter.
1t has been popularly supposed
that the invention of the radio
method of long distance communica-
tion would make costly ocean cables
no longer needed, but this idea is
proven erroneous by the necessity Of