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H.M.S. Agamemnon entering Valentia Bay with first Atlantic Cable. Frontispiece.

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THE STORY OF THE
ATLANTIC CABLE

BY
CHARLES BRIGHT
F. R. S. E., A. M. Inst. C. E., M. I. E. E.
AUTHOR OF SUBMARINE TELEGRAPHS, SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
DURING THE VICTORIAN ERA, THE EVOLUTION OF THE
ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH, 1837-1897, THE LIFE STORY
OF SIR CHARLES TILSTON BRIGHT

WITH FIFTY-FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS

NEW YORK
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
1903

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Copyright, 1903, by
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY

Published November, 1903

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PREFATORY NOTE

THE jubilee of Submarine Telegraphy having lately been achieved, and that connected with the Atlantic cable being somewhat close at hand, it has been thought a suitable moment for the appearance of this little volume.

In these days when the substitution of submarine cables by wireless telegraphy systems is a subject of common talk, it may be well to pause for a moment and contemplate the period of time covered by the gradual evolution of old and existing methods which at length achieved the result we now enjoy—a practical commercial telegraphic system between all the nations of the world, and notably between the United Kingdom and America.

By a somewhat curious coincidence the engineer of the first Atlantic cable accomplished his achievement at practically the same youthful age (twenty-six) as Mr. Marconi when first transmitting signals across the Atlantic without any intervening wires.

C. B.

21 Old Queen Street, Westminster, S. W.,
October, 1903.

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CONTENTS

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

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PART I

INTRODUCTORY

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The Electric Telegraph.—The advances made in electric science are so bold and rapid that our still comparative ignorance of the precise nature of electricity must always seem strange. We are not, however, here directly concerned with electricity as a physical science, but rather with its practical applications to the still present system of telegraphy, by way of introduction to the gradual development of Trans-Atlantic telegraphy. The electric telegraph, together with the railway-train and the steamship, constitute the three most conspicuous features of latter-day civilization. Indeed, it may be truly said that the harnessing of this force of nature (electricity) to the service of man for human intercourse has effected a change in political, commercial, and social relations, even more complete than that wrought by steam locomotion. Like its fellow emblems, the telegraph was the outcome of many years of persevering effort on the part of numerous scientific investigators and inventors; like them also, it was perfected for practical use on both sides of the Atlantic by men of our own race{14} and speech, such as Cooke, Wheatstone, and Morse.

The First Land Telegraphs.—The first practical telegraph-line in the world—namely, that on the Great Western Railway from Paddington to West Drayton, shortly afterward extended to Slough—was within the year of Queen Victoria’s accession to the throne, and in the same year as the first trunk line of railway and the first ocean steamer.[1] Improvements and novelties in telegraphic instruments were rapidly made by inventors from all the civilized nations—e. g., Morse, Vail, and Henry in America; Breguet in France; Steinheil and Siemens & Halske in Germany; and Schilling in Russia; besides Alexander Bain, Bright, and Hughes in England. Commercial interests were soon formed to work the new invention, and in England the Electric and International Telegraph Company, the British and Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company, and other large concerns were the means of establishing telegraphic communication throughout the kingdom—only to be absorbed by Government later on. Our theme does not include—even in the course of introduction—a study of the development of land telegraphy. The apparatus and methods employed are, to a great extent, entirely different; indeed, the only point in common between the cardinal principles and submarine telegraphy is that electricity, as generated by a voltaic battery, is the common agent, and consequently{15} the metal conducting-wire is employed in both.[2] But in subaqueous (as well as in subterranean) telegraphy the poles and porcelain insulators require to be substituted by an insulating covering round the entire conductor; and the point of contact in practise between land and marine telegraphy is really, therefore, in the matter of insulation for subterranean or subaqueous wires.

First Submarine Cables.—A Spaniard named Salva appears to have suggested the feasibility of submarine telegraphy as far back as 1795, and in 1811 Sommering and Schilling conducted a series of experiments, more or less practical, when a soluble material—said to have been india-rubber—was first used for insulating the wire.

But the earliest records of practical telegraphy under water of which there are any particulars relate to the experiments conducted by Dr. O’Shaughnessy (afterward Sir William O’Shaughnessy Brooke, F.R.S.) across the River Hugli on behalf of the East Indian Company in 1838.[3] Referring to his practical researches a little later, O’Shaughnessy remarked: “Insulation, according to my experiments, is best accomplished by enclosing the wire (previously pitched) in a split rattan, and then paying the rattan round with tarred yarn; or the wire may—as in some experiments by Colonel Pasley,{16} R.E., at Chatham—be surrounded by strands of tarred rope, and this by pitched yarn. An insulated rope of this kind may be spread across a wet field—nay, even led through a river—and will still conduct the electrical signals, without any appreciable loss.” In 1840 Professor Wheatstone (afterward Sir Charles Wheatstone, F.R.S.) explained to a committee of the House of Commons the methods by which he thought it possible to establish telegraphic communication between Dover and Calais. He appears to have been unaware of the prior experiments just alluded to, for his system of insulation, though more fully developed, was practically the same.

Prof. S. F. B. Morse, the well-known inventor of the telegraph apparatus bearing his name, also made a study of this problem in 1842, when he laid down an insulated copper wire across New York harbor, through which he transmitted electric currents. Hemp soaked in tar and pitch, surrounded with a layer of india-rubber, constituted the insulation. Morse was a great letter-writer, and records of his early work are solely based on his own statements at a time when he noted in his diary: “I am crushed for want of means. My stockings all want to see my mother, and my hat is hoary with age.” In 1845 Ezra Cornell, who was afterward the founder of Cornell University, laid a cable, twelve miles long, to connect Fort Lee with New York, in the Hudson River. The cable consisted of two cotton-covered copper wires, insulated with india-rubber, and enclosed in a leaden pipe. It worked well for several months, but was broken by ice in 1846. In that year Mr. Charles{17} West paid out by hand an india-rubber insulated wire in Portsmouth harbor, through which he signaled from a boat to the shore. The experiment was intended as the forerunner of the establishment of telegraphic communication between England and France, but for want of the necessary funds was not followed up.

Subaqueous, or marine, telegraphy owed its institution, however, to the introduction of gutta-percha, for insulating purposes. The late Dr. Werner Siemens having invented a machine for applying gutta-percha to a wire—similar in principle to the machine for making macaroni—considerable lengths of gutta-percha-covered subterranean wires were laid in Germany and Prussia between 1846 and 1849; and in 1849 Siemens laid a gutta-percha insulated conductor in the harbor of Kiel which was used for firing mines. Following this came the extensive system of underground lines laid down in England for the Magnetic Telegraph Company by their engineer, Mr. (afterward Sir Charles) Bright, in accordance with a patent of his. Short lengths were also laid, mostly through tunnels, by the Electric Telegraph Company a little later.

On the 10th day of January, 1849, the late Mr. C. V. Walker, F.R.S., electrician to the Southeastern Railway, laid a gutta-percha-covered conductor, two miles long, in the English Channel. The wire was coiled on a drum on board the laying vessel, from which it was paid out as the vessel progressed. Starting from the beach at Folkestone, the line was joined up to an aerial wire, 83 miles in length, along the Southeastern Railway, and Mr. Walker, on board the{18} Princess Clementine, succeeded in exchanging telegrams with London.

On the 23d July, 1845, the brothers Jacob and John Watkins Brett addressed themselves to Sir Robert Peel, as Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury, relative to a proposal of theirs for establishing a general system of telegraphic communication—oceanic and otherwise. They were referred to the Admiralty, Foreign Office, etc., and gradually became involved in a departmental correspondence—more academic than useful—in which they were passed backward and forward from one government office to another. After considerable negotiations with both governments concerned, a concession was at last obtained by the Messrs. Brett, and a company formed for instituting telegraphy between England and France by means of a line from Dover to Calais. Twenty-five nautical miles of No. 14 copper wire covered with ½-inch thickness of gutta-percha was then manufactured, the electrician’s tongue being the only test applied to some of the lengths. The shore ends for about two miles from each terminus consisted of a No. 16 B.W.G.[4] conductor covered with cotton soaked in india-rubber solution, the whole being incased in a very thick lead tube. The rest of the line was composed of the gutta-percha insulated wire above described, with 30-pound leaden weights fastened to it at 100-yard intervals,[5] the laying{19} vessel having to be stopped each time one was put on. The submersion of the line was successfully effected, but it only lived to speak a few more or less incoherent words—one being a short complimentary communication to Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, shortly afterward Emperor of the French. It subsequently transpired that a Boulogne fisherman had hooked up the line with his trawl, “mistaking it for a new kind of seaweed!” This enterprise excited little attention at the time. It was, in fact, regarded as a “mad freak” and even as a “gigantic swindle.” When accomplished, The Times remarked, in the words of Shakespeare, “The jest of yesterday has become the fact of to-day”; and a few hours later it might with equal truth have been said that “the fact of yesterday has become the jest of to-day!” The feasibility of laying such a line and of transmitting electric signals across the Channel had, however, been proved. The signals obtained had, moreover, the effect of eradicating the then very prevalent belief that, even if the line were successfully submerged, the current would become dissipated in the water.[6] It now remained to find a satisfactory method of protecting the insulated conductor from injury during and after laying. The excellence of the insulating material was recently testified to when some portions were recovered.{20}

Though the above line was not, practically speaking, turned to any account, it was by no means abortive, for the signals it had conveyed were sufficient to “save the concession,” which was renewed by the French Government on December 19, 1850. But the previous failure had made capitalists distrustful; and only some weeks before the expiration of the time limit the necessary funds had not been raised.

Dover-Calais, 1850-’51.—The undertaking was saved by the energy and talent of one man, Mr. T. R. Crampton, an eminent railway engineer. He raised the necessary capital (£15,000), putting his own name down for half this amount and being joined by Lord de Mauley and the late Sir James Carmichael. He (Mr. Crampton) also settled the type of cable to be laid—based on the iron pit-rope; this, in one form or another, practically remains the type of to-day. The cable contained four copper conducting-wires of No. 16 B.W.G., each one covered with two layers of gutta-percha to No. 1 gage; these four insulated conductors, or “cores,” were laid together and the interstices filled up with strands of tarred Russian hemp. The outer covering consisted of ten galvanized-iron wires of No. 1 gage wound spirally round the bundle of cores; this armor was provided “with a view to protecting the insulated conductors from the strains and chafing which had so seriously interfered with the chances of the previous line.” The completed cable weighed about seven tons to the mile. It was coiled into the hold of an old pontoon hulk, which was then taken in tow by two steamers. A third tug to stand by, and a small man-of-war{21} steamer to act as pilot, accompanied the laying expedition. The cable was landed at the foot of the South Foreland lighthouse and paid out toward Cape Sangatte, but the weather was less favorable than on the previous occasion; moreover, the weight of the cable—in the absence of efficient holding-back gear—caused it to run out too rapidly, notwithstanding the slight depth (some 30 fathoms) encountered. Added to this, the tugs drifted with the wind and tide. Thus when the vessels arrived within about a mile of the French coast no more cable was left on board, and a fresh length had to be procured and spliced on before the line was complete. This cable proved a lasting success: it underwent numerous and extensive repairs, and it was only quite recently that its abandonment took place.

Other Early Cables.—The success of Crampton’s line gave considerable impetus to submarine telegraphy. Similar enterprises sprung up on all sides; but many failures occurred before these operations came to be regarded as ordinary industrial undertakings. In the course of the following year (1852) three unsuccessful attempts were made to establish telegraphic communication between England and Ireland. In the first—between Holyhead and Howth—the cable was not heavy enough to contend with the rough bottom, and strong currents and disturbances from anchors experienced in these waters; but this undertaking is remarkable as being the only instance in which an effort was made to do without any intermediate serving between the insulated conductor and the iron sheathing. In the second attempt—between Port Patrick (Scotland) and{22} Donaghadee (Ireland)—the cable consisted of a central copper conductor covered first with india-rubber, then with gutta-percha, and then hemp outside all. This cable, being far too light, was actually carried away by the strong tidal currents and even broken into pieces during laying. In the third endeavor, between the same two points, the arrangements for checking the cable while paying out being again inadequate, there was not sufficient to reach the farther shore. However, in 1853, a heavy cable, weighing 7 tons per mile, with six conductors, was successfully laid for the Magnetic Telegraph Company by the late Sir Charles Bright.[7] This was in upward of 180 fathoms—the deepest water in which a cable was laid for some time—and proved a permanent success, forming the first establishment of telegraphic communication with Ireland. Only a year elapsed before it became evident that another cable was required to meet the traffic between England and the Continent, and an additional line was laid from Dover to Ostend. Anglo-Dutch and Anglo-German cables followed in due course; and in less than ten years from the commencement of its operations over the first Channel cable, the Submarine Telegraph Company (since absorbed by the state) was working at least half a dozen really excellent cables, varying from 25 to 117 miles in length, connecting England with the rest of Europe. During the next few years submarine communication was established between Denmark and Sweden, as well as between Italy, Corsica, and Sardinia; and between Sardinia and{23} the north coast of Africa; but where successful, the measures adopted were, in the main, similar to those we have already described in connection with the preceding lines, though special conditions were, in some instances, the means of introducing certain modifications and improvements. Several serious failures were, however, experienced in the deep water of the Mediterranean which had a detracting effect—in the public mind—on the chances of the great undertaking which was to follow.

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PART II

THE PIONEER LINE

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CHAPTER I

EVOLUTION OF ATLANTIC TELEGRAPHY IN AMERICA AND ENGLAND

As has been shown in the introductory chapter, the efforts of the early projectors of submarine telegraphy were at first confined to connecting countries divided only by narrow seas, or establishing communication between points on the same seaboard. The next step forward, with which we are here immediately concerned—that of spanning the Atlantic Ocean between Europe and America—was aptly characterized at the time as “the great feat of the century.” By its means the people of the two great continents were to speak together in a few moments, though separated by a vast ocean.

This was the first venture in transoceanic telegraphy. There was no applicable data to go upon; for the vast difference between laying short cable-lengths across rivers, bays, etc., in shallow water, and that of laying a long length of cable in depths of over two miles across an open ocean will be easily recognized—at any rate, by the sailor and engineer.

