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[Illustration: THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH
BY W H RUSSELL, LLD
ILLUSTRATED BY ROBERT DUDLEY
DEDICATED BY SPECIAL PERMISSION TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS
ALBERT EDWARD, PRINCE OF WALES
DAY & SON LIMITED 6 GATE STREET LONDON
R. Dudley]
THE ATLANTIC
TELEGRAPH
(1865)
THE ATLANTIC
TELEGRAPH
(1865)
by
W. H. RUSSELL
NAVAL INSTITUTE PRESS
International Standard Book Number 0-87021-806-9
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 75-184620
First published in 1865
Published and Distributed in the
United States of America by the
Naval Institute Press
Printed in Great Britain
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Weighing anchor off the Maplin Sands, Nore, July 15, 1865 ii
OPPOSITE PAGE
The reels of gutta-percha-covered conducting-wire conveyed
into tanks at the works at Greenwich 14
Valentia in 1857-1858 at the time of the laying of the former
cable 15
Trinity Bay, Newfoundland: Exterior view of Telegraph House
in 1857-1858 26
Telegraph House, Trinity Bay, Newfoundland: Interior of
messroom, 1858 27
H.M.S. Agamemnon laying the Atlantic telegraph cable in 1858:
A whale crosses the line 30
Coiling the cable in the large tanks at the works at Greenwich 31
The cable passed from the works into the hulk lying in the
Thames at Greenwich 38
The old frigate with her freight of cable alongside the Great
Eastern at Sheerness 39
Paying-out machinery 40
Coiling the cable in the after-tank on board the Great Eastern
at Sheerness: Visit of H.R.H. The Prince of Wales on May 24 41
Foilhummerum Bay, Valentia, looking seawards from the point
at which the cable reaches the shore 44
The cliffs, Foilhummerum Bay: Point of the landing of the
shore end of cable, July 22 45
Foilhummerum Bay, Valentia, from Cromwell Fort: The
Caroline and boats laying the earth-wire, July 21 48
The Great Eastern under weigh, July 23: Escort and other
ships introduced being the Terrible, the Sphinx, the Hawk,
and the Caroline 49
Chart, showing the track of the steamship Great Eastern on
her voyage from Valentia to Newfoundland 56
Splicing the cable (after the first accident) on board the Great
Eastern, July 25 57
View (looking aft) from the port paddle-box of Great Eastern:
Showing the trough for cable, etc. 62
The forge on deck; Night of August 9: Preparing the iron
plating for capstan 63
Searching for fault after recovery of the cable from the bed of
the Atlantic, July 31 72
In the bows, August 2: The cable broken and lost: Preparing
to grapple 73
Getting out one of the large buoys for launching, August 2 80
General view of Port Magee, &c., from the heights below Cora
Beg: The Caroline laying the shore end of the cable, July 22 81
Interior of one of the tanks on board the Great Eastern:
Cable passing out 86
Launching buoy on August 8, in lat. 51° 25´ 30´´; long. 30° 56´
(marking spot where cable had been grappled) 87
Forward deck cleared for the final attempt at grappling,
August 11 92
THE
ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH.
I shall not detain the readers of this brief narrative with any sketch
of the progress of electrical science. There are text-books,
cyclopædias, and treatises full of information concerning the men who
worked in early days, and recording the labours of those who still toil
on, investigating the laws and developing the applications of the subtle
agency which has long attracted the attention of the most acute,
ingenious, and successful students of natural philosophy. For the last
two centuries the greater number of those whose names are known in
science have made electrical experiments a favourite pursuit, or turned
to them as an agreeable recreation from severer studies. The rapidity
with which electricity travels for considerable distances through
insulated conductors soon suggested its use as a means of transmitting
intelligence; but the high tension of the currents from friction
machines, and the difficulty of insulating the conductors, were
practical obstacles to the employment of the devices, some of them
ingenious, recommended for that purpose from year to year. Otto Von
Guericke, and his globe of sulphur; Grey, with his glass tube and silken
cords; and Franklin, with his kite, were, however, the precursors of the
philosophers who have done much, and whose successors may yet do much
more, for the world. It is not easy to decide whether it is the man who
gives a new idea to the world, or he who embodies that idea in a form
and turns it into a fact, who is deserving of the credit to be assigned
to any invention. A vague expression of belief that a certain end may be
attained at a future period by means then unknown does not constitute a
discovery, and does not entitle the person who utters it, verbally or in
writing, to the honour which is due to him who indicates specifically
the way of achieving the object, or who actually accomplishes it by
methods he has either invented or applied. The Marquis of Worcester
certainly did not invent the steam-engine; neither did Watson, Salva,
Sœmmering, or Ronalds, or any other of the many early experimentalists,
discover electric telegraphy. But there is a degree of credit due to
those who, contending with imperfect materials and want of knowledge,
persist in working out their ideas, and succeed in rescuing them from
the region of chimæras. The inventions of one render capable of
realisation the ideas of another, which but for them had remained dreams
and visions. The introduction of a novel product into commerce, or the
chance discovery of some property in a common material, may draw a
project out of the limbo of impracticabilities. A suggestion at one
period may be more valuable than an invention at another, and
adaptations may be more useful than discoveries. Indeed, when the
testimony on which men’s reputations, as finders or makers, rest, is
critically examined, a suspicion is often generated that there have been
many Vespuccis in the world who have given names to places they never
found, and taken or received credit for what they never did.
