The Monmouth inquirer., 1926-10-21

mark the beginning of almost as much OF q new
era in international communications. as the lay
ing Of the 1865 cable did.
Though the deep section of the cable is
only an inch in diameter, an examination Of
crosssection of It. as illustrated above, shows it
to be composed of number of distinct parts
consisting of different materials.
The innermOst section of this slender line OF
communication which will link two continents is
the copper conductor. It is round wire not quite
one-ffth of an inch in diameter This carries
the electric current through the Fable.
Around this wire wrapped six flexible
copper tapes which. in the cable breaks.
carry the current around the gap. The purpose
of these copper tapes is to give exibility to the
conductor An accident to the cable lying
the floor of the Atlantic which might break
solid conductor consisting Of a single strand and
put the line of communication out of business
could hardly break all the strands of tapped
conductor.
Wrapped around the $500 nautical miles Of
this copper conductor to span the Atlantic from
New York to London will be continuous strip
of permalloy the new magic metal which will
give the cable its capacity of $500 letters per
minute. Permalloy is an alloy of iron and nickel
which under certain conditions has magnetic
permeability many times that OF any other known
substance. This wrapping prevents the leakage
of current common to the older types of cables
and will give the copper strand its great
speed and make it the worlds fastest cable.
Next to the permalloy is the insulation
sisting Of three layers of gutta percha. This is
the only substance yet discovered which com
bines the necessary insulating qualities with
elasticity, simplicity of manipulation, and dura-
bility. 1t is obtained from tree which grows in
the Malay peninsula and Malaysia The process
of gathering 1t consists in tapping the gutta
tree much as a sugar maple is tapped in North
America and collecting the sap which exudes. The
most familiar use of gutta percha is in the
ufacture of the outer shells of golf balls.
Over the gutta percha insulation is placed
layer Of Jute yarn to act as a cushion for the
armor which protects the cable from being broken
by any accident which might occur on the bed
of the ocean.
This armor consists of eighteen galvanized
steel wires, each having a diameter of nine
hundredths OF inch, Before being applied to
the cable each is wrapped over it's entire length
with a fabric to prevent fits oxidation under
water Finally, the cable Is wrapped with two
servings Of Jute yarn saturated in coal tar wound
on spirally which form the outer covering
This copper strand connecting the Old world
with the will be the twentieth transatlantic
cable and the ninth to be operated by the Western
Union.
Although it would seem that radio development
had made deep-sea cables obsolete. the fact re-
mains that cable companies continue to spend
millions of dollars on cable COSTS for all
that they have full knowledge of radios
capacity and the lines Of It's probable future de-
velopment The Importance of cables in world re-
lations was demonstrated at the close of the
World war when an international complication
threatened the island of zap. zap ordinarily
would be as unimportant as its name suggests
were It not for the fact that the question of a
cable base was involved. So it is likely that the
future will see the network of cable lines con-
Meeting all parts of the earth increase instead Of
decrease and whenever new one, and especially
one such as the worlds fastest cable" in which
important developments are concerned is
laid 1t will be news and big news.