The wires of the Magnetic Telegraph Company{28} had already been carried to various points on the west and south coast of Ireland; and, in 1852, Mr. F. N. Gisborne, a very able English engineer, obtained an exclusive concession for connecting St. Johns, Newfoundland, with Cape Ray, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, by an overhead telegraph-line. The idea was to “tap” steamers coming from London to Cape Race at St. Johns, and pass messages between that point and Cape Breton, on the other side of the Gulf, by carrier-pigeons. A few miles of cables were made in England, and laid between Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick. Mr. Gisborne then surveyed the route for the land-line across Newfoundland, and had erected some forty miles of it, when the work was stopped for want of funds. When in New York in 1854, Gisborne was introduced to Mr. Cyrus West Field, a retired merchant, who became enthusiastic on the subject, and formed a small, but strong, syndicate for the practical realization of Gisborne’s scheme. A cable eighty-five miles in length was made in England, to be laid between Cape Breton and Newfoundland; but after forty miles had been paid out, rough weather ensued, and the undertaking had to be abandoned. A fresh instalment was, however, sent out in 1856, and successfully laid across the Gulf, thus connecting St. Johns with Canada and the American lines. The conductor of this line instead of being a single solid wire was, for the first time, composed of several small wires laid up together in strand form—with a view to avoiding a flaw in any single wire stopping the conductivity, besides affording increased mechanical pliability.{29}

Fig. 1.—Newfoundland Telegraph Station, 1855.

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The feasibility of uniting the two vast systems of telegraphy had engaged the consideration of some of those most prominently associated with electric telegraphy on both sides of the Atlantic. It had been already shown that cables could be successfully laid and maintained in comparatively moderate depths in the Mediterranean, Black Sea, etc., but the nearest points between the British Isles and Newfoundland are nearly 2,000 miles apart. The greatest length of submarine line which had hitherto been effectively submerged—110 miles—formed but an insignificant portion of such an enormous distance; and that, too, involving a depth of nearly three miles for a large proportion of the way, instead of about 300 fathoms.

Apart from the engineering difficulties entailed by this vast distance and depth, the question was then undetermined as to the possibility of conveying electric currents through such a length in an unbroken circuit, and at a speed that would enable messages to be passed rapidly enough in succession to prove remunerative. Various researches had been made—by Faraday among others—with a view to determining the law in relation to the velocity of electricity through a conducting-wire.

The retarding effect of the insulating covering had already been discovered; but the exact formula for the working speed of cables of definite proportions and lengths was not correctly arrived at till some years later. The similarity, in principle, of a cable to a Leyden jar was first pointed out by Mr. Edward Brailsford Bright in the course of a paper read before the British Association{31} in 1854. He showed that on charging a gutta-percha-covered wire, the insulating material tended to absorb and retain a part of the charge and to hold back, as a static charge, some of the electricity flowing as current through the conductor—just as the charge (of opposite potential) induced on the outside plate of a Leyden jar statically holds the primary charge on the inner plate, until either are neutralized. The brothers, Edward and Charles Bright, made a series of extensive experiments on long lengths of underground wires; and these investigations were supplemented later by Mr. Edward Orange Wildman Whitehouse (formerly a medical practitioner), who became electrician to the first Atlantic cable. Mr. Whitehouse was a man of very high intellectual and scientific attainments, and a most ingenious and painstaking experimenter.

The retardation of the electric current through an insulated wire due to induction—a phenomenon practically unknown with bare, aerial wires suspended on posts, and of no consequence with quite short cables—was overcome by using a succession of opposite currents. By this means the latter, or retarded, portion of each current was “wiped out” by the opposite current immediately following it; and thus a series of electric waves could be made to traverse the cable, one after the other, several being in the act of passing onward at different points along the conductor at the same time. The Messrs. Bright devised a special key (embodied with a patent for signaling through long cables) for transmitting these alternating currents from the battery; and this was followed by others to effect the same object—one{32} by Professor Thomson (now Lord Kelvin), who became electrical adviser to the enterprise.

Fig. 2.—The Brooke “Sounder.”

A certain degree of knowledge regarding the nature of the bed of the Atlantic Ocean was now available; for in the summer of 1856 a series of soundings had been taken by Lieutenant O. H. Berryman, U.S.N., from U.S.N. Arctic, and also independently by Commander Joseph Dayman, R.N. (H.M.S. Cyclops), showing what was called “a gently undulating plateau extending the whole distance between Ireland and British North America.” These depths (averaging about 2½ miles) compared favorably with those that had{33} presented themselves farther southward. The ground was found to shoal gradually on the Newfoundland side, but rose more rapidly toward the Irish shore. The soundings were taken with the ingenious apparatus of Lieut. J. M. Brooke, U.S.N. (Fig. 2), which formed the prototype of all similar deep-sea sounding-tubes of the present day. In this, at the extremity of the sounding-line a light iron rod, C, hollowed at its lower end, passed loosely through a hole in the center of a cannon-ball weight, A, which is fastened to the line by a couple of links. On the bottom being touched, the links reverse position, owing to the weight being taken off, and the cannon-ball, or plummet, B, being set free, remains on the ground, leaving the light tube only to be drawn up with the line.[8] In the act of grounding, however, the open end of the tube presses into the bottom, a specimen of which is consequently obtained—unless it be rock or coral. An oozy bottom was found throughout the soundings. The specimens brought up to the surface were shown under the microscope to consist (Fig. 3) of the tiny shells of animalculæ—the indestructible outside skeletons of the animal organisms known as diatomaceæ and globigirenæ foraminiferæ largely composed of carbonate of lime.[9] No sand or gravel{34} was found on the ocean bed, from which it was deduced that no currents, or other disturbing elements, existed at those depths; for otherwise these frail shells would have been rubbed to pieces. As it was, they came up entire—without a sign of abrasion. The plateau or ridge—which was found to extend for some 400 miles in breadth—was considered a veritable feather-bed for a{35} cable. Indeed, in his subsequent report to the United States navy, Lieut. M. F. Maury, U.S.N., spoke of this “shallow platform or table-land” as having been “apparently placed for the express purpose of holding the wires of a submarine telegraph and of keeping them out of harm’s way.” Lieutenant Maury concluded his report as follows: “I do not, however, pretend to consider the question as to the possibility of finding a time calm enough, the sea smooth enough, a wire long enough, or a ship big enough, to lay a coil of wire sixteen hundred miles in length.” These words form amusing reading nowadays, as do also the suggestions of “telegraph plateaus” furnished by Providence as a resting-place for the Atlantic cable. The “plateau” idea was only true to the extent that the bed of the ocean in these regions afforded a smooth surface as compared with the Alpine character prevailing north and south of it. These soundings at something like fifty-mile intervals were not, however, originally undertaken with the Atlantic cable expressly in view. Indeed, for many years—until experience pointed to the absolute necessity—no special surveys were made previous to the laying of a cable.[10]

Fig. 3.—Specimen of the Ocean Bed. (Magnified 10,000 times.)

Formation of the Atlantic Telegraph Company, 1856.—Cyrus Field, besides being a man of sanguine temperament and intense business energy,{36} also possessed shrewdness and foresight. Thus, he immediately recognized the value of Gisborne’s concessions, and determined to turn them to the fullest account. His extraordinary acumen told him that by improving on the exclusive landing rights already obtained in America, he would place himself in the strongest possible position in regard to the big notion of an Atlantic cable. No sooner had he made up his mind to this effect than he set to work to accomplish the idea; and very soon exclusive rights were obtained in his name (Gisborne having entirely dropped out of the negotiations) for practically every important point in connection with the landing of an Atlantic cable on British North American territory. The period for these rights was fifty years, besides which he obtained various grants of land. Thus it will be seen he had assured himself a very strong position in connection with any project for an Atlantic cable without having had (in the words of his brother, Henry Field) “any experience in the business of laying a submarine telegraph.” Mr. Field’s syndicate was about this time registered as the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company, which was now capable of debarring competition for a considerable period, at any rate.

Armed with this apparent monopoly, Mr. Field went over to England, empowered by his associates to deal with the exclusive concession possessed by the above company for the coast of Newfoundland and other rights in Nova Scotia, etc. He had already been over before in connection with the Gulf of St. Lawrence cable. He had, on that occasion, met Mr. John Watkins{37} Brett, who thereupon interested himself financially in the “Newfoundland Company.” On his second mission (in July, 1856) he at once put himself into communication with Mr. (afterward Sir Charles) Bright, who was known to be already making various preparations with a view to an Atlantic cable in connection with the Magnetic Telegraph system. On September 26, 1856, an agreement was entered into between Brett, Bright, and Field in the following terms, their signatures being reproduced as they appear at the foot of the document:

“Mutually, and on equal terms we engage to exert ourselves for the purpose of forming a Company for establishing and working of electric telegraphic communication between Newfoundland and Ireland, such Company to be called the Atlantic Telegraph Company, or by such other name as the parties hereto shall jointly agree upon.”

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Let us see now what the united efforts of these three “projectors” had before them. The ground had already been to some extent cleared by their individual exertions when working independently, as well as in other ways. Bright, and also Whitehouse, had already proved the possibility of signaling through such a length of insulated wire as that involved by an Atlantic line. The soundings that had been recently taken showed that the depth was only unfavorable in the sense of being something far—but uniformly—greater than that in which any cable had previously been submerged. Finally, the favorable nature of the landing rights secured by Field on the other side went a long way toward insuring against competition, apart from the actual permission. There yet remained, then, the necessity of obtaining (a) Government recognition, and, if possible, Government subsidies; (b) the confidence and pecuniary support of the moneyed mercantile class; besides which a suitable form of cable had to be designed and manufactured, as well as all the necessary apparatus for the laying of the same.

As a result of considerable discussion, the two governments concerned eventually came to recognize the importance and feasibility of this undertaking for linking together the two great English-speaking nations, and the benefits it would confer upon humanity. Both the British and United States Governments gave a subsidy, in return for free transmission of their messages, with priority over others.[11] This, however, only{40} jointly amounted to 8 per cent of the capital, and was payable only while the cable worked.[12]

The Atlantic Telegraph Company was registered on October 20, 1856, and the £350,000 decided on as the necessary capital for the work was then sought and obtained in an absolutely unprecedented fashion. There was no promotion money, no prospectus was published, no advertisements, no brokers, and no commissions, neither was there at that time any board of directors or executive officers. The election of a board was reserved for a meeting of shareholders, to be held after allotment by the provisional committee, consisting of the subscribers to the Memorandum of Association. Any remuneration to the projectors was left wholly dependent on, and subsequent to, the shareholders’ profits being over 10 per cent per annum, after which the projectors were to divide the surplus.

The campaign was opened in Liverpool, the headquarters of the “Magnetic” Company, the greater proportion of whose shareholders were business men—merchants and shipowners—mainly hailing from Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, and London, who appreciated the value of America being connected telegraphically with Great Britain and Europe through their Irish lines.

The first meeting of the “Atlantic” Company was convened for November 12, 1856, at the underwriters’ rooms in the Liverpool Exchange. This was called together by means of a small circular{41} on a half-sheet of note-paper, issued by Mr. E. B. Bright, manager of the “Magnetic” Company. The result was a crowded gathering composed of the wealth, enterprise, and influence of Liverpool and other important business and manufacturing centers. Similar meetings were also held in Manchester and Glasgow, and a public subscription list was opened at the “Magnetic” Company’s office of each town. In the course of a few days the entire capital was raised, by the issue of 350 shares of £1,000 each, chiefly taken up by the shareholders of the “Magnetic” Company. Mr. Cyrus Field had reserved £75,000 for American subscription, for which he signed, but his confidence in his compatriots turned out to be greatly misplaced. The result has been thus recounted by his brother: “He (Cyrus Field) thought that one-fourth of the stock should be held in this country (the United States), and he did not doubt from the eagerness with which three-fourths had been taken in England, that the remainder would be at once subscribed in America.” In point of fact, it was only after much trouble that subscribers were obtained in the States for a total of twenty-seven shares, or less than one-twelfth of the total capital. Thus, notwithstanding their professed enthusiasm, the faith of the Americans in the project proved to be strictly limited. At any rate, they did not rise to the occasion. Indeed, the undertaking was very much an affair of the Magnetic Telegraph Company, the officers of which led the shareholders to take a lively interest from the first in the Atlantic project as forming the nucleus of a great extension of business.{42}

The first meeting of shareholders took place on December 9, 1856, when a board of directors was elected. This included the late George Peabody, Samuel Gurney, T. H. Brooking, T. A. Hankey, C. M. (afterward Sir Curtis) Lampson, and Sir William Brown, of Liverpool, no less than nine (representing the interests of different towns) being also directors of the “Magnetic” Company, including Mr. J. W. Brett. The first chairman was Sir William Brown, subsequently succeeded by the Right Hon. James Stuart-Wortley, M.P. Two names may be further specially referred to as destined, in different ways, to have the greatest possible influence in the subsequent development of submarine telegraphy. Mr. (afterward Sir John) Pender, who was then a “Magnetic” director, afterward took a leading part in the vast extensions that have followed to the Mediterranean, India, China, Australasia, the Cape, and Brazil, besides several of the subsequent Atlantic lines. Up to the time of his death he was chairman of something like a dozen, more or less allied, cable companies, representing some £30,000,000 of capital, and mainly organized through his foresight and business ability. Then, again, Prof. William Thomson, of Glasgow University, was a tower of scientific strength on the Board. He had been from the outset an ardent believer in the Atlantic line. His acquisition as a director was destined to prove of vast importance in influencing the development of transoceanic communication, for his subsequent experiments on the cable during 1857-’58 led up to his invention of the mirror galvanometer and signaling instrument, whereby{43} the most attenuated currents of electricity, which are incapable of producing visible signals on other telegraphic apparatus, are so magnified by the use of a reflected beam of light as to afford signals readily legible. (A full description of this invention will be found in its proper place—farther on.)

Mr. (afterward Sir Charles) Bright was appointed engineer-in-chief, with Mr. Wildman Whitehouse (who had become closely associated with the project) as electrician, while Mr. Cyrus Field became general manager.

It must not be supposed that because the capital was raised without great difficulty, and because the project had far-seeing supporters, that there was any lack of “croakers.” On the contrary, the prejudice against the line as a “mad scheme” ran perhaps even higher than in the case of most great and novel undertakings. The critics were many, and with our present knowledge it is difficult to recognize that many of the assertions and suggestions emanated from men of science as well as from eminent engineers and sailors, who, we should say nowadays, ought to have known better. For example, the late Prof. Sir G. B. Airy, F.R.S. (Astronomer Royal), announced to the world: (1) that “it was a mathematical impossibility to submerge a cable in safety at so great a depth”; and (2) that “if it were possible, no signals could be transmitted through so great a length.”

From the very outset of the project the engineer-in-chief (as soon as appointed) had to deal with wild and undeveloped criticisms and{44} suggestions, partly from “inventors,” who desired to reap personal benefit by the scheme, and amateurs in the art generally, all of which appear singularly ludicrous nowadays.

The fallacy most frequently introduced was, perhaps, that the cable would be suspended in the water at a certain depth. Naturally the pressure increases with the depth on all sides of a cable (or anything else) in its descent through the sea, but, as practically everything on earth is more compressible than water, it is obvious that the iron wire, yarn, gutta-percha, and copper conductor, forming the cable, must be more and more compressed as they descend. Thus the cable constantly increases its density, or specific gravity, in going down, while the equal bulk of the water surrounding it continues to have, practically speaking, very nearly the same specific gravity as at the surface. Without this valuable property of water, the hydraulic press would not exist.