If any person takes an interest in determining who was the inventor of
electric telegraphy, he should study the works and mark the improvements
of the natural philosophers of the last as well as of the present,
century, and he can then arrive at some result without exciting national
jealousy, or injuring individual susceptibilities. Humboldt assigns the
credit of making the first electric telegraph to Salva, who constructed
a line 26 miles long, from Madrid to Aranjuez, in 1798. Russia claims
the honour of having invented aerial telegraphic lines, because Baron
Von Schilling proposed a line for the Emperor from St. Petersburg to
Peterhoff, below Cronstadt, in 1834, and was laughed at by scientific
Muscovites for his pains. But the Baron certainly did transmit messages
along wires supported by poles in the air. The Count du Moncel, in his
recent “Traité de Télégraphie Electrique,” gives to Mr. Wheatstone the
palm as the original inventor of submarine Cables, to which award, no
doubt, there will be some dissent. Mr. Wheatstone, however, as early as
1840, brought before the House of Commons the project of a cable, to be
laid between Dover and Calais, though he does not seem to have had at
the time any decided views as to the mode in which insulation was to be
obtained. In 1843, Professor Morse, detailing the results of some
experiments with an electric magnetic telegraph between Washington and
Baltimore, in a letter to the Secretary of the United States, wrote:
“The practical inference from this law is that a telegraphic
communication on the electric-magnetic plan, may with certainty be
established across the Atlantic Ocean. Startling as this may seem now,
I am confident the time will come when this project will be realised.”
But for the experiments and discoveries of Oersted, Sturgeon, Ampére,
Davy, Henry, and Faraday, and a long list of others, such suggestions
would have remained as little likely to be realised as the Bishop of
Llandaff’s notions of a flying-machine, or the crude theories of the
alchemists. He who first produces a practical result--something which,
however imperfect, gives a result to be seen and felt, and appreciated
by the senses--is the true [Greek: poiêtês ποιἡτης]--the maker and
inventor, whom the world should recognise, no matter how much may be
done by others to improve his work, each of those improvers being, after
his kind, deserving of recognition for what he does. A year before
Professor Morse wrote the letter to Mr. Spencer, he took some steps to
show that which he prophesied was practicable. In the autumn of the year
1842 he stretched a submarine cable from Castle Garden to Governor’s
Island in the harbour of New York, demonstrated to the American
Institute the possibility of effecting electric communication through
the sea, and submitted that telegraphic communication might with
certainty be established across the Atlantic. Later in the same year he
sent a current across the canal at Washington. But that was not the
first current transmitted under water, for as early as 1839, Sir W.
O’Shaughnessy, the late Superintendent of Electric Telegraphs in India,
hauled an insulated wire across the Hooghly at Calcutta, and produced
electrical phenomena at the other side of the river. In 1846, Col. Colt,
the patentee of the revolver, and Mr. Robinson, of New York, laid a wire
across the river from New York to Brooklyn, and from Long Island to
Coney Island. In 1849, Mr. Walker sent messages to shore through two
miles of insulated wire from a battery on board a steamer off
Folkestone.
It was in 1851 that an electric cable was actually laid in the open sea,
and worked successfully; and the wire which then connected Dover with
Calais was beyond question the first important line of submarine
telegraph ever attempted. In the year 1850, Mr. Brett obtained a
concession from the French Government for effecting this object,--an
object regarded at the time as one purely chimerical, and decried by the
press as a gigantic swindle. The cable which was made for the purpose
consisted of a solid copper wire, covered with gutta percha. When tested
by Mr. Woollaston, it was found to be so imperfect from air holes in the
gutta-percha, that the water found its way to the copper wire,--an
imperfection which was however shortly repaired. This cable was
manufactured at the Gutta Percha works, on the Wharf Road, City Road,
under the superintendence of the late Mr. Samuel Statham; was then
coiled on a drum, and conveyed by steam-tug to Dover, and in the year
1850 was payed out from Dover to Calais. The landing-place in France was
Cape Grisnez, from which place a few messages passed, so as to comply
with the terms of the concession and test the accuracy of the principle.
The communication thus established between the Continent and England
was, after a few hours, abruptly stopped. A diligent fisherman, plying
his vocation, took up part of the cable in his trawl, and cut off a
piece, which he bore in triumph to Boulogne, where he exhibited it as a
specimen of a rare seaweed, with its centre filled with gold. It is
believed that this “pescatore ignobile” returned again and again to
search for further specimens of this treasure of the deep: it is, at all
events, perfectly certain that he succeeded in destroying the submarine
cable.
This accident caused the attention of scientific men to be directed to
the discovery of some mode of preserving submarine cables from similar
casualties, and a suggestion was made by Mr. Küper, who was engaged in
the manufacture of wire ropes, to Mr. Woollaston and to Mr. T. R.
Crampton, that the wire insulated with gutta-percha should form a core
or centre to a wire rope, so as to give protection to it during the
process of paying out and laying down, as well as to guard it from the
anchors of vessels and the rocks, and to secure a perfect electrical
continuity.
Mr. Crampton, who had already accepted the contract for laying the cable
between England and France, and had given up much of his time to the
study of the subject, adopted this idea, and in 1851 he and several
gentlemen associated for the purpose laid the cable between Dover and
Calais, where it has since remained in perfect order, constituting the
great channel of electrical communication between England and the
Continent. It was made by Wilkins & Weatherly, Newall & Co., Küper &
Co., and Mr. Crampton. The exertions of the last-named eminent engineer
in laying the first cable under water, and his devotion to an object
towards which he largely contributed in money, are only known to a few,
and have never been adequately acknowledged.
The success of that form of cable having been thus completely
established, several lines of a similar character were laid during the
following years between England and Ireland and parts of the Continent:
one, 18 miles long, across the Great Belt, made by Newall & Co.; one
from Dover to Ostend, by the same makers and by Küper & Co.; one from
Donaghadee to Portpatrick, by Newall & Co.; one from Holyhead to Howth;
and one from Orfordness to the Hague.
The superiority of a line with wire-rope cover to other descriptions of
cable was illustrated in 1853. At that period the Electric and
International Telegraph Company determined upon laying down four wires
between England and the Continent, but they rejected the heavy cable,
and adopted the suggestion of their engineer to use four separate
cables of light wire. The cost of maintaining these light cables from
injury by anchors, &c., was so great that they were picked up, and heavy
cables of great strength were substituted, which have given no trouble
or anxiety, and have always been in good order.
The Old World had twelve lines of submarine cable laid ere the United
States turned their attention to the uses of such forms of telegraph.
Italy had been connected with Corsica by a line 110 miles long, and
Denmark had joined one of her little islands to the other, ere the Great
Republic gave a thought to the matter. But there were excuses for such
indifference. The Telegraphic system, to which Morse, Bain, House, and
others, had given such development, although the first line was not
constructed till 1844, extended rapidly all over the vast extent of the
Atlantic and Gulf States. The people were on the same continent, the
land was all their own, their greatest rivers could be traversed by
wires; and so it was that, whilst Mr. Morse was engaged in protecting
his patents, and the Americans, self-contained, were not looking beyond
the limits of their shores, a British North American Province took the
first step which was made at the other side of the Atlantic to lay down
a submarine cable. In 1851-2 a project was started in Newfoundland, to
run a line of steamers between Galway and St. John’s in connection with
a telegraph to Cape Ray, where a submarine Cable was to be laid to Cape
Breton, and thence the news was to be carried by means of another cable
from New Brunswick to Prince Edward’s Island. The Roman Catholic Bishop
of Newfoundland is stated to have been the original proposer of a scheme
for connecting the island with the United States, but the credit of
actually laying down the first submarine cable at the other side of the
Atlantic belongs to Mr. F.N. Gisborne, an English engineer. He had been
previously engaged in the telegraph department at Montreal, and had some
knowledge of the subject, but he happened to be in London at the time of
Brett’s success. On his return to America he applied himself to get up a
Company for the purpose of facilitating telegraphic communication
between Europe and the United States. After much difficulty the Company
was formed, and an Act was passed by the Legislature of Newfoundland, in
1852, conferring the important privileges upon it, in event of the
completion of the project in Newfoundland, which are now possessed by
the Atlantic Telegraph Company. Mr. Gisborne was superintendent and
engineer of the Company, and he set to work with energy to construct a
road from St John’s to Cape Ray, over a barren and resourceless tract of
400 miles, and made a survey of the coast line, during which he was
exposed to great hardships. He succeeded at last in laying an insulated
cable, made by Newall & Co., from New Brunswick to Prince Edward’s
Island across the Straits of Northumberland, 11 miles long, in 22
fathoms of water; but was not successful in a similar attempt to connect
Newfoundland with Cape Breton. Meantime the Company became involved in
pecuniary difficulties, and Mr. Gisborne, early in 1854, on the
suspension of the works, proceeded to New York, where he hoped to find
money to enable him to carry out the telegraphic scheme among the keen
speculators and large-pursed merchants. Through an accidental
conversation at the hotel in which he was staying, he obtained an
interview with Mr. Cyrus Field. He laid his plans before that gentleman,
who had no desire to resume an active career, having just returned from
travelling in South America, with the intention of enjoying the fortune
his industry and sagacity had secured ere he had arrived at the middle
term of life. But Mr. Field listened to Mr. Gisborne with attention, and
then began to think over the project--“To lay these submarine cables so
as to connect Newfoundland with Maine?--Good. To run a line of steamers
from St. John’s to Galway?--Certainly. It would shorten the time of
receiving news in New York from Europe four or five days.” And so the
brain worked and thought. Then suddenly, “But if a cable can be laid in
the bed of these seas--if the Great Atlantic itself could be spanned?”