The strange blunder here described was participated in by some of the most distinguished naval men. As an instance, even at a comparatively recent period, Captain Marryat, R.N., the famous nautical author, writes of the sea: “What a mine of wealth must lie buried in its sands. What riches lie entangled among its rocks, or remain suspended in its unfathomable gulf, where the compressed fluid is equal in gravity to that which it encircles.”[13]

To obviate this non-existent difficulty, it was gravely proposed to festoon the cable across, at a given maximum depth between buoys and{45} floats, or even parachutes—at which ships might call, hook on, and talk telegraphically to shore!

Others again proposed to apply gummed cotton to the outside of the cable in connection with the above burying system. The idea was that the gum (or glue) would gradually dissolve and so let the cable down “quietly”!

As an example of the crude notions prevailing in the mind of one gentleman with a proposed invention, to whom was shown an inch specimen of the cable, he remarked: “Now I understand how you stow it away on board. You cut it up into bits beforehand, and then join up the pieces as you lay.”

Some again absolutely went so far as to take out patents for converting the laying vessel into a huge factory, with a view to making the cable on board in one continuous length, and submerging it during the process!

Finally, one naval expert assured the company that “no other machinery for paying out was necessary than a handspike to stop the egress of the cable.{46}”

CHAPTER II

THE MANUFACTURE OF THE LINE

THE construction of the cable was taken in hand the following February (1857).

The distance from Valentia, on the western Irish coast, to Trinity Bay, Newfoundland—the two landing-points selected[14]—being 1,640 nautical miles, it was estimated that a length of 2,500 N.M.[15] would be sufficient to meet all requirements. This would provide sufficient margin for a considerable amount of “slack” cable for accommodating the irregularities of the bottom. The Gutta-Percha Company of London were entrusted with the manufacture of the “core,” consisting of a strand of seven No. 22 B.W.G. copper wires (total diameter No. 14 gage) weighing 107 pounds per N.M. insulated, with three coatings of gutta-percha (to ⅜-inch diameter) weighing 261 pounds per N.M., the conductor being, in fact, covered to No. 00 B.W.G.

This formed a far heavier core than had been previously adopted, and on this account the difficulties of manufacture were proportionately increased.{47} The enormous pressure of the ocean at such depths involved also a much severer test for the core.

On the other hand, as we now know, the conductor—and consequently also the insulator—should have been still larger, to a material degree. The engineer of the line strongly urged a conductor weighing 392 pounds per N.M., with the same weight for the insulator;[16] but his fellow projectors (the business element of the undertaking) were all for getting the work done, while the weather permitted, that year; and they were perhaps overquick to recognize the difference in the capital required. Moreover, they were here supported technically by the views of the responsible electrician, as well as by such high authorities as Michael Faraday and Morse. The latter reported that “large coated wires used beneath the water or the earth are worse conductors—so far as velocity of transmission is concerned—than small ones; and, therefore, are not so well suited as small ones for the purposes of submarine transmission of telegraphic signals.” Faraday had stated: “The larger the wire, the more electricity was required to charge it; and the greater was the retardation of that electric impulse which should be occupied in sending that charge forward.”[17]

Thus it will be seen that although Faraday laid the foundations of a large proportion of the electrical engineering of to-day, his views in this instance did not prove to be correct. The theoretical{48} resemblance of a cable to a Leyden jar—in reference to the effect of charging either—seems to have been prominently in mind, without proper regard to the resistance offered by the wire to the electric current—a resistance which becomes less the greater the bulk of the wire. Besides the engineer being overridden in this matter, the word of the electrical adviser on the Board (Professor Thomson) regarding the carrying capacity or working speed that would be obtained with such a core as that decided on—in view of the length involved—was also unavailing.

While no one can fail to appreciate the businesslike manner in which this undertaking was pushed through from the moment of inception—comparing only too favorably with some experiences of to-day—it was, without doubt, a vast pity that more time was not devoted to a fuller consideration of some of the problems, such as that involved over the dimensions of the conductor and insulator. No serious fault could, however, be detected with its actual manufacture, though the methods of those days were primitive as compared with present practise, and a system of efficient electrical testing altogether wanting.

After various experiments had been made with sample lengths of different iron wires made up into cable, the contract for the outer sheathings was, in order to get through the work quickly, divided equally between Messrs. Glass, Elliot & Co., of Greenwich, and Messrs. R. S. Newall & Co., of Birkenhead—both originally pit-rope makers.

The insulated core was first surrounded with{49} a serving of hemp saturated with a mixture of tar, pitch, linseed-oil, and wax; and then sheathed spirally with an armor of eighteen strands, each containing seven iron wires of No. 22 B.W.G., the completed strand being No. 14 gage in diameter.

Fig. 5.—Manufacture of the Core.

The cable (Fig. 8) was then finally drawn through another mixture of tar. Its weight in air was 1 ton per N.M., and in water only 13.4 hundredweight, bearing a strain of 3 tons 5 hundredweight before breaking—equivalent to nearly five miles of its weight in water.

For each end approaching the shore, the sheathing (see Fig. 9) consisted of twelve wires of No. 0 gauge, making a total weight of about nine tons to the mile. This type was adopted for the first ten miles from the Irish coast, and for fifteen miles from the landing at Newfoundland,{50} at both of which localities rocks had been found to abound plentifully—so much so that the armor was insufficient, and present practise provides double the weight under similar conditions.

Fig. 6.—Serving the Core with Hemp-Yarn.

Fig. 7.—Applying the Iron Sheathing.

Fig. 8.—The Deep Sea Cable.

Fig. 9.—The Shore-End Cable.

Only four months was allowed for the manufacture of this 2,500 miles of cable, which had to be delivered in June of that year (1857). This involved the preparation and drawing of 20,500 miles of copper wire (providing for the lay) and stranding into the 2,500 miles of conductor. For the insulation nearly 300 tons of gutta-percha required to be prepared, and the three separate layers of gutta-percha required to be applied to the wire, subsequently followed by the spiral serving of yarn. Finally—and with a due allowance for lay—367,500 miles of wire had to be drawn, from 1,687 tons of charcoal iron, and laid up into{51} 50,000 miles of strand for the outer sheathing. The entire length of copper and iron wire employed was, therefore, 340,500 miles—enough to engirdle the earth thirteen times, and considerably more than enough to extend from the earth to the moon. The work was enormously increased, of course, on account of the sheathing being composed of a number of strands instead of several single wires. While having certain mechanical advantages at the outset, this stranded sheathing is not a durable type of cable—besides being somewhat costly—and is never adopted nowadays. The contract price for the{53} entire cable was £225,000, the core costing £40 and the armor £50 per mile.[18]

As fast as the cable was made at the respective factories, it was coiled into iron tanks ready for shipment.

Fig. 10.—Coiling the Finished Cable into the Factory Tanks.

Ships and Paying-out Machinery.—The race against time—resulting from an unfortunate arrangement with American interests—was truly appalling; for, besides the manufacture of the line itself, ships had to be selected and prepared for receiving the cable, and machinery for paying out the line had to be designed and made. So far as the manufacture went, the machinery for that was already in existence, in view of the cables that had previously been laid—apart from the fact that the sheathing machinery was practically the same as had already been used for making ropes with. But this being the first ocean line, special apparatus had to be worked out for submerging a cable satisfactorily in deep water. So far as ships were concerned, the British and United States Governments had already expressed willingness to furnish these. The former undertaking took shape by the Admiralty placing H.M.S. Agamemnon (a screw-propelled line-of-battle ship and one of the finest in the British navy) at the company’s disposal for the expedition. She had been Admiral Lyons’s flagship during the bombardment of Sebastopol a couple of years before; but, in her coming mission,{54} was to do more to bring about the reign of peace—by drawing together in closer commune the several nations of the earth—than any man-of-war was ever called to do, before or after. With a somewhat peculiar construction, she was admirably adapted for her work. Her engines were quite near the stern, while amidships she had a magnificent hold, forty-five feet square and about twenty feet deep. In this capacious receptacle nearly half the cable was stowed from the works at Greenwich. The American Government sent over the largest and finest ship of their navy, the U.S. frigate Niagara (Fig. 11), a screw-corvette of 5,200 tons. As a consort, the U.S. paddle frigate Susquehanna was also de{55}tailed for the expedition, while H.M.S. Leopard and H.M. sounding-vessel Cyclops were similarly provided by the British Government. The latter was to precede the fleet—nicknamed the Wire Squadron—to show the way.

Fig. 11.—U.S.N.S. Niagara.

The paying-out apparatus for the two laying vessels H.M.S. Agamemnon and U.S.N.S. Niagara had to be somewhat hurriedly put together; consequently not as much attention was paid to its design as the novelty of the undertaking really demanded. The previous, and somewhat primitive, gear hitherto used had proved to possess too little strength, the cable—when being laid in anything but quite shallow water—having more than once obtained the mastery, through meeting insufficient restraining force. In the new machine (Fig. 12) there was certainly no lack of holding-back power. It erred, indeed, the other way, being so heavy and powerful that it was liable to break the cable under any material strain. The degree of retardation was regulated by a hand-wheel actuating a frame-clutch surrounding the outside of a brake-wheel. The details of this machine were worked out by Messrs. C. de Bergue & Co., the manufacturers. The engineer-in-chief also furnished external guards to the propelling screws of each laying vessel to prevent a foul with the cable in the case of going “astern.” This cage was nicknamed a “crinoline” (then in fashion with ladies), which, indeed, it somewhat resembled. The above screw-guard may be seen in several of the illustrations of either ships farther on. Were it not for the necessity of sounding operations, it would be applied to all telegraph-ships to-day.{57}

Preparations for Starting.—By the third week in July (within the course of as many weeks) the great ships had absorbed all their precious cargo—the Agamemnon in the Thames and the Niagara in the Mersey. The process of coiling the cable on board the Agamemnon is illustrated in Fig. 13.

Fig. 12.—The Paying-out Machine, 1857.

Staff.—For such an undertaking the staff had, of course, to be considerable. Besides the engineer-in-chief (Mr. Bright), the engineering department was composed as follows: Mr. (afterward Sir Samuel) Canning, formerly a railway engineer, who had laid the Gulf of St. Lawrence and other cables; Mr. William Henry Woodhouse, who had laid some of the cables in the Mediterranean; Mr. F. C. Webb, with much experience in early cable work; and, finally, Mr. Henry Clifford, a mechanical engineer, destined to be responsibly associated with a large proportion of the cables since laid.

Besides Mr. Whitehouse (whose health, however, did not permit him to accompany the expedition) there were on the electrical staff Mr. C. V. de Sauty, Mr. J. C. Laws, Mr. F. Lambert, Mr. H. A. C. Saunders, Mr. Benjamin Smith, Mr. Richard Collett, and Mr. Charles Gerhardi, all of whom were afterward prominently connected with subsequent submarine cable under{58}takings. Their respective energies were divided up between the two laying ships.[19] The expedition was to be further strengthened by a representative of The Times, as well as of the Daily News and New York Herald.

Fig. 13.—Coiling the Cable on Board.

On the vessels being fully loaded ready for the start, “send-off” festivities occurred, in which all classes of those engaged on the work took part. The Times recounted the function on board the Agamemnon as follows:

This function having come to an end, the Agamemnon set out for Sheerness. When leaving her moorings, opposite Glass & Elliot’s works, the scene was one of considerable interest.{60} It is recorded that many thousands of persons thronged the riverside as far as Greenwich Hospital. In the immediate neighborhood of the factory a salute was fired as the proud vessel moved away, and a deafening cheer was raised by the assembled crowds. The crew of H.M.S. Agamemnon manned the gunwales, and returned the cheer with lusty lungs, while from the stern gallery, ladies waved their handkerchiefs, and savants forgot for a while the mysteries of electricity and submarine-cable work, as they returned the hearty cheers which reached them from the shore.

Similar proceedings took place on board the Niagara, and the two ships met at Queenstown, County Cork, on July 30, 1857. They were moored about three-quarters of a mile apart, and a piece of cable run between the two to enable the entire length of line (2,500 N.M.) to be tested and worked through. The result was all that could be desired, and the Wire Squadron set sail for the rendezvous at Valentia Bay on Monday, August 3d.

Besides the vessels already named, there were H.M. tender Advice and the steam-tug Willing Mind to assist in landing the cable at Valentia, as well as the U.S. screw-steamer Arctic and the paddle-steamer Victoria (Newfoundland Telegraph Company) on duty in Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, to await the arrival of the fleet and assist in landing the cable at that end.

On arrival in harbor the following day, the ships were hospitably welcomed by his Excellency the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland (the Earl of Carlisle), who had journeyed from Dublin{61} Castle for the purpose. A déjeuner banquet was given by the Knight of Kerry (Sir Peter Fitzgerald), the lord of the manor for many miles round, and this little corner of Ireland—“the next parish to America”—was quite en fête for the occasion.

CHAPTER III

THE FIRST START

Landing the Cable at Valentia, Ireland.—The following day was occupied in landing the massive shore end, which—weighing nearly ten tons to the mile, as already described—was calculated to withstand damage from any anchorage in the bay, besides being proof against disturbance and damage from surf or currents. The landing-place which had been finally selected was a little cove known as Ballycarberry, about three miles from Cahirciveen, in Valentia harbor (Fig. 14). The two small assistant steamers—Willing Mind, a tug with a zeal worthy of her name, and Advice, ready not merely with advice but most lusty help—with several other launches and boats, were employed in the operation, which was thus described in one of the many newspaper reports:

“Valentia Bay was studded with innumerable small craft decked with the gayest bunting. Small boats flitted hither and thither, their occupants{62} cheering enthusiastically as the work successfully progressed. The cable-boats were managed by the sailors of the Niagara and the Susquehanna. It was a well-designed compliment, and indicative of the future fraternization of the nations, that the shore rope was arranged to be presented on the English side of the Atlantic to the representative of the Queen by the officers and men of the United States navy, and that on the American side the British officers and sailors should make a similar presentation to the President of the great republic.

“From the mainland the operations were watched with intense interest. For several hours the Lord-Lieutenant stood on the beach, surrounded by his staff and the directors of the railway and telegraph companies, waiting the arrival of the cable. When at length the American sailors jumped through the surge with the hawser to which it was attached, his Excellency was among the first to lay hold of it and pull it lustily to the shore. Indeed, every one present seemed desirous of having a hand in the great work.”

At half past seven that evening (August 5, 1857) the cable was hauled on shore at Ballycarberry Strand, and formal presentation was made of it by the officer in command of the Niagara to the Lord-Lieutenant, his Excellency expressing a hope that the work so well begun would be carried to a satisfactory completion. The vicar of the parish then offered a prayer for the success of the undertaking.