Here was an idea indeed. Deep and broad seas had been traversed in
Europe, but here was one of the great oceans of the world, of depth but
faintly guessed at, and of nigh 2000 miles span from shore to shore!
Would it be within the limits of human resources to let down a line into
the watery void, and to connect the Old World with the New? What a
glorious thought! Was it a vision, or was it one of those inspirations
from which originate grand enterprises and results which change the
destinies of the world? Mr. Field terminated his reflections that night
by an eminently practical measure. Ere he retired to rest he sat down
and wrote two letters,--one to Lieut. Maury, U.S.N., to ask his opinion
concerning the possibility of laying down a cable in the bottom of the
Atlantic; the other to Professor Morse, to inquire whether he thought it
practicable to send an electric current through a wire between Europe
and America. Lieut Maury, in answering in the affirmative, wrote,
“Curiously enough, when your letter came I was looking over my letter to
the Secretary of the Navy on that very subject.” And, in fact, on the
22nd February, 1854, Lieut. Maury made a long communication to Mr.
Dobbin, Secretary, United States Navy, from the Observatory, Washington,
respecting a series of deep-sea soundings made by Lieut. Berryman,
U.S.N., brig Dolphin, from Newfoundland to Ireland, in connection with
researches on the winds and currents, carried on for the National
Observatory. It is obvious that Lieut. Maury, as well as many others
probably, had thought of the same idea as Mr. Field. He says, “The
result is highly interesting, in so far as the bottom of the sea is
concerned, upon the question of a submarine telegraph across the
Atlantic;” and he goes on to make it the subject of a special report, in
which occur the following passages;--
“This line of deep-sea soundings seems to be decisive of the question as
to the practicability of a Submarine Telegraph between the two
continents, in so far as the bottom of the deep sea is concerned. From
Newfoundland to Ireland, the distance between the nearest points is
about 1,600 miles;[1] and the bottom of the sea between the two places
is a plateau, which seems to have been placed there especially for the
purpose of holding the wires of a Submarine Telegraph, and of keeping
them out of harm’s way. It is neither too deep nor too shallow; yet it
is so deep that the wires, but once landed, will remain for ever beyond
the reach of vessels’ anchors, icebergs, and drifts of any kind, and so
shallow that the wires may be readily lodged upon the bottom. The depth
of this plateau is quite regular, gradually increasing from the shores
of Newfoundland to the depth of from 1,500 to 2000 fathoms as you
approach the other side. The distance between Ireland and Cape St.
Charles, or Cape St. Lewis, in Labrador, is somewhat less than the
distance from any point of Ireland to the nearest point of Newfoundland.
But whether it would be better to lead the wires from Newfoundland or
Labrador is not now the question; nor do I pretend to consider the
question as to the possibility of finding a time calm enough, the sea
smooth enough, a wire long enough, a ship big enough, to lay a coil of
wire 1,600 miles in length; though I have no fear but that the
enterprise and ingenuity of the age, whenever called on with these
problems, will be ready with a satisfactory and practical solution of
them.
“I simply address myself at this time to the question in so far as the
bottom of the sea is concerned, and as far as that the greatest
practical difficulties will, I apprehend, be found after reaching
soundings at either end of the line, and not in the deep sea. * *
Therefore, so far as the bottom of the deep sea between Newfoundland, or
the North Cape, at the mouth of the St. Lawrence, and Ireland, is
concerned, the practicability of a Submarine Telegraph across the
Atlantic is proved.”
Professor Morse, in 1843, indicated his conviction that a magnetic
current could be conveyed across the Atlantic, and his reply to Mr.
Field was now given with increased confidence to the same effect. Thus
encouraged, Mr. Field took measures to form a Company to purchase the
rights of the Newfoundland Company, and to connect Newfoundland with
Ireland by means of a submarine telegraph across the Atlantic. He
entered into an agreement with Mr. Gisborne for the purchase of the
privileges of the Company for 8000_l._, under certain conditions. Then
he put down the names of ten of the principal capitalists in New York,
and proceeded to unfold his project to each in succession; and having
secured the adhesion of Mr. Cooper, Mr. Taylor, Mr. Roberts, Mr. White,
and the advice of his brother, Mr. D. Field, he called a meeting of
these gentlemen at his house on 7th March. Similar meetings took place
at his residence on 8th, 9th, and 10th, and after full discussion and
consideration it was resolved to form “The New York, Newfoundland, and
London Telegraph Company,” of which Peter Cooper was President; Moses
Taylor, Treasurer; Cyrus Field, C. White, M. O. Roberts, Directors; and
D. D. Field, Counsel. Mr. C. Field, his brother, and Mr. White were
commissioned to proceed to Newfoundland, to obtain from the Legislature
an act of incorporation, and set out for that purpose on March 15th. On
their arrival at St. John’s, the Governor convoked the Executive
Council. He also sent a special message to the Legislature, then in
session, recommending them to pass an act of incorporation, with a
guarantee of interest on the Company’s bonds to the amount of
50,000_l._, and to make them a grant of fifty square miles of land on
the island of Newfoundland, conditional on the completion of the
Telegraph.
After some little delay, the Legislature, with one adverse member only,
granted the valuable privileges to the Company which were subsequently
transferred to the Atlantic Telegraph Company. They constitute, in fact,
a monopoly of telegraphic rights in Newfoundland, the value of which was
enhanced afterwards by similar concessions from the state of Maine, Nova
Scotia, Prince Edward’s Island; and liberal encouragement from Canada.
There is much to be said against concessions, and monopolies, and
patents, on abstract grounds; but it is quite clear that in certain
circumstances men will not venture money and spend time, without the
prospect of the ulterior advantages such protection is calculated to
ensure. The Government has, however, informed Colonial and Provincial
Legislatures that in future Her Majesty will be advised not to give her
ratification to the creation of similar monopolies. By their chartered
rights the new Company obtained the exclusive privilege for fifty years
of landing cables on Newfoundland and Labrador, which embraces a coast
extending southwardly to Prince Edward’s Island, Cape Breton, Nova
Scotia, the State of Maine, and their respective dependencies; and
westwardly to the very entrance of Hudson’s Straits. The Company also
secured a grant of fifty square miles of land on the completion of
Telegraph to Cape Breton; a similar concession of additional fifty
square miles when the Cable shall have been laid between Ireland and
Newfoundland; a guarantee of interest for twenty years at 5 per cent.
on 50,000_l._; a grant of 5000_l._ in money towards building a road
along the line of the Telegraph; and the remission of duties on the
importation of all wires and materials for the use of the Company.
The Company also obtained from the Legislature of Prince Edward’s
Island, in May, 1854, the exclusive privilege for fifty years of landing
cables on the coast; a free grant of one thousand acres of land; and a
grant of 300_l._ currency per annum for ten years.
From Canada the Company obtained an Act authorising the building of
telegraph lines throughout the Provinces, accompanied by the remission
of duties on all wires and materials imported for the use of the
Company.
Nova Scotia, in 1859, gave the Company a grant of exclusive privilege,
for twenty-five years, of landing telegraphic cables from Europe on the
shores of the Province.
The State of Maine accorded the Company a grant of the exclusive
privilege, for twenty-five years, of landing European telegraph cables
on the seaboard.
From Great Britain eventually the Company obtained an annual subsidy of
14,000_l._ sterling until the net profits of the Company should reach 6
per cent. per annum, on the whole capital of 350,000_l._ sterling, the
grant to be then reduced to 10,000_l._ sterling per annum, for a period
of twenty-five years; two of the largest steamships in the navy to lay
the cable, and two steamers to aid them; and a careful examination of
the soundings by vessels of the Royal Navy.
From the United States the Company obtained an annual subsidy of $70,000
until the net profits yielded 6 per cent. per annum, then to be reduced
to $50,000 per annum, for a period of twenty-five years, subject to
termination of contract by Congress after ten years, on giving one
year’s notice. The United States government also granted the steamship
Arctic to make soundings, and steam-ships Niagara and Susquehanna to
assist in laying the cable. A government steamer was also ordered to
make further soundings on the coast of Newfoundland.
Long ere the Company had been placed in possession of such beneficial
rights, and obtained such a large amount of favour, Mr. Field, who threw
every energy of body and mind into the work, and was entrusted by his
brother directors with the general management of affairs, proceeded to
carry out the engagements the Company had entered into with the local
legislatures. It has been said that the greatest boons conferred on
mankind have been due to men of one idea. If the laying of the Atlantic
Cable be among these benefits, its consummation may certainly be
attributed to the man who, having many ideas, devoted himself to work
out one idea with a gentle force and a patient vigour which converted
opposition and overcame indifference. Mr. Field may be likened either to
the core, or to the external protection, of the Cable itself. At times
he has been its active life; again he has been its iron-bound guardian.
Let who will claim the merit of first having said the Atlantic Cable was
possible, to Mr. Field is due the inalienable credit of having made it
possible, and of giving to an abortive conception all the attributes of
healthy existence.
The first step in the great enterprise, now fairly inaugurated, was the
connection of St. John’s with the telegraphic lines already in operation
in Canada and the United States.
Mr. Field was despatched to England, as there were no firms established
for the manufacture of submarine cables in the United States, to order
the necessary work to be done, and to raise money. He previously ordered
specimens of cable to be made, so that when he landed in England they
were ready for his inspection; and soon after his arrival he entered
into a contract with Messrs. Küper & Co. (subsequently Glass, Elliot, &
Co.) for a cable to be laid across the Gulf of St. Lawrence. He held
interviews with eminent engineers and electricians, among whom were Mr.