Fig. 14.—Landing the Irish End of the Cable.

The work connected with the landing of the shore end was not actually completed till sunset; so, as it was too late then to set out and start{63} cable-laying, the ships remained at anchor in the bay till daybreak. That night there was a grand ball at the little village of Kingstown, and the day dawn caught the merrymakers still engaged in their festivities.

Laying the First Ocean Cable, 1857.—Owing to the fact that the cable had had to be divided between two ships it was obvious that a mid-ocean splice between the two lengths was involved. The engineer-in-chief (Mr. Bright) was anxious both ships should start laying toward their respective shores from mid-ocean, as by that plan favorable weather for the splice could be waited for, besides halving the time occupied in laying the line, thereby reducing chances of bad-weather experience and getting over the most difficult (deep-water) part of the work first.

The electricians, however, made much of the importance of being in continuous communication with shore during laying operations; and this view appealed to the Board—partly, no doubt, on account of the novelty of being able from headquarters to speak to a ship as she proceeded across the Atlantic. It had, therefore, been arranged for the laying of the cable to be started by the Niagara from the Irish coast, the Agamemnon laying the remaining half from mid-ocean.

The ships got under weigh at an early hour on the morning following the landing of the shore end. Paying out commenced from the Niagara’s forepart; and as the distance from there to the stern was considerable, a number of men were stationed at intervals, like sentries, to see that every foot of the line reached its destination{65} in safety. The machinery did not seem at first to take kindly to its work, giving vent to many ominous groans. After five miles had been disgorged, the line caught in some of the apparatus and parted. The good ship at once put back and the cable was underrun by the Willing Mind, with boats, the whole distance from the shore—a tedious and hard task, as may be imagined. At length the end was lifted out of the water and spliced to the coil on board; and as the bight of the cable dropped safely to the bottom of the sea, the mighty ship steamed ahead once more.

At first she moved very slowly, not more than two miles an hour, to avoid the danger of another accident, but the feeling that they were at last away was in itself a relief. The ships were all in sight, and so near that they could hear each other’s bells. The Niagara, as if knowing she was bound for the land out of whose forests she came, bowed her head proudly to the waves.

“Slowly passed the hours of that day,” in Mr. Henry Field’s words, “but all went well, and the ships were moving out into the broad Atlantic. At length the sun went down in the west, and stars came out on the face of the deep. But no man slept. A thousand eyes were watching a great experiment, including those who had a personal interest in the issue.

“All through that night, and through the anxious days and nights that followed, there was a feeling in the heart of every soul on board, as if some dear friend were at the turning-point of death, and they were watching beside him. There was a strange, unnatural silence in the ship. Men paced the deck with soft and muffled{66} tread, speaking only in whispers, as if a loud or heavy footfall might snap the vital cord. So much had they grown to feel for the enterprise, that the cable seemed to them like a human creature, on whose fate they themselves hung, as if it were to decide their own destiny.

“There are some who will never forget that first night at sea. Perhaps the reaction from the excitement on shore made the impression the deeper. There are moments in life when everything comes back to us. What memories cropped up in those long night hours! How many on board that ship, as they stood on the deck and watched that mysterious cord disappearing in the darkness, thought of homes beyond the sea, of absent ones, of the distant and of the dead.

“But no musings turned them from the work in hand. There were vigilant eyes on deck—Mr. Bright, the engineer-in-chief, was there; also, in turn, Mr. Woodhouse and Mr. Canning, his chief assistants.... The paying-out machinery did its work, and though it made a constant rumble in the ship, that dull, heavy sound was music in their ears, as it told them that all was well. If one should drop asleep, and wake up at night, he had only to hear the sound of ‘the old coffee-mill’ and, his fears being relieved, he would go to sleep again.”

The next was a day of beautiful weather. The ships were getting farther away from land, and began to steam ahead at the rate of four and five knots. The cable was paid out at a speed a little faster than the ship, to allow for inequalities of surface on the bottom of the sea. While it was{67} thus going overboard, communication was kept up constantly with the land, partly by what are known as “continuity signals”—i. e., electrical signals at definite time intervals from ship to shore, as a test of the continuity of the line.

To quote Mr. Field again: “Every moment the current was passing between ship and shore. The communication was as perfect as between Liverpool and London, or Boston and New York. Not only did the electricians telegraph back to Valentia the progress they were making, but the officers on board sent messages to their friends in America to go out by the steamers from Liverpool. The heavens seemed to smile on them that day. The coils came up from below the deck without a kink, and, unwinding themselves easily, passed over the stern into the sea.

“All Sunday (9th inst.) the same favoring fortune continued; and when the officers who could be spared from the deck met in the cabin, and Captain Hudson read the service, it was with subdued voices and grateful hearts that they responded to the prayers to ‘Him who spreadeth out the heavens and ruleth the raging of the sea.’

“On Monday (10th) they were over two hundred miles at sea. They had got far beyond the shallow waters off the coast. They had passed over the submarine mountain that figures on the charts of Dayman and Berryman, and where Mr. Bright’s log gives a descent from 550 to 1,750 fathoms within eight miles. Then they came to the deeper waters of the Atlantic where the cable sank to the awful depths of 2,000 fathoms. Still the iron cord buried itself in the waves, and every{68} instant the flash of light in the darkened telegraph room told of the passage of the electric current.

“Everything went well till 3.45 P.M. on the fourth day out (Tuesday, August 11th), when the cable snapped, after 380 miles had been laid, owing to mismanagement on the part of the mechanic at the brakes.”

Thus the familiar thin line which had been streaming out from the Niagara for six days was no longer to be seen by the accompanying vessels.

One who was present wrote:

“The unbidden tear started to many a manly eye. The interest taken in the enterprise by officers and men alike exceeded anything ever seen, and there is no wonder that there should have been so much emotion on the occasion of the accident.”

The following report from Bright gives the details of the expedition up to the time of this regrettable occurrence:

{74}

CHAPTER IV

PREPARATIONS FOR ANOTHER ATTEMPT

THIS untoward interruption to the expedition was naturally a cause of great disappointment to all connected with the undertaking; for there was not enough cable left to complete the work, nor was there time to get more made and stowed on board to renew the attempt before the season would be too far advanced.

The squadron proceeded to Plymouth to unload the cable into tanks at Keyham (now Devonport) Dockyard, chiefly because some of the ships could not be spared by their respective governments till the following year. In the middle of October (1857), the engineer-in-chief proceeded to Valentia in a small paddle-steamer with the object of picking up some of the lost line from this end. After experiencing a series of gales, over fifty miles of the main cable were recovered, and the shore end buoyed ready for splicing on to in the coming year.

The first expedition had opened the eyes of the investing public to the vastness of the undertaking, and led many to doubt who did not doubt before. Some began to look upon it as a romantic adventure of the sea, rather than as a serious commercial{75} undertaking. This decline of popular faith was felt as soon as there was a call for more money. The loss of 335 miles of cable, with the postponement of the expedition to another year, was equivalent to a loss of £100,000.

Fig. 15.—Reshipment of the Cable aboard H.M.S. Agamemnon and U.S.N.S. Niagara in Keyham Basin.

Raising Further Capital.—To make the above sum good, the capital of the company had to be increased, and this new capital was not so readily obtainable. The projectors found that it was easy to go with the current of popular enthusiasm, but very hard to stem a growing tide of popular distrust. And it must also be remembered that, from the very first, the section of the public which looked with distrust upon the idea of an Atlantic telegraph was far in excess of that which did not; indeed, the opposition encountered was much on a par with{76} the great popular prejudice which George Stephenson had to overcome when projecting his great railway schemes. But whatever the depression at the untimely termination of the first expedition, it did not interfere with renewed and vigorous efforts to prepare for a second. In the end the appeal to the shareholders for more money was responded to; and the directors were enabled to give orders for the manufacture of 700 miles of new cable of the same description, to make up for what had been lost, and to provide a surplus against all contingencies. Thus, 3,000 nautical miles in all were shipped this time, instead of 2,500 miles.

Alterations in the Paying-Out Gear.—New paying-out machinery was devised with a view to obviating the possibility of a recurrence of the accident on the first expedition. In the new apparatus the brake (Fig. 16) was so arranged that a lever exercised a uniform holding power in exact proportion to the weights attached to it (Fig. 17); and while capable of being released by a hand-wheel, it could not be tightened. The general idea of this clever appliance had been originally introduced by Mr. J. G. Appold in connection with the crank apparatus in jails; and it was now especially adapted to the exigencies of cable work by the engineer (Mr. Bright) and Mr. C. E. Amos, a member of the famous engineering firm, Easton & Amos, who constructed the entire machinery. The great future of the apparatus was that it provided for automatic brake-release, upon the strain exceeding that intended. Thus, only a maximum agreed strain could be applied, this being regulated from time to time by weights, according{77} to the depth of water and consequent weight of cable being paid out. In passing from the hold to the stern of the laying vessel, the cable is taken round a drum, or drums. Fig. 18 gives a general view of the apparatus. Attached to the axle of the drum is a wheel fitted with an iron friction-strap (to which are fixed blocks of hard wood) capable of exerting a given retarding power, varying with the weights hung on to the lever which tightens the strap. When the friction becomes great, the wheels have an increased tendency to carry the wooden blocks round with them; thus the lever-bars are deflected from the vertical line and the iron band opened sufficiently to lessen the brake-power.

Fig. 16.—The Self-Releasing Brake.

{78}

Fig. 17.—The Principle of the Brake.

Bright also introduced a dynamometer apparatus for indicating and controlling the strain during paying out—a vast improvement on that embodied in the previous machines. The working of the entire machine was as follows:

“Between the two brake-drums and the stern of the vessel, the cable was led under the grooved wheel, O, of the dynamometer. This wheel had a weight attached to it, and could be moved up or down in an iron frame. If the strain upon the cable was small, the wheel would bend the cable downward, and its index would show a low degree of pressure; but whenever the strain increased, the cable, in straightening itself, would at once lift the dynamometer-wheel with the indicator attached to it, which showed the pressure in hundredweights and tons. The amount of strain with a given weight upon the wheel, G, was determined by experiments, and a hand-wheel in connection with the levers of the paying-out machine was placed immediately opposite the dynamometer; so that, directly the indicator showed strain increasing, the person in charge could at{79} once, by turning the hand-wheel, lift up the weights that tightened the friction-straps, and so let the cable run freely through the paying-out machine. Although, therefore, the strain could be reduced—or entirely withdrawn—in a moment, it could not be increased by the man at the wheel. The cable in coming from the tanks, passed under a lightly weighted ‘jockey,’[22] J, pulley. This arrangement, while leading the line on to the drums, at the same time checked it slightly. From here it was guided by a grooved pulley, or V-sheave,[23] L, along the tops of both drums, at B, then three times round them, and hence over another V-sheave, F, and on to the dynamometer. From this the cable was led over a second pulley, and so into the sea by the stern-sheaves.”[24]

This entire apparatus—simplified as regards the brake—has since been universally adopted for submarine-cable work,[25] with the exception that a single-flanged drum, fitted with a sort of plow, skid, or knife-edge—to guide or “fleet” the incoming turn of cable correctly on to the drum—is now used in place of the grooved sheave, or sheaves.

As soon as the new machinery was constructed, all the engineering staff gathered together for the purpose of thoroughly acquainting themselves with its working. Mr. F. C. Webb, having engagements elsewhere, had been replaced by{80} Mr. W. E. Everett, U.S.A., who had been chief marine engineer of the Niagara. Mr. Everett was to have charge of the machinery on the laying vessel, while Mr. Woodhouse controlled the cable operations.

Fig. 18.—Bright’s Paying-out Gear, 1858.

Alterations in the Electrical Apparatus.—Since the manufacture of the cable in 1857, Professor Thomson had become impressed with the conviction that the electric conductivity of copper varied greatly with its degree of purity. As a result of the professor’s further investigations, the extra length of cable made for the coming expedition was subjected to systematic and searching tests for the purity and conductivity of the copper. Every hank of wire was tested, and all whose conducting power fell below a certain value rejected. Here, then, we have the first instance of an organized system of testing for conductivity at the cable factory—a system which has ever since been rigorously insisted on.

Professor Thomson’s Mirror Instrument.—And now, in the spring of 1858, an invention was perfected that was destined to have a remarkable effect on submarine-cable enterprise. For Professor Thomson (now Lord Kelvin) devised and perfected the mirror-speaking instrument, then often described as the marine galvanometer,[26] of which it may be fairly said that it entirely revolutionized long-distance signaling and electrical testing aboard ship.{82}

This most ingenious apparatus consists of a small and exceedingly light steel magnet (a) (Fig. 19) with a tiny reflector or mirror fixed to it, both together weighing but a single grain or thereabouts. This delicate magnet is suspended from its center by a filament of silk and surrounded by a coil (b) of the thinnest insulated copper wire.

Fig. 19.—The Reflecting Magnet.

A very weak current is sufficient to produce a slight, though nearly imperceptible, movement of the suspended magnet when electricity passes through the surrounding coil. A fine ray of light from a shaded lamp, behind a screen (Figs. 20 and 21) at a short distance, is directed through a slot in the screen, thence to the open center of the coil (c) upon the mirror. It is then reflected back to a graduated scale (f). As may be seen from Fig. 21, an exceedingly slight angle of motion on the part of the magnet (a) is thus made to magnify the movement of the spot of light upon the scale (f), and to render it so considerable as to be readily noted by the eye of the operating clerk. The ray is brought to a focus by passing through a lens. By combinations of these movements of the speck of light (in length and direction) upon the index, an alphabet is readily formed. The magnet is artificially brought back to zero with great precision after each signal by the earth’s magnetism, and also both by the natural torsion of the fiber and the controlling action of the adjusting magnet (e) (Fig. 20), with the{83} help of the thumb-screw (d) for regulation purposes.

Fig. 20.—Reflecting Galvanometer and Speaker.

In a word, Professor Thomson’s combined mirror-telegraph and marine galvanometer transmitted messages by multiplying and magnifying the signals through a cable by the agency of imponderable light.

Fig. 21.

It is only to be regretted that the electrician responsible for the subsequent working through operations did not sooner appreciate the great beauties of the above apparatus, and the advantage of a small generating force such as it alone required.{84}

CHAPTER V

THE TRIAL TRIP

Fig. 22.—Deck of H.M.S. Agamemnon with Paying-out Apparatus.

THE engineer-in-chief (Mr. Bright) arranged that this time an experimental expedition should be first made, during which a complete rehearsal was to be gone through of the various operations to be performed during cable maneuvers. These operations were to consist of making splices, picking up and buoying (besides laying) in deep water, and exercising all hands in their work generally. It was on this occasion also agreed that paying out should start from mid-ocean instead{85} of from either shore. It was further arranged that the main cable should be buoyed at each end, and the connection to it by the heavy cable from shore effected at the earliest opportunity.

Fig. 23.—Stowage of the Cable Coils on the Niagara.

Fig. 24.—The Loading of the Agamemnon.

All the 3,000 miles of cable was coiled into the two large ships by the end of May. Fig. 22 gives a general idea of the paying-out apparatus mounted on the deck of the Agamemnon, and Fig. 23 a view in section of the fore-tanks of the Niagara when loaded with her cargo of cable. The engineer had this time fitted cast-iron cones in the middle of each cable-coil to meet the requirements of safe paying out, besides providing a large margin of space to the hatchway above. Fig. 24 shows the loading of the Agamemnon.{86} The rest of the telegraph squadron was on this occasion made up by H.M. Gorgon, H.M. paddle-steamer Valorous, and H.M. surveying-steamer Porcupine.

The fleet set forth on their second cruise on May 29, 1858—this time without any show of public enthusiasm. Mr. Bright was again assisted by the same engineering staff, but Professor Thomson had agreed to take a more active part in the electrical work. The Bay of Biscay was to be the scene of the experiments—the actual site being about 120 miles northwest of Corunna, where the Gorgon obtained soundings of 2,530 fathoms or nearly three statute miles.

The Agamemnon and Niagara were then backed close together, stern on, and a strong hawser was passed between them. Each ship had on board some defective cable for the experiments about to be conducted. The proceedings may perhaps best be described by extracts from the engineer’s diary:

The subsequent experiments were mainly in the direction of buoying, picking up, and passing the cable from the stern to the bow sheave for picking up. All of these operations were in turn successfully performed; and finally, in paying out a speed of seven knots was attained without difficulty. During all this time electrical communication had{88} been maintained between the ships; and it is somewhat remarkable that, through this more or less damaged cable, the electricians were able to work a needle-instrument and obtain a deflection on it of 70 degrees.

Fig. 25.—Experimental Maneuvers in the Bay of Biscay.

And now, the program being exhausted, the ships returned to Plymouth. On the whole, the trip had proved eminently satisfactory. The paying-out machinery had worked well, the various engineering operations had been successfully performed, and the electrical working through the whole cable was perfect.

CHAPTER VI

THE STORM

THE “wire ships” thus additionally experienced arrived at Plymouth on June 3d, and some further arrangements were made, principally connected with the electrical department.

A week later—i. e., on Thursday, June 10th—having taken in a fresh supply of coal, the expedition again left England “with fair skies and bright prospects.” The barometer standing at 30.64, it was an auspicious start in what was declared by a consensus of nautical authorities to be the best time of the year for the Atlantic.

This prognostication was doomed to a terrible disappointment, for the voyage nearly ended in the Agamemnon “turning turtle.” She was repeatedly almost on her beam ends, the cable was partly shifted, and a large number of those on{90} board were more or less seriously injured. The load of cable made all the difference when brought into comparison with an ordinary ship, under stress of weather. It was bad enough to cruise with a dead weight forward of some 250 tons—a weight under which her planks gaped an inch apart, and her beams threatened daily to give way. But when to these evils were added the fear that in some of her heavy rolls the whole mass would slip and take the vessel’s side out, it will be seen that this precious coil was justly regarded as a standing danger—the millstone about the necks of all on board.[29] Oddly enough, owing to the fact that the Agamemnon had scant accommodation left for fuel, every one at the start was bemoaning the entire absence of breeze. There were some even, who, never having been at sea before, muttered rash hopes about meeting an Atlantic gale. Their wishes were soon to be completely realized.

In order that laying operations should be started by the two ships in mid-ocean, it was arranged that the entire fleet should meet in latitude 53° 2´ and longitude 33° 18´ as a rendezvous. As it is impossible to follow the movements of more than one ship at a time, and as the Agamemnon had the more exciting experience, we will confine our attention to her up to the date of the rendezvous.

The day after starting there was no wind; but on Saturday, June 12th, a breeze sprung up, and, with screw hoisted and fires raked out, the Agamemnon bowled along at a rare pace under{91} “royals” and studding-sails. The barometer fell fast, and squally weather coming on with the boisterous premonitory symptoms of an Atlantic gale, even those least versed in such matters could see at a glance that they were “in for it.” The following day the sky wore a wretched mist—half rain, half vapor—through which the attendant vessels loomed faintly like shadows. The gale increased; till at four in the afternoon the good ship was rushed through the foam under close-reefed topsails and foresail. That night the storm got worse, and most of the squadron gradually parted company. The ocean resembled one vast snowdrift, the whitish glare from which—reflected from the dark clouds that almost rested on the sea—had a tremendous and unnatural effect, as if the ordinary laws of nature had been reversed.

Very heavy weather continued till the following Sunday (June 20th), which ushered in as fierce a storm as ever swept over the Atlantic. The narrative of this fight of nautical science with the elements may best be continued in the words of the representative of The Times, especially as it is probably the most intensely realistic description of a storm that has ever been written by an eye-witness:

CHAPTER VII

THE RENEWED EFFORT

THAT evening the four vessels lay together side by side, and there was such a stillness in the sea and air as would have seemed remarkable even on an inland lake. On the Atlantic, and after what had been so lately experienced, it seemed almost unnatural.

The boats were out, and the officers were passing{106} from ship to ship, telling their experiences of the voyage, and forming plans for the morrow. The captain of the Agamemnon had a sorry tale to tell. The strain to which she had been subjected had opened her “waterways.”[30] Then, again, one of the crew, a marine, had been literally frightened out of his wits, and remained crazy for some days. One man had his arm fractured in two places, and another his leg broken.

The Niagara, on the other hand, had weathered the gale splendidly, though it had been a hard and anxious time with her, as well as with the smaller craft. She had lost her jib-boom, and the buoys she carried for suspending the cable had been washed from her sides—no man knew where.

After taking stock of things generally, a start was made to repair the various damages; but the shifting of the upper part of the main coil on the Agamemnon into a hopeless tangle entailed recoiling a considerable length of cable, a no light task, occupying several days.

On the morning of Saturday, June 26th, all the preparations were completed for making the splice and once more commencing the great undertaking.

In the words of The Times representative:

Thus ends the most arduous and dangerous expedition that had ever been experienced in connection with cable-work. It, at any rate, had the advantage of supplying the public with some exciting reading in the columns of The Times, whose graphic descriptions were much appreciated.

The Niagara had reached Queenstown as far back as July 5th. Having found that they had run out 109 miles when “continuity” ceased, those in charge considered that, in order to carry out their instructions, they should return at once to the above port, which they did.{115}

On the two ships meeting at Queenstown, discussion immediately took place (1) as to the cause of the cessation of “continuity”; and (2) regarding the course taken by the Niagara in returning home so promptly.

The non-arrival of the Agamemnon till nearly a week later had been the cause of much alarm regarding her safety.

CHAPTER VIII

“FINIS CORONAT OPUS”

THE sad tale of disaster commenced to spread abroad immediately on the Niagara’s arrival in Queenstown; and when Mr. Field hastened to London to meet the other directors of the company, he found that the news had not only preceded him, but had already had its effect.

The Board was soon called together. It met as a council of war summoned after a terrific defeat to decide whether to surrender or to try once more the chances of battle. Says Field: “Most of the directors looked blankly in one another’s faces.” With some the feeling was one akin to despair. It was thought by many that there was nothing left on which to found an expectation of future success, or to encourage the expenditure of further capital upon an adventure so “completely visionary.” The chairman (Sir William Brown), while recommending entire abandonment of the undertaking, suggested “a sale of the cable remaining{116} on board the ships, and a distribution of the proceeds among the shareholders.”

Bolder counsels were, however, destined to prevail. There were those who thought there was still a chance, like Robert Bruce, who, after twelve battles and twelve defeats, yet believed that a thirteenth might bring victory, notwithstanding the prejudice held by some against that number. The projectors made a firm stand for immediate action, as did also Professor Thomson and Mr. Curtis Lampson, who succeeded Mr. Brooking as deputy chairman, at the same time that Mr. Stuart Wortley took the chair in place of Sir W. Brown, on the latter’s resignation. These advocates of non-surrender succeeded at length in carrying an order for the immediate sailing of the expedition for a final effort. It was this effort which proved to the world the possibility of telegraphing from one hemisphere to the other.

The order to advance having been given, the ships forthwith took in coal and other necessaries.

When everything and everybody had been shipped, the squadron left Queenstown once more on Saturday, July 17, 1858. As the ships sailed out of the harbor of Cork, it was with none of the enthusiasm which attended their departure from Valentia the year before, or even the small amount excited when leaving Plymouth on June 10th. Nobody so much as cheered. In fact, their mission was by this time spoken of as a “mad freak of stubborn ignorance,” and “was regarded with mixed feelings of derision and pity.”[33]

The squadron was the same as on the last occasion.{117} It was agreed that the ships should not attempt to keep together this time, but that each should make its way to the given latitude and longitude. The staffs were composed and berthed as before. Moreover, the expedition was again accompanied by the same literary talent.

The Last Start.—Let us now turn to The Times narrative, as given at the conclusion of this final expedition:

The American End.—In contradistinction to the heavy seas and difficulties the Agamemnon had to contend with, her consort, the Niagara, experienced very quiet weather, and her part of the work was comparatively uneventful, with the exception of a fault near the bottom of the ward-room coil. This was detected during the operations on the night of August 2d, but was removed before it was paid out into the sea. About four o’clock the next morning the continuity and insulation was accordingly restored, and, says Mr. Mullaly (the New York Herald correspondent on board), “all was going on as if nothing had occurred to disturb the confidence we felt in the success of the expedition.”

When nearing the end, various icebergs were met with—some a hundred feet high. Mullaly dilates on their castle-like form and the effective appearance of the sun’s rays thereon. Shortly after entering Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, the Niagara was met by H.M.S. Porcupine, which had been sent out from England at the very beginning of the 1858 expedition to await her arrival and render any assistance which might be required. The Niagara anchored about 1 A.M. on August 5th, having completed her work, and, during the forenoon of that day, the cable was landed in a{137} little bay, Bull Arm,[40] at the head of Trinity Bay, when they “received very strong currents of electricity through the whole cable from the other side of the Atlantic.”[41]

The telegraph-house at the Newfoundland end was some two miles from the beach, and connected to the cable by a land-line.

CHAPTER IX

THE CELEBRATION

ON landing at Valentia, the engineer-in-chief at once sent the following startling but welcome message to his Board, which was at once passed on to the press:

On the afternoon of Thursday, August 5th—as already described in The Times report—Bright and his staff brought to shore the end of the cable, at White Strand Bay, near Knight’s Town, Valentia, in the boats of the Valorous, welcomed by the united cheers of the small crowd assembled.

Taken entirely by surprise, all England applauded the triumph of such undaunted perseverance and the engineering and nautical skill displayed in this victory over the elements. The Atlantic Telegraph had been justly characterized as the “great feat of the century,” and this was reechoed by all the press on its realization. The following extracts from the leading article of The Times the day after completion is an example of the comments upon the achievement:

It was a curious coincidence that the cable was successfully completed to Valentia on the same day in 1858 on which the shore end had been landed the year before. Moreover, it was exactly one hundred and eleven years since Dr. (afterward Sir William) Watson had astonished the scientific world by sending an electric current through a wire two miles long, using the earth as a return circuit. It is also worthy of note that the first feat of telegraphy was executed by order of King “Agamemnon” to his queen, announcing the fall of Troy, 1,084 years before the birth of Christ, and that the great feat which we have narrated was carried out by the great ship Agamemnon, as has been here shown.{140}

Mr. Bright and Messrs. Canning and Clifford and the rest of the staff, as well as Professor Thomson and the electricians, were absolutely exhausted with the incessant watching and almost unbearable anxiety attending their arduous travail. Valentia proved a haven of rest indeed for these “toilers of the deep”—completely knocked up with their experiences on the Atlantic, not to mention their previous trials and disappointments.

Then came a series of banquets, which had to be gone through. Soon after his duties at Valentia were over, Bright made his way to Dublin. Here he was entertained by the Lord Mayor and civic authorities of that capital on Wednesday, September 1st. On this occasion Cardinal Wiseman, who was present, made an eloquent speech; and the following account of the proceedings from the Morning Post may be suitably quoted:

Charles Bright was honored with a knighthood within a few days of landing. As this was considered a special occasion, and as Queen Victoria was at that time abroad, the ceremony was performed there and then by his Excellency the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland on behalf of her Majesty. Bright was but twenty-six years of age at the time, being the youngest man who had received the distinction for generations past, and no similar instance has since occurred. Moreover, it was the first title conferred on the telegraphic or electrical profession, and remained so for many years.

With Professor Thomson and other colleagues, Sir Charles Bright was right royally entertained in Dublin, Killarney, and elsewhere, the Lord-Lieutenant taking a prominent part in the celebrations. On the occasion of the Killarney banquet, his Excellency made the following{142} remarks à propos of the cable and its engineers:[44]

CHAPTER X

WORKING THE LINE

Continuity Tests during Laying.—As previously mentioned, two descriptions of instruments were used on board the ships for testing and working through while laying the cable. These were the “detector” of Mr. Whitehouse and Professor Thomson’s reflecting-apparatus.

The process of testing consisted in sending from one to the other vessel alternately, during a period of ten minutes, first a reversal every minute{145} for five minutes, and then a current in one direction for five minutes. The results of these signals to test the continuity of the line were observed and recorded on board both ships. There was also a special signal for each ten miles of cable paid out between the vessels.

When the splice was made on July 29th, 72 degrees deflection were obtained on the Agamemnon, from seventy-five cells of a sawdust (Daniell’s) battery on board the Niagara, which had previously given 83 degrees. On arrival at Valentia at 6.30 A.M., on August 5th, the deflection on the same instruments (detector and marine galvanometer being both in circuit as before) was 68 degrees, while the sending-battery power on the Niagara had fallen off at entry to 62½ degrees through the marine galvanometer on board that vessel. These figures show that the insulation of the cable had considerably improved by submersion, and when the engineers had accomplished their part of the undertaking, on August 5th, the cable was handed over in perfect condition to Mr. Whitehouse and his electrical assistant.

Apparatus Used in Working.—Unfortunately for the life of the cable, Mr. Whitehouse was imbued with a belief that currents of very high intensity, or potential, were the best for signaling; and he had enormous induction-coils, five feet long, excited by a series of very large cells, yielding electricity estimated at about 2,000 volts potential. The insulation was unable to bear the strain, and thus the signals began to gradually fail.[45]

For something like a week the efforts to work{146} through the cable with the above apparatus proved ineffectual, the power being constantly increased to no purpose. Professor Thomson’s reflecting galvanometer, which had worked so well during the voyage, was then used again with ordinary Daniell cells.