Brunel, Mr. (now Sir C.) Bright, Mr. Brett, and Mr. Whitehouse,
respecting his larger project, which led to extended and valuable
experiments. The cable for Newfoundland was formed in three strands, and
had three conducting wires; and Mr. Field undertook to lay it, under the
direction of Mr. Canning. In August, 1855, the first attempt was made;
but off Cape Ray a violent gale arose, and it was deemed necessary by
the master of the vessel to cut the cable. This disappointment was not
in the least a discouragement. Another contract was made by Mr. Field
with Messrs. Küper & Co. to make and lay a cable at their own risk,
which was executed by Mr. Canning in the Propontis the following year.
The station is at Point-au-Basque, near the western extremity of
Newfoundland, and the telegraph runs across the island to Trinity Bay.
The opportunities for scientific experiments afforded by the manufacture
of these cables were not neglected. The possibility of transmitting
signals under water without fatal loss of power from the increased
length of circuit was the first fact determined. The attention of the
experimentalists was then directed to ascertain whether, having regard
to existing theories, it would be possible to carry even a single
conductor across the Atlantic without the aid of a cable so ponderous
and so costly as to render it useless in a commercial point of view. A
series of direct experiments were at once undertaken, which resulted in
the establishment of the following facts:--first, that retardation of
movement, in consequence of increasing distance, did not occur at a rate
which could seriously affect a cable across the Atlantic; secondly, that
increased dimensions in insulated marine conductors augmented the
difficulties in obtaining velocity, so that bulk in a cable would not be
requisite; and, thirdly, that a velocity and facility which would
satisfy all mere commercial and financial requirements in a line
crossing the Atlantic, might be attained in the largest circuits. The
next step was to actually make signals through 2000 miles of wire. This
was accomplished through the kindness of the directors of the English
and Irish Magnetic Company, who placed at the disposal of the
experimentalists 5000 miles of under-ground wire. On the 9th of October,
1856, in the quiet of the night time, the experiment was tried
successfully. Signals were distinctly and satisfactorily telegraphed
through 2000 miles of wire, at the rate of 210, 241, and 270 per minute.
There was still a matter of the last importance to be determined. Was
the state of the bed of the Atlantic really such as to warrant the
conclusion that a wire 2000 miles long could be deposited and remain
there without injury?
Mr. Field, in order to ascertain this fact, obtained from the government
of America the assistance of Lieut. Berryman, U.S.N., in the steam-ship
Arctic, who succeeded, in July, 1856, in taking soundings across the
Atlantic at distances varying from 30 to 50 miles, and, by means of
scoops, or quills, bringing up specimens of the bottom, which, upon
microscopic examination, proved to be composed of fine shells and sand.
As capital was needed for the execution of the enterprise which the
confidence of moneyed men in the United States did not induce them to
supply, and as it was desirable to enlist the support of the capitalists
of Great Britain, Mr. Field was now authorised to form a company, with
branches in both countries. Having secured the services of Mr. Brett,
Mr. (now Sir C.) Bright, Mr. Woodhouse, and others, on the 1st of
November, 1856, as Vice-President of the New York, Newfoundland, and
London Telegraph Company, he issued an elaborate, able, and
argumentative circular in London, headed, “Atlantic Telegraph,” and made
a tour through the great towns, addressing meetings in support of the
project.
On the 6th of November, 1856, the prospectus was issued, with a nominal
capital of 350,000_l._, represented by 350 shares of 1000_l._ each, and
within one month the entire of the capital had been subscribed for, and
the first instalment of 70.000_l._ paid up.
One hundred and six shares were taken in London, eighty-eight in the
United States, eighty-six in Liverpool, thirty-seven in Glasgow, and the
remainder in other parts of England. Mr. Field stood as subscriber of
88,000_l._, and represented all America.
But it was not only from the public of Great Britain the project met
encouragement. Ere the new company was formed, Mr. Field (13th
September, 1855) addressed Lord Clarendon, requesting aid, and
protection and privileges, and on the 20th November received a reply
from the Secretary to the Treasury, engaging to furnish ships for
soundings, and to consider favourably any request for help in laying the
Cable, to pay 14,000_l._ (4 per cent. on capital) as remuneration for
Government messages, till the net profits were 6 per cent., when the
payment was to become 10,000_l._ for twenty-five years, and the Royal
assent was given to the Act of Incorporation of the Company July 27th,
1857.
Mr. Field received far more encouragement in Great Britain, in
Parliament and out of it, than he did at home. His bill was nearly
rejected in the United States Senate, and it is stated only twenty-seven
shares of the first stock were at first subscribed for in the States. On
the motion of Mr. Seward, a resolution was passed in the Senate, United
States, on the 23rd December, in compliance with which the President
transmitted a copy of an application from the New York Office of the New
York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company, dated December 15th,
in which the Directors set forth “their earnest desire to secure for the
United States Government equal privileges with those stipulated for by
the British Government in a work prosecuted thus far with American
capital,” and then recounted the terms agreed to by the Lords of the
Treasury. On January 9th, 1857, Mr. Seward introduced a bill in the
Senate to give and receive precisely the same privileges on the part of
the United States Government. It was violently opposed, was only carried
by one vote, and was not approved till March 3rd following.