Messages.—In this way communication was resumed, the first clear message being received from Newfoundland on August 13, 1858, and—after considerable delay in getting the American receiving-apparatus ready—on the 16th the following was got through from the directors in England to those in United States:

Then followed:

This message was shortly afterward responded to as follows:{147}

Throughout the United States the arrival of the Queen’s message was the signal for a fresh outburst of popular enthusiasm.

Says Field:

The English press were warm in their recognition of those to whom the nation were “indebted for bringing into action the greatest invention of the age,” expressing belief that “the effect of bringing the three kingdoms and the United States into instantaneous communication with each other will be to render hostilities between the two nations almost impossible for the future.” And further, “more was done yesterday for the consideration of our empire than the wisdom of our statesmen, the liberality of our legislature, or the loyalty of our colonists could ever have effected.”[46]

The sermons preached on the subject, both in England and America, were literally without number. Enough found their way into print to fill over one volume. Never had an event more deeply touched the spirit of religious enthusiasm.{149}

With further reference to the active life of the cable, the following communications have some interest:

First of all three long congratulatory messages were transmitted, one on August 18th from Mr. Peter Cooper, president of the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company, to the directors of the Atlantic Telegraph Company; another from the Mayor of New York to the Lord Mayor of London, his reply in acknowledgment following. Then two of the great Cunard mail-steamers, the Europa and Arabia, had come into collision on August 14th. Neither the news nor the injured vessels could reach those concerned on either side of the Atlantic for some days; but as soon as it became known in New York a message was sent by the cable, a facsimile of the original of which is shown on p. 150. This first public news message showed the relief given by speedy knowledge in dispelling doubt and fear.

Subsequently messages giving the news on both continents were transmitted and published daily. Among others, on August 27th, a despatch was sent by the secretary of the Atlantic Telegraph Company that was remarkable for the amount of important information contained in comparatively few words. It read as follows:

The above was published in the American papers the same day.

{151}Further, as exemplifying the aid the cable afforded to the British Government, mention may be made of two messages sent from the commander-in-chief at the Horse Guards, on August 31st. Following the quelling of the Indian mutiny, they were despatched for the purpose of canceling previous orders which had already gone by mail to Canada.

The first, to General Trollope, Halifax, ran as follows: “The Sixty-second Regiment is not to return to England.” The other, to the officer in command at Montreal: “The Thirty-ninth Regiment is not to return to England.” From £50,000 to £60,000 was estimated by the authorities to have been saved, in the unnecessary transportation of troops, by these two cable communications.

But the insulation of the precious wire had, unhappily, been giving way. The high-potential currents from Mr. Whitehouse’s enormous induction-coils were too much for it; and the diminished flashes of light proved to be only the flickering of the flame that was soon to be extinguished in the external darkness of the waters. After a period of confused signals, the line ultimately breathed its last on October 20th, after 732 messages in all had been conveyed during a period of three months.[47] The last word uttered—and which may be said to have come from beyond the sea—was “forward.”

The line had been subject to frequent interruptions throughout. The wonder is that it did so much, when we consider the lack of experience at that period in the manufacture of deep-sea cables, the short time allowed, and, more than all, the{152} treatment received after being laid. It is, indeed, extremely doubtful whether any cable, even of the present day, would long stand a trial with currents so generated, and of such intensity.[48] An unusually violent lightning-storm occurred at Newfoundland shortly after the cable had been laid. This was considered a part cause of the actual failure of the line.

When all the efforts of the electricians failed to draw more than a few faint whispers—a dying gasp from the depths of the sea—there ensued, in the public mind, a feeling of profound discouragement. But what a bitter disappointment for those officially concerned in the enterprise! In all the experience of life there are no sadder moments than those in which, after much anxious toil in striving for a great object, and after a glorious triumph, the achievement that seemed complete becomes a wreck.

Engineering Demonstration.—Still the engineer of this great undertaking had the satisfaction of knowing that he had demonstrated (1) the possibility of laying over 2,000 miles of cable in one continuous length across a by no means calm ocean at depths of two to three miles; and (2) that, by the agency of an electric current, distinct and regular signals could be transmitted and received throughout an insulated conductor, even when at such a depth beneath the sea, across this{153} vast distance. The feasibility of either of these had been scouted at on all sides.[49]

Of course the gutta-percha coverings as then applied can not be compared with the methods and materials of later days, though a great advance on that of previous cables. It was a pity that—owing to the precipitation with which the undertaking was rushed through, and the fear of failure for want of capital—more time was not given to the consideration of Bright’s recommendation for a conductor four times larger, with a corresponding increase in the gutta-percha insulator. Under such conditions, it is highly improbable that high potentials would have ever been applied to the line. Unhappily—besides Faraday and Whitehouse—Professor Morse (when advising the Board in this matter) promulgated views directly opposed to the above, as has already been shown. In the course of his report Morse had said:

Still the cable, inadequately constructed as it was from an electrical point of view, would probably have worked for years—though slowly, of course—had the fairly reasonable battery-power employed between the ships and up to the successful termination of the expeditions been continued in connection with Professor Thomson’s delicate reflecting-apparatus. The electrician, however, not only used much higher power immediately he took the cable in hand—for working his specially devised relay and Morse electromagnetic recording-instrument in connection with his enormous induction-coils—but actually increased the power from time to time up to nearly 500 cells, till the five-foot coils yielded a current urged by a potential of something like 2,000 volts. Hence, when signaling was resumed, as shown by the comparatively mild voltaic currents, for actuating the Thomson apparatus, a fault (or faults) had been already developed, necessitating a far higher battery-power than had been employed during the continuous communication between the ships while paying out.

The wounds opened farther under the various stimulating doses; the insulation was unable to bear the strain, and the circulation gradually ceased through a cable already in a state of dissolution.{155}

CHAPTER XI

THE INQUEST

THE great historical sea-line having collapsed, some of the foremost of the electrical profession were called in—first to determine the nature of the interruption with a view to possible remedy, next to elicit the cause.

Expert Opinions on the Failure.—Mr. Cromwell Fleetwood Varley, the electrician to the Electric Telegraph Company, Mr. E. B. Bright, the chief of the “Magnetic” Company; and Mr. W. T. Henley, the well-known telegraph inventor, were severally requested by the “Atlantic” Company to report on the subject in conjunction with Sir Charles Bright and Professor Thomson.

First of all the dead line was subjected to a series of tests. For this, resistance-coils and Messrs. Bright’s apparatus for ascertaining the position of a fault were employed. There was every evidence of a serious electrical leakage about 300 miles from Valentia, but there did not appear to be any fracture in the conductor, as exceedingly weak currents still came through fitfully. According to the above location, the main leak through the gutta-percha envelope was in water of a depth of about two miles. At that time means were not devised for grappling and lifting{156} a cable from such depths. But from independent tests by Thomson and Bright, it appeared likely that the Valentia shore end was also especially faulty. Accordingly, it was underrun from the catamaran-raft (previously used in 1857) for some three miles, but, on being cut at the farthest point at which it was found possible to raise the cable, the fault still appeared on the seaward side. The idea of repairs had, therefore, to be abandoned, and the cable was spliced up again.

The conductor being again intact, efforts were made to renew signals with the curb-key recently invented by Messrs. Bright. By means of this, currents of opposite character were transmitted so that each signaling current was followed instantly by one of opposite polarity, which neutralized, by a proportionate strength and duration, all that remained of its predecessor. Though this was the right principle on which to work, the “patient” was too far gone, and all efforts proved unavailing; for signaling purposes the poor cable was defunct.

Having dealt with the nature of the interruption, we now come to the cause. It was first of all abundantly clear from the station-diaries kept by the electricians at Valentia and Newfoundland, and by other irrefragable evidence, that when the laying was completed, and the cable ends were handed over to them from the ships on August 5th, all was in good working order.

The authorities were unanimous in their opinion. Mr. C. F. Varley declared that “had a more moderate power been used, the cable would still have been capable of transmitting messages.” In giving extra force to the above opinion, Mr. Varley{157} described an experiment he had made on the cable in conjunction with Mr. E. B. Bright:

Professor Hughes, the inventor of the type-printing telegraph, and, subsequently, of the microphone, considered that “the cable was injured by the induction-coils, and that the intense currents developed by them were strong enough to burst through gutta-percha.” Professor Wheatstone gave a similar opinion.

Some one inquired of the electrician whether, if any one touched the cable at the time when the current was discharged from the induction-coil, he would receive a shock sufficiently strong to cause him to faint. It was admitted in reply that “those who touched the bare wire would suffer for their carelessness, though not if discretion be exercised by grasping the gutta-percha only.”

The chairman of the company (the Right Honorable J. Stuart Wortley, M.P.), in the course of a deputation to Lord Palmerston later on, stated{158} that “far too high charges of electricity were forced into the conductor. It was evidently thought at that time by certain electricians that you could not charge a cable of this sort too highly. Thus they proceeded somewhat like the man who bores a hole with a poker in a deal board; he gets the hole, to be sure, but the board is burned in the operation.”

Professor Thomson (now Lord Kelvin), writing in 1860, expressed the following opinion:

Summing up the cause of the untimely ending to the ill-used cable, perhaps the concisest verdict would be, in mechanical-engineering parlance, that “high-pressure steam had been got up in a low-pressure boiler.{159}”

PART III

INTERMEDIATE KNOWLEDGE AND ADVANCE

{160}

CHAPTER XII

OTHER PROPOSED ROUTES

THE gradual failure of the 1858 cable after a short period of working, and the slow rate at which messages were capable of being transmitted, naturally deterred capitalists from providing the means for another cable of such length in deep water.

Several schemes, however, for a fresh line on other routes were brought forward; and there was an alternative route between Great Britain and America by which the transmission of the electric current could be subdivided into four comparatively short sections. This was known in 1860 as the North Atlantic Telegraph project, in which the route was from the extreme north of Scotland to the Faroe Islands, thence to Iceland; from there to the southern point of Greenland, and so on to Labrador or Newfoundland. The distances were (varying a little according to landing-places selected) approximately:

{162}

Fig. 32.—The North Atlantic Telegraph Project, 1860.

{163}

From the electrician’s point of view, these subdivisions were extremely favorable as compared with the long continuous length entailed by an Atlantic cable between Ireland and Newfoundland. Then, again, the soundings (except for a section between Greenland and Labrador) did not yield anything approaching the more southern depths. But against these obvious advantages there was the engineering objection—which at first seemed insurmountable—that the Greenland coast was bound up by ice for a great part of the year, in addition to the risk of injury to the cable from the grounding of icebergs. This latter was of less moment, for it could be provided against by keeping the cable when approaching shore in the middle of any inlet, and thus away from the shallow sides where the icebergs “ground.” There was also the probable difficulty of obtaining a trained staff to work a line when laid to such inhospitable regions. However, having regard to the anxiety exhibited by many to get to the North Pole, this did not present an insuperable obstacle.

This bold project, with a route across the coldest and iciest regions of the Atlantic, was originally brought to the notice of the Danish Government by Mr. Wyld, the geographer, even before the Atlantic Telegraph Company had been established. It was again introduced in a different form by Colonel T. P. Shaffner, an American electrician of some note. Colonel Shaffner made a strong case of the series of short stages geographically afforded by the North Atlantic deviation. After the 1858 cable had ceased working, to back up his belief in the advantages of the route, which he characterized as having “natural{164} stepping-stones which Providence had placed across the ocean in the north,” he actually chartered a small sailing vessel, and, with his family on board, put forth from Boston on August 29th, 1859, for the purpose of making the preliminary survey. He landed in Glasgow in November of that year, and presented to the public the results of his voyage. During the voyage, Colonel Shaffner sounded the deep seas to be traversed between Labrador and Greenland and between Greenland and Iceland. His first object was to convince the public that there were no insuperable difficulties in the way. He found a warm supporter in Mr. J. Rodney Croskey, of London, who advanced the “caution” money to the Danish Government for the concessions requisite in the Faroes, Iceland, and Greenland.[51]

On May 15th, Lord Palmerston granted an audience to an influential deputation, headed by the Right Honorable Milner Gibson, M.P., and four other members of the House of Commons, to solicit the assistance of Government in sending out ships and officers to make the necessary official survey for ascertaining the practicability of the proposed route. The Premier appeared fully to appreciate the advantages of the north-about scheme, and in a very short time the Admiralty were directed to send out an expedition for the purpose of making the required survey.

The Admiralty selected for this duty Captain M’Clintock, R. N.,[52] an officer of great experience{165} in the navigation of the Arctic seas, and H.M.S. Bulldog was placed under his command. This distinguished officer was directed to take the deep-sea soundings, and he sailed from Portsmouth on his mission in June, 1860. In the meantime, the promoters of the enterprise purchased the Fox, the steam-yacht formerly employed in the successful search for the remains of the Franklin expedition, and fitted her out for the purpose of making surveys of the landing-places of the respective cables. The Fox was placed under the command of Captain Young,[53] of the mercantile marine, an officer well known for his distinguished labors under M’Clintock in the Franklin search. At the same time, Dr. John Rae, F.R.G.S., an intrepid Arctic explorer, volunteered his services to join the Fox, and take charge of the overland expeditions in the Faroe Isles, Iceland, and Greenland. Colonel Shaffner, as concessionaire—besides two delegates on the part of the Danish Government, Lieutenant von Zeilau and Arnljot Olafsson—also accompanied the Fox expedition, to take part in the necessary surveys.

Before the departure of the Fox, which sailed on July 18, 1860, her Majesty Queen Victoria, the Prince Consort, and other members of the royal family, honored the enterprise by a visit to that vessel, while lying off Osborne, and showed a lively interest in the details of the expedition.

On the return of the expedition, Sir Leopold M’Clintock wrote a full report to Sir Charles Bright, the consulting engineer of the project.{166} In this, Sir Leopold favored the route as perfectly practicable, pointing out that the ice would not really prove a difficulty, and strongly approving of the original intention of a land-line across Iceland to Faxe Bay, “as by so doing you will avoid the only part of the sea where submarine volcanic disturbances may be suspected.”

The results of the voyages of H.M.S. Bulldog and the steam-yacht Fox were brought before a crowded meeting of the Royal Geographical Society on January 28, 1861. Sir Leopold M’Clintock then gave the first public account of his numerous and careful soundings along, and in the vicinity of, the proposed course of the cable, interspersed with many useful remarks and hints as to ice, the best time for laying the line, etc., as well as the probable sphere of volcanic action in and off the south of Iceland. The above was followed by an exhaustive paper by Sir Charles Bright, giving a synopsis of Captain Young’s report on his voyage in the Fox, including the examination of various estuaries and harbors, so as to enable a decision to be arrived at as to the best landing-places, the climatic conditions, etc.

From both sets of soundings it was shown that, as a rule, the bottom was of ooze. Dr. Wallich, the naturalist of the expedition, had brought up brightly colored starfish from depths of over a mile, whereas it had previously been believed that nothing could possibly live under such an enormous pressure of water.

Fig. 33.—The North Atlantic Exploring Expedition, 1860.

Then came a highly instructive paper by Dr. Rae. He gave a number of interesting particulars of his land surveys, the population, price of{167} food, wages, etc. He also described the ride of the Fox party across Iceland, while making important suggestions as to the route for the land-line with a view to avoiding the geysers.

Captain R. B. Beechey, R.N., afterward made a beautiful oil-painting of the party, including some of the Eskimos on the occasion of landing to explore the inland ice at Igaliko Fiord (see Fig. 33).[54]

At this time, however (1861), there was still too much discouragement owing to the stoppage in working of the first Atlantic cable, and to other causes with which we are about to deal. Moreover, there were those who still feared the ice-floes; and in the end the public did not respond sufficiently. Thus, after all, the “Grand North Atlantic Telegraph” project, which had been worked out with so much trouble and expense, was never actually realized.

Another scheme which attracted some attention about the same time was described as the “South Atlantic Telegraph.” This was for a long length of cable between the south of Spain and the coast of Brazil, touching at Madeira, the Canary Islands, Cape de Verde Isles, Don Pedro, and Fernando de Noronha Isles on the way, and stretching out to the West Indies and the United States. Then there was a project for a cable on an intermediate route from Portugal to the Azores, and thence to America, via Bermuda and the Southern States. Being, however, to a great{169} extent foreign in their scope, these latter schemes found little favor in this country at the time. They have, however, since been realized in some shape or form.

CHAPTER XIII

EXPERIENCE, INVESTIGATION, AND PROGRESS

The Red Sea Line.—Mr. Lionel Gisborne had obtained powers from the Turkish Government to carry a telegraph-line across Egypt and lay a cable down the Red Sea. The importance of this line to Great Britain led the Government to give definite assistance.

The first portion of the proposed cable—from Suez to Aden, with intermediate landings—was laid in 1859. The different sections broke down one by one. They were all laid very taut, the slack in some cases being less than one per cent, though the bottom was in certain parts very uneven. The second portion of the line, from Aden to Kurrachee, with intermediate stations, was laid during 1860, the slack working out at 0.1 per cent only. Faults developed very quickly in all the sections of both portions of the line. Apart from the small allowance for slack, the type of cable{170} adopted was of far too fragile a nature for some of its rough, reef-like resting-spots; indeed, the undertaking was spoken of as “like running a donkey for the Leger”! The promoters of this enterprise, having neither specially qualified men nor the necessary materials for carrying out repairs, were obliged to abandon it before any commercial work had been effected. This was a most unfortunate line in every way, for a complete message was never got through the entire length, but only through each section separately. Nevertheless, until quite recently, it cost Great Britain £36,000 per annum.

Inquiry on the Construction of Submarine Telegraphs.—Aroused more especially by the above failure, the Government, in 1859, before undertaking further responsibility, resolved to thoroughly investigate the construction of cables. It was also felt that the ultimate failure of the Atlantic line was possibly due, in part, to weak joints and general defects in the manufacture of the insulating envelope. This committee—under the direction of the Board of Trade, with Captain, afterward Sir Douglas, Galton, R.E., in the chair—devoted twenty-two sittings (covering a considerable period of time) to questioning engineers, electricians, professors, physicists, manufacturers, and seamen, who had taken part in the various branches of cable-work and whose knowledge or experience might throw light on the subject. Investigations were instituted concerning the structure of all cables previously made, and the quality of the different materials used, as to special points arising during manufacture and laying, on the routes taken, electrical testing, and{171} on sending and receiving instruments, speed of signaling, etc. Actual experiments were also made in connection with this inquiry, to ascertain (1) the electrical and mechanical qualities of copper, pure and alloyed; also of gutta-percha and other insulating substances; (2) the chemical change in their condition when submerged; (3) the effects of temperature and pressure on the insulating substances employed; (4) the elongation and breaking strain of copper wires; of iron, steel, and tarred hemp separately and combined; (5) the phenomena connected with electrically charging and discharging conductors; (6) methods of testing conductors and of locating faults; besides the whole science and practise of cable-making and laying.

The report of the committee was not published till some time afterward. It expressed a conviction that submarine telegraphy might be made sure and remunerative in the future, based on the evidence adduced regarding the proper manufacture and working of submarine telegraphs.

Formulation of Electrical Standards and Units.—This inquiry was shortly followed by an important paper before the British Association for the advancement of science by Sir Charles Bright and Mr. Latimer Clark (then in partnership), which put the practise of electrical testing on a systematic basis, thereby considerably forwarding all electrical work connected with submarine telegraphy. A committee was formed shortly afterward, which gave the suggestions then brought forward the seal of universal officialdom.

Further Cables.—About this time a number of other cable enterprises were set afoot, some in{172} shallow water and others in comparatively great depths. Though few of them were able to benefit by the information obtained in the inquiry, they were, in the main, more or less successful. These projects included cables between Malta and Alexandria, besides others in the Mediterranean and elsewhere. Sir Charles Bright, Mr. (afterward Sir C. W.) Siemens, Mr. Lionel Gisborne, and Mr. H. C. Forde were mainly associated with them as engineers and electricians. The line which met, however, with the most complete and lasting success was the first cable to India, laid (by Sir Charles Bright) in several sections along the Persian Gulf in 1863-’64. In this undertaking Messrs. Bright & Clark (engineers to the Government) introduced a complete system of electrical and mechanical testing. Every joint was, for the first time, efficiently tested, and the insulated core submitted to a hydraulic pressure representative of that which it would experience when laid.[55] A formula was also arrived at by an elaborate series of experiments for the effect of temperature on the insulation, which showed how enormously the resistance of gutta-percha increased by consolidation when submitted to the low temperatures of the bottom of the ocean. Chatterton’s compound had been already introduced for adhering the gutta-percha envelope to the wires, as well as for cementing together the different insulating coats; but Bright & Clark’s preservative composition for the iron armor was first used in this enterprise. This mixture not{173} only evades the oxidation that iron wires, even when galvanized, are subject to, but resists the attacks of the teredo and other objectionable animal life. Moreover, besides the type of cable being eminently suitable, the manufacture was carried out with extreme care and with all the advantage of experience and improved methods.[56]

Completion of Pioneer Stage.—With the successful termination of the above enterprise, forming the first telegraphic connection between the United Kingdom, Europe, and India, the science of constructing and laying submarine telegraphs was pretty definitely worked out, and no very striking departure has since been introduced. The pioneer stage may, indeed, at this juncture, be said to have reached completion.

For this reason the rest of our narrative on the Atlantic cable will be told more briefly—though at greater length than the contents of this chapter, recounting only the stepping-stones to what was to follow.{174}

PART IV

COMMERCIAL SUCCESS

{176}

CHAPTER XIV

THE 1865 CABLE AND EXPEDITION

Fresh Efforts and Funds.—Though their cable had ceased to work, the Atlantic Telegraph Company was kept alive by the promoters.

In 1862 the Government was prevailed on to despatch H.M.S. Porcupine to further examine the ocean floor 300 miles out from the coasts of Ireland and Newfoundland, respectively.

It took a considerable time to raise the full amount of capital required for another Atlantic cable, for this could only be done gradually. The great civil war in America stimulated capitalists to renew the undertaking. One of the main advantages adduced was, on this occasion as before, the avoidance of misunderstandings between the two countries. Another—intended by Mr. Cyrus Field as a special inducement to his fellow countrymen—was the improvement of the agricultural position of the United States, by extending to it the facilities already enjoyed by France of commanding the foreign grain-markets.[57] On this{178} account the project was warmly supported by John Bright and other eminent free-traders.

Mr. Field, however, met with as little success in obtaining pecuniary support in the States as he had in connection with the previous line. His brother, Mr. H. M. Field, writes:

In point of fact, as before, the cable of 1865—as well as that of 1866—was provided for out of English pockets. Let us now substantiate this statement by a glance at events. The late Mr. Thomas Brassey was the first to be appealed to in England, and he supported the venture nobly. Then Mr. Pender[58] was applied to, and here also substantial aid was forthcoming. Both{179} these gentlemen had joined the board of the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company, which had just been formed (in April, 1864) as the result of an amalgamation of the Gutta-Percha Company and Messrs. Glass, Elliot & Co. Mr. Pender, who had been largely instrumental in effecting this combination, became the first chairman.

The Contractors’ Share.—Shortly after the first Atlantic cable was laid, Messrs. Glass, Elliot & Co. availed themselves of the services of Mr. Canning and Mr. Clifford, whose engagements on Sir Charles Bright’s staff for the “Atlantic” Company had terminated. Thus, with an additional staff of electricians, they had placed themselves in a position to undertake direct contracts for laying, as well as manufacturing, submarine telegraphs. They had, indeed, carried out work of this character in the Mediterranean during the year 1860; and on the amalgamation of the two businesses above mentioned into a limited liability company, their position was still further strengthened.

The capital raised for the new cable by the Atlantic Telegraph Company was £600,000; and, by agreeing to take a considerable proportion of their payment in “Atlantic” shares, the contractors practically found more than half of this amount. In the result, the undertaking became a contractors’ affair from first to last.

Design and Construction.—It will be seen that the new cable was to be an expensive one as compared with that of 1857-’58. It was the outcome of six years’ further experience, during which several important lines, referred to in the last chapter, had been laid. It also followed upon the{180} exhaustive Government inquiry to which allusion has been made.

Fig. 34.—The Main Cable, 1865-’66.

The actual type adopted (Fig. 34), on the recommendation of Sir Charles Bright and other engineers who were additionally consulted, was much the same in respect to the conductor and insulator—300 pounds copper to 400 pounds gutta-percha per nautical mile—as that which the former had suggested for the previous Atlantic line. This combination for the length involved was based on Professor Thomson’s law for the working speed of a cable, as depending inversely on the resistance of the conductor as well as on the electrostatic capacity of the core. The armor consisted of a combination of iron and hemp, each wire being enveloped in manila yarns. The object of incasing the separate wires in hemp was (1) to protect them from rust due to exposure to air and water, and (2) to reduce the specific gravity of the cable, with a view to rendering it more capable of supporting its own weight in{181} water. This form of cable, bearing a stress of about eight tons,[59] and suspending eleven miles of itself, was considered by most of the authorities at that period to perfectly fulfil the conditions required for deep-sea lines.[60] The claims of light hempen cables, without any iron, had been urged for meeting the difficulty of lay and recovery in deep water; and this type formed a sort of compromise, its total diameter being 1.1 inch, weighing 1 ton 16 hundredweight in air, and only 14 hundredweight in water. The shore end was to have a further outer sheathing of twelve strands, each strand containing three stout galvanized-iron wires of No. 2 B.W.G., bringing the weight up to 20 tons per mile. This was to be joined on to the main deep-sea type by a gradually tapering length of twenty-five fathoms.

Arrangements for Laying.—It was determined that this time the cable must be laid in one length, with the exception of the shore ends, by a single vessel. There was but one ship that could carry such a cargo. This ship was the Great Eastern, the conception of that distinguished engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. She was in course of construction by the late Mr. Scott Russell at the time of the first cable, and it was a subject for regret that she was not then available. An enormous craft of 22,500 tons, she did not prove suitable at that time as a cargo-boat; and the laying of{182} the second Atlantic cable was the first piece of useful work she did, after lying more or less idle for nearly ten years.[61] It is sad to think of the way this poor old ship was metaphorically passed from hand to hand. Even at this period three separate companies had already been formed one after another to work her. As promoter and chairman of one of these, Mr. (afterward Sir Daniel) Gooch took an active part in arranging for her charter on this undertaking, and it was in this way that he became a prominent party in the enterprise.

All the cable machinery was fitted to the Great Eastern, on behalf of the Telegraph Construction Company, by Mr. Henry Clifford to the designs of Mr. Canning and himself. It was constructed and set up by the famous firm of engineers, Messrs. John Penn & Son, of Greenwich. In the main principles the apparatus employed was similar to that previously adopted in 1858 on the Agamemnon and Niagara. There were, however, several modifications introduced, as the result of the extra experience gained during the seven years’ interval. The main point of difference was the further application of jockeys to the paying-out gear in a more complete form.

As it was not practicable to moor so enormous a vessel off the works at East Greenwich, the cable had to be cut into lengths and coiled on two pontoons, and thence transferred to the big ship.

Fig. 35.—The Great Eastern at Sea.

Landing the Irish End.—At length all the{183} cable having been manufactured and shipped from the Greenwich works, the Great Eastern, under the command of Captain (later Sir James) Anderson,[62] left the Thames on July 23, 1865, with a total dead weight of 21,000 tons, and proceeded to Foilhommerun Bay, Valentia. Here she joined up her cable to the shore end, which had been laid a day earlier by S.S. Caroline, a small vessel chartered and fitted up for the purpose. The great ship then started paying out as she steamed away on her journey to America, escorted by two British men-of-war, the Terrible and the Sphinx.

The Sailing Staff.—On behalf of the contractors, Mr. (afterward Sir Samuel) Canning was the engineer in charge of the expedition, with Mr. Henry Clifford as his chief assistant. As we have seen, both these gentlemen had been engaged with Sir Charles Bright on the first line, besides having much experience in mechanical engineering as well as in cable work. On the contractors’ engineering staff there were also Mr. John Temple and Mr. Robert London. Mr. C. V. de Sauty served as chief electrician, assisted by Mr. H. A. C. Saunders and several others. By arrangement with the Admiralty, Staff-Commander H. A. Moriarty, R.N., acted as the navigator of the expedition. Captain Moriarty was possessed of great skill in this direction, a fact which had been made clear in the previous undertaking.

Fig. 36.—Cable and Machinery aboard S.S. Great Eastern.

The Atlantic Telegraph Company was represented on board by Professor Thomson and Mr. C. F. Varley as electricians, the former acting{185} mainly as scientific expert in a consultative sense. Mr. Willoughby Smith, the electrician to the Gutta-Percha Works, was also on board at the request of the contractors, though holding no exact official position. Both Mr. Field and Mr. Gooch accompanied the expedition, the former as the initial promoter of the enterprise, and the latter on behalf of the Great Eastern Company. Representing the press there were also on board Dr. (afterward Sir W. H.) Russell, the well-known correspondent of The Times, as the historian of the enterprise, and Mr. Robert Dudley, an artist of repute, who produced several excellent sketches of the work in its different stages for the Illustrated London News.