The money being now forthcoming, the Provisional Directors of the
Company proceeded to order the Atlantic Cable. Mr. Field was anxious
that the order should be given to the firm which had manufactured the
St. Lawrence Cable, but the Board thought it would be better to divide
the contract, and on the 6th December, 1856, they entered upon
agreements with the Gutta Percha Company for the supply of 2,500 miles
of core, consisting of copper wire, with a triple covering of insulating
substance, at 40_l._ per mile; and also with Messrs. Glass, Elliot, &
Co., of East Greenwich, and Messrs. Newall & Co., of Birkenhead,
respectively, for the supply from each of 1,250 miles of the completed
Cable for 62,000_l._ Within six months from that day, namely, on the 6th
of July, 1857, the entire Cable was completed.
The policy of dividing the contract for the manufacture of the Cable was
questioned at the time. When one portion of the Cable was to be made at
East Greenwich and the other at Birkenhead, how was it possible that
there could be any uniformity of supervision, any integrity of design,
or any individual responsibility? Again, how was it possible that the
textile strength or conducting power of the Cable could be tested as
satisfactorily as would have been the case were its manufacture
entrusted to one firm? And, as it happened, the twist ran from right to
left in one half, and from left to right in the other half of the Cable.
Before the prospectus was issued, every attention was paid that the
characteristics of the Cable should be suited to its work; that it
should not be too dense, lest its weight should render it unmanageable
in the sea--nor too light, lest it should be at the mercy of the
currents as it went down. It was decided that it should weigh a ton per
mile, should be just so much heavier than the water which it displaced
in sinking, and of such structure as could be easily coiled and yet be a
rigid line, while its centre should be composed of wire capable of
conveying electrical symbols through an extent of more than 2000 miles,
and should retain complete insulation when immersed in the ocean. It was
a subject of close and anxious inquiry how to obtain a Cable of this
form and character. No fewer than sixty-two different kinds of rope were
tested before one was determined on.
In the Cable finally adopted, the central conducting wire was a strand
made up of seven wires of the purest copper, of the gauge known in the
trade as No. 22. The strand itself was about the sixteenth of an inch in
diameter, and was formed of one straightly drawn wire, with six others
twisted round it; this was accomplished by the central wire being
dragged from a drum through a hole in a horizontal table, while the
table itself revolved rapidly, under the impulse of steam, carrying near
its circumference six reels or drums each armed with copper wire. Every
drum revolved upon its own horizontal axis, and so delivered its wire as
it turned. This twisted form of conducting wire was first adopted for
the rope laid across the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 1856, and was employed
with a view to the reduction to the lowest possible amount of the chance
of continuity being destroyed in the circuit. It seemed improbable in
the highest degree that a fracture could be accidentally produced at
precisely the same spot in more than one of the wires of this twisted
strand. All the seven wires might be broken at different parts of the
strand, even some hundreds of times, and yet its capacity for the
transmission of the electric current not destroyed, or reduced in any
inconvenient degree. The copper used in the formation of these wires was
assayed from time to time during the manufacture to insure absolute
homogeneity and purity. The strand itself, when subjected to strain,
stretched 20 per cent. of its length without giving way, and indeed
without having its conducting power much modified or impaired.
The copper strand of the Cable was rolled up on drums as it was
completed, and was then taken from the drums to receive a coating of
three separate layers of refined gutta percha; these brought its
diameter up to about three-eighths of an inch. The coating of gutta
percha was made unusually thick, for the sake of diminishing the
influence of induction, and in order that the insulation might be
rendered as perfect as possible. This latter object was also furthered
by the several layers of the insulating material being laid on in
succession; so that if there were accidentally any flaw in the one coat,
the imperfection was sure to be removed when the next deposit was added.
To prove the efficacy of the proceeding, a great number of holes were
made near together in the first coating of a fragment of the wire, and
the second coat was then applied in the usual way. The insulation of the
strand was found to be perfect under these circumstances, and continued
so even when the core was subjected to hydraulic pressure, amounting to
five tons on the square inch. The gutta percha which was employed for
the coating of the conducting strand, was prepared with the utmost
possible care. Lumps of the crude substance were first rasped down by a
revolving toothed cylinder, placed within a hollow case, the whole piece
of apparatus somewhat resembling the agricultural turnip machine in its
mode of action. The raspings were then passed between rollers, macerated
in hot water, and well churned. They were next washed in cold water, and
driven at a boiling-water temperature, by hydraulic power, through
wire-gauze sieves, attached to the bottom of wide vertical pipes. The
gutta percha came out from the sieves in plastic masses of exceeding
purity and fineness, and those masses were then squeezed and kneaded for
hours by screws, revolving in hollow cylinders, called masticators; this
was done to get the water out, and to render the substance of the gutta
percha sound and homogeneous everywhere. At each turn of the screw, the
plastic mass protruded itself through an opening left for feeding in the
upper part of the masticator, and was then drawn back as the screw
rolled on. When the mechanical texture of the refined mass was perfected
by masticating and kneading, it was placed in horizontal cylinders,
heated by steam, and squeezed through them by screw pistons, driven down
by the machinery very slowly, and with resistless force. The gutta
percha emerged, under this pressure, through a die, which received the
termination of both cylinders, and which at the same time had the strand
of copper wire moving along through its centre. The strands were drawn
by revolving drums between the cylinders, and through the die. They
entered the die naked bright copper wire, and issued from it thick,
dull-looking cords, a complete coating of gutta percha having been
attached to them as they traversed the die. Six strands were coated
together, ranging along side by side at the first covering. Then a
series of three lengths of the strand received the second coat together.
The third coat was communicated to a solitary strand. The strand and
its triple coating of gutta percha were together designated “the core.”
[Illustration: F. Jones, lith from a drawing by R. Dudley
London, Day & Sons, Limited, Lith.
THE REELS OF GUTTA PERCHA COVERED CONDUCTING WIRE CONVEYED INTO TANKS AT
THE WORKS AT GREENWICH.]
[Illustration: R. M. Bryson, lith from a drawing by R. Dudley London,
Day & Sons, Limited, Lith.
VALENCIA IN 1857-1858 AT THE TIME OF THE LAYING OF THE FORMER CABLE.]
The copper strand was formed and coated with gutta percha in two mile
lengths. Each of these lengths, when completed, was immersed in water,
and then carefully tested to prove that its continuity and insulation
were both perfect. The continuity was ascertained by passing a voltaic
current of low power through the strand from a battery of a single pair
of plates, and causing it to record a signal after issuing from the
wire. A different and very remarkable plan was adopted to determine the
amount of insulation. One pole of a voltaic battery, consisting of 500
pairs of plates, was connected with the earth; the other pole was united
to a wire which coiled round the needle of a very sensitive horizontal
galvanometer, and then ran on into the insulated strand of the core, the
end of which was turned up into the air, and left without any conducting
communication. If the insulation was perfect, the earth would form one
pole of the battery, and the end of the insulated strand the other pole,
and the circuit be quite open and uninterrupted; consequently no current
would pass, and the needle of the galvanometer would not be deflected in
the slightest degree. If on the other hand there was any imperfection,
or permeability in the sheath of gutta percha, a portion of the
electricity would force its way from the strand through the faulty
places and surrounding water to the earth, a current would be set up,
and the needle of the galvanometer deflected; the deflection being in
proportion to the current which passed, and therefore its degree would
become a measure of the amount of imperfection.
When about fifty of the two-mile lengths of core were ready, these were
placed in the water of the canal which ran past the gutta percha works,
and were joined up by their ends into one continuous strand of 100
miles, the joints being covered with gutta percha. The hundred-mile
length was then put through a careful scrutiny in the same way that the
smaller portions were tried,--and next it was halved, quartered, and
separated into groups of twenty, ten, and finally two miles, and each of
these were again separately examined, and tested in comparison with
similar lengths previously approved.
Whenever separate lengths of the gutta percha covered core were to be
joined together, the gutta percha was scraped away for a short distance
from the ends, and these were made to overlap. A piece of copper wire
was then attached by firm brazing, an inch or two beyond the joint on
one side, tightly bound round until it reached to the same extent on the
other side, and then was there firmly brazed on again. A second binding
was next rolled over the first in the same fashion, and extended a
little way beyond it, and finally several layers of gutta percha were
carefully laid over, and all round the joint by the agency of hot irons.
If the core on each side of the joint was dragged opposite ways until
the joint yielded, the outer investment of the wire unrolled spirally as
the ends were pulled asunder, and so the conducting continuity of the
strand was maintained, although the mechanical continuity of the strand
itself was broken.
The two-mile coils of completed and proved core were wound on large
drums with projecting flanges on each side, the rims of which were shod
with iron tires, so that they might be rolled about as broad wheels, and
made to perform their own locomotive offices as far as possible. When
the core was in position on these channelled drums, the circumference of
the drum was closed in carefully by a sheet of gutta percha, which thus
constituted its core-filled channel a sort of cylindrical box or packing
case. In this snug nest each completed coil of core was wheeled and
dragged away to be transferred to the manufactory, either at Birkenhead
or Greenwich.
The core-filled drums, having arrived at the factory of the Cable, the
drums were mounted by axles, and kept ready so that one extremity of the
length of core might be attached to the Cable as it was spun out, when
the drum previously in use had been exhausted. During the unrolling of
the core from the drum, it was wound tightly round by a serving of hemp,
saturated with a composition made chiefly of pitch and tar, the winding
being effected by revolving bobbins as the core was drawn along. This
hempen serving constituted a bed for the external coat of metallic
wires, and prevented the insulating sheath of gutta percha from being
injured by pressure during the final stage of the construction. Each new
length of core was attached to the Cable by precisely the same operation
as that used at the gutta percha works in joining the two-mile coils for
testing; shortly before an old drum was exhausted, its remainder was
rapidly pulled off and placed in the joiner’s hands, so that it might be
made continuous with the core on a new drum, before the outgoing Cable
began to draw upon it.