A Bad Start.—Unfortunately trouble soon arose. The first fault declared itself the day after starting, when eighty-four miles had been paid out. It was decided to pick up back to the fault, which was discovered after ten and a half miles had been brought on board. A piece of iron wire was found to have pierced the cable diametrically, so as to make contact between the sea and the conductor. The faulty portion was cut out, and the paying out resumed as soon as the cable was spliced up again. On July 29th, when 716 miles had been laid, another and more serious fault appeared. The arduous operation of picking up again commenced. After nine hours’ work the fault was safe inboard, and the necessary repair effected. On stripping the cable another piece of iron wire was discovered sticking right through the core. Anxiety and misgivings were now felt by all on board, for it seemed that such reverses could only be attributed to malevolence. On{187} August 2d yet a further fault was reported; they were now two-thirds of the way across, 1,186 miles of cable being already laid. Again they had to pick up, and this time in a depth of 2,000 fathoms. One mile only had been recovered, when an accident of some kind happened to the machinery. The great ship, having stopped, was at the mercy of the wind and swell, and heavy strains were brought on the cable, which consequently suffered badly in two places. Before the two injured portions could be secured on board the cable parted and sank. Mr. Canning at once decided to endeavor to recover the cable, notwithstanding the fact that it lay in 2,000 fathoms. After maneuvering in this way for about fifteen hours, 700 fathoms of rope had been hove in, when one of the connecting links gave way, and all beyond it sank to the bottom. The work was recommenced with hempen ropes, two miles farther west, in a depth of 2,300 fathoms, and on August 8th the cable was again hooked; but when raised to within 1,500 fathoms of the surface, yet another connecting link parted, the strain being about nine tons. Two more attempts were made, but both were doomed to end in failure. The store of rope being now quite exhausted, the work had to be abandoned, and on August 11, 1865, the fleet of ships parted company to return home—shattered in hopes as well as in ropes!{188}

CHAPTER XV

SECOND AND SUCCESSFUL ATTEMPT

THE results of the last expedition, disastrous as they were from a financial point of view, in no wise abated the courage of the promoters of the enterprise. During the heaviest weather the Great Eastern had shown exceptional “stiffness,” while her great size and her maneuvering power (afforded by the screw and paddles combined) seemed to show her to be the very type of vessel for this kind of work. The picking-up gear, it was true, had proved insufficient, but with the paying-out machinery no serious fault was to be found. The feasibility of grappling in mid-Atlantic had been demonstrated, and they had gone far toward proving the possibility of recovering the cable from similar depths.

Further Funds.—To overcome financial difficulties, the Atlantic Telegraph Company was amalgamated with a new concern, the Anglo-American Telegraph Company, which was formed, mainly by those interested in the older business, with the object of raising fresh capital for the new and double ventures of 1866. The ultimate capital of this company amounted (as before) to £600,000. In raising this, Mr. Field first secured the support of the late Sir Daniel{189} Gooch, M.P., then chairman, and previously locomotive superintendent of the Great Western Railway Company, who, after what he had seen on the previous expedition, promised, if necessary, to subscribe as much as £20,000. On the same conditions, Mr. Brassey expressed his willingness to bear one-tenth of the total cost of the undertaking. Ultimately, the Telegraph Construction Company led off with £100,000, this amount being followed by the signatures of ten directors interested in the contract (as guarantors) at £10,000 apiece. Then there were four subscriptions of £5,000, and some of £2,500 to £1,000, principally from firms participating in the subcontracts. These sums were all subscribed before even the prospectus was issued or the books opened to the public. The remaining capital then quickly followed.

The Telegraph Construction Company, in undertaking the entire work, were to receive £500,000 for the new cable in any case; and, if it succeeded, an extra £100,000. If both cables came into successful operation, the total amount payable to them was to be £737,140. In fact, it was, if possible, even more of a contractor’s enterprise than that of 1865.

It was now proposed not only to lay a new cable between Ireland and Newfoundland, but also to repair and complete the one lying at the bottom of the sea. A length of 1,600 miles of cable was ordered from the contractors. Thus, with the unexpended cable from the last expedition, the total length available when the expedition started would be 2,730 miles, of which 1,960 miles were allotted to the new cable, and 697 to complete the old one, leaving 113 miles as a reserve.{190}

Fresh Provisions.—The new main cable was similar to that of the year before, but the shore-end cable determined on in this case was of a different description. It had only one sheathing, consisting of twelve contiguous iron wires of great individual surface and weight; and outside all a covering of tarred hemp and compound. That part of the line which was intended for shallow depths was composed of three different types. Starting from the coast of Ireland, eight miles of the heaviest was to be laid, then eight miles of an intermediate type, and lastly fourteen miles of a lighter type, making thirty miles of shoal-water cable on the Irish side. Five miles of shallow-water cable, of the different types named, were considered sufficient on the Newfoundland coast.

The previous paying-out machinery on board the Great Eastern was altered to some extent by Messrs. Penn to the instructions of Messrs. Canning & Clifford. Though different in detail, the main improvement over the 1865 gear consisted in the fact that a 70-horse-power steam-engine was fitted to drive the two large drums in such a way that the paying-out machinery, as in 1858, could be used to pick up cable during the laying, if necessary, thereby avoiding the risk incurred by changing the cable from the stern to the bows. This addition of Penn trunk-engines, as well as the general strengthening of the entire machinery, was made in accordance with the designs of Mr. Henry Clifford.

Fig. 37.—The Picking-up Machine, 1866.

The picking-up machinery forward (Fig. 37) after the previous expedition was considerably strengthened and improved with spur-wheels and pinion-gearing. It had two drums worked by a{191} similar pair of 70-horse-power engines. This formed an exceedingly powerful machine, and reflected great credit on those who devised and constructed it.

Similar gear was fitted up on board the two vessels—S.S. Medway and S.S. Albany—chartered to assist the Great Eastern.

For the purpose of grappling the 1865 cable, twenty miles of rope were manufactured, which was constituted by forty-nine iron wires, separately covered with manila hemp. Six wires so served were laid up strandwise round a seventh, which formed the heart, or core, of the rope. This rope would stand a longitudinal stress of 30 tons before breaking.

In addition, five miles of buoy-rope were provided, besides buoys of different shapes and sizes, the largest of which (Fig. 38) would support a weight of twenty tons. As on the previous expedition, several kinds of grapnels were put on board, some of the ordinary sort, and some with springs to prevent the cable surging, and thus escaping while the grapnel was still dragging on the bottom; others, again, were fashioned like pincers, to hold (or jam) the cable when raised to a required height, or else to cut it only, and so take off a large proportion of the strain previous to picking up. Most of this apparatus was furnished by Messrs. Brown, Lenox & Co., the famous chain, cable, anchor, and buoy engineers, several of the grapnels being to their design, as well as the “connections.”

The propelling machinery of the Great Eastern had similarly received alteration and improvement in the intervals of the two expeditions. Moreover,{193} the screw propeller was surrounded with an iron cage, to keep the cable and ropes from fouling it, as had been provided for the Agamemnon and Niagara in 1857.

Fig. 38.—Buoys, Grapnels, Mushrooms—and Men.

The testing arrangements had been perfected by Mr. Willoughby Smith in such a way that insulation readings could be continuously observed,{194} even while measuring the copper resistance, or while exchanging signals with Valentia. Thus there was no longer any danger of a fault being paid overboard without instant detection. On this occasion also condensers were applied to the receiving-end of the cable, having the effect of very materially increasing—indeed, sometimes almost doubling—the working speed.

On June 30, 1866, the Great Eastern, steaming from the Thames—followed by the Medway and Albany—arrived at Valentia, where H.M.S. Terrible and Racoon were found, under orders to accompany the expedition. The Medway had on board forty-five miles of deep-sea cable in addition to the American shore end.

The principal members of the staff acting on behalf of the contractors in this expedition were the same as in that of the previous year. Mr. Canning was again in charge, with Mr. Clifford and Mr. Temple as his chief assistants. In the electrical department, however, the Telegraph Construction Company had since secured the services of Mr. Willoughby Smith as their chief electrician, while he still acted in that capacity at the Wharf Road Gutta-Percha Works. Mr. Smith, therefore, accompanied the expedition as chief electrician to the contractors. Captain James Anderson and Staff-Commander H. A. Moriarty, R.N., were once more to be seen on board the great ship, the former as her captain, and the latter as navigating officer. Professor Thomson was aboard as consulting electrical adviser to the Atlantic Telegraph Company, while Mr. C. F. Varley was ashore at Valentia as their electrician. Sir Charles Bright (then M.P. for{195} Greenwich) was at this period serving on various committees of the House of Commons;[63] but his partner, Mr. Latimer Clark, took up quarters at Valentia to personally represent the firm as consulting engineers to the Anglo-American Telegraph Company. Mr. J. C. Laws and Mr. Richard Collett[64] being respectively aboard and ashore at the Newfoundland end in the same interests. Mr. Glass, the managing director of the Telegraph Construction Company, was ashore at Valentia for the purpose of giving any instructions to his (the contractor’s) staff on board, while Mr. Gooch and Mr. Field were aboard the Great Eastern as onlookers and watchers of their individual interests.

Cable-Laying again.—On July 7th the William Cory—commonly known as the Dirty Billy—landed the shore end in Foilhommerum Bay, and afterward laid twenty-seven miles of the intermediate cable. On the 13th, the Great Eastern took the end on board, and having spliced on to her cable on board, started paying out. The track followed was parallel to that taken the year before, but about twenty-seven miles farther north. There were two instances of fouls in the tank, due to broken wires catching neighboring turns and flakes, and thus drawing up a whole bundle of cable in an apparently inextricable mass of kinks and twists quite close to the brake-drum. In{196} each case the ship was promptly got to a standstill and all hands set to unraveling the tangle. With a certain amount of luck, coupled with much care, neither accident ended fatally; and, after straightening out the wire as far as possible, paying out was resumed.

Fig. 39.—“Foul in Tank” while Paying out.

Successful Completion.—Fourteen days after starting the Great Eastern arrived off Heart’s Content,[65] Trinity Bay, where the Medway joined on and landed the shore end partly by boats, thus bringing to a successful conclusion this part of the expedition. The total length of cable laid was 1,852 nautical miles; average depth, 1,400 fathoms. Rejoicings then took place during the{197} coaling of the Great Eastern—to provide for which as many as six coal-laden steamers had left Cardiff some weeks before. The rejoicings were somewhat damped by the fact that the cable between Newfoundland and Cape Breton (Nova Scotia) still remained interrupted, and that consequently the entire telegraphic system was not even now completed. However, in the course of a few days this line was repaired, and New York and the east of the United States and Canada were once more put into telegraphic communication with Europe.

The telegraphic fleet put to sea again on August 9th.

CHAPTER XVI

RECOVERY AND COMPLETION OF THE 1865 CABLE

Prospects and Plans.—It now remained to find the end of the cable lost on August 2, 1865, situated about 604 miles from Newfoundland, to pick it up, splice on to the cable remaining on board, and finish the work so unfortunately interrupted the year before. The difficulties to be overcome can be readily imagined, the cable lying 2,000 fathoms without mark of any kind to indicate its position. The buoys put down after the accident{198} had long since disappeared, either their moorings having dragged during various gales of wind, or the wire ropes which held them having chafed through, owing to incessant rise and fall at the bottom. The position of the lost end had to be determined by astronomical observations. These necessitate clear weather, and can then only give approximate results on account of the variable ocean currents, which sometimes flow at the rate of three knots. Moreover, for grappling and raising the cable to the bows, the sea must be tolerably smooth; and in that part where the work lay a succession of fine days is rare, even in the month of August. However, they still had on board Captain Moriarty, one of the ablest navigators in the world. Added to this, the greater portion of the cable in deep water had been paid out with about 15 per cent slack.

The chiefs of the expedition, fully confident of success, hastened their preparations, and on August 9, 1866, the Great Eastern again put to sea, accompanied by S.S. Medway. On the 12th the vessels arrived on the scene of action, and joined company with H.M.S. Terrible and S.S. Albany, these vessels having left Heart’s Content Bay a week in advance to buoy the line of the 1865 cable and commence grappling.

The plan decided on was to drag for the cable near the end with all three ships at once. The cable when raised to a certain height, was to be cut by the Medway stationed to the westward of the Great Eastern, so as to enable the latter vessel to lift the Valentia end on board. This was, of course, before the days of cutting and holding grapnels as we now have them, which render it{199} possible for a single ship to effect repairs—even where it is out of the question to recover the cable in one bight.

Fig. 40.—S.S. Great Eastern Completing the Second Atlantic Cable.

Setting to Work: Repeated Failures.—When the Great Eastern arrived on the grappling ground, the Albany (with Mr. Temple in engineering charge) had already hooked and buoyed the cable, but the buoy-chain having been carried away, they not only lost the cable, but 2,000 fathoms of wire rope besides. On August 13th the Great Eastern made her first drag, about fifteen miles from the end, and, after several vain attempts, the cable was finally hooked and lifted about 1,300 fathoms. During the operation of buoying the grappling rope, a mistake occurred which resulted in the rope slipping overboard and going to the bottom.

The Great Eastern now proceeded six miles to the eastward, and commenced a new drag, for raking the ocean bed with 2,400 fathoms of wire rope. About eleven o’clock at night the grapnel came to the surface with the cable caught on two of the prongs. Boats were quickly in position alongside the grapnel. Shortly afterward they were endeavoring to secure the cable to the strong wire rope, by means of a nipper, when the grapnel canted, allowing the line to slip away from the prongs—like a great eel—and disappear into the sea. On the 19th the cable was once more hooked, and raised about a mile from the bottom, but the sea was too rough for buoying it. During the following week all three vessels dragged for the cable at different points, according to the plan previously arranged, but the weather was unfavorable, and the cable was not hooked—or, if{201} hooked, had managed to slip away from the grapnels. The ship’s company about this time became discouraged—in fact, more and more convinced of the futility of their efforts.

On the 27th the Albany signaled that they had got the cable on board with a strain of only three tons, and had buoyed the end, but it was soon discovered that her buoy was thirteen miles from the track of the cable, and that she had recovered a length of three miles which had been purposely paid overboard a few days before. Shifting ground to the eastward about fifteen miles, the vessels were now working in a depth of 2,500 fathoms. As the store of grappling rope was diminishing day by day, and the fine season rapidly coming to an end, it was decided to proceed at once eighty miles farther east, where the depth was not expected to exceed 1,900 fathoms, and there try a last chance.

Ultimate Triumph.—After the above repeated failures, the cable was hooked on August 31st by the Great Eastern (when the grapnel had been lowered for the thirtieth time), and picking up commenced in very calm weather. The monster vessel did her work admirably. To quote the words of an eye-witness: “So delicately did she answer her helm, and coil in the film of thread-like cable, that she put one in mind of an elephant taking up a straw in its proboscis.” When the bight of cable was about 900 fathoms from the surface, the grappling-rope was buoyed. The big ship then proceeded to grapple three miles west of the buoy (Fig. 41), and the Medway (with Mr. London on board) another two miles or so west of her again. The cable was soon once{202} more hooked by both ships, and when the Medway had raised her bight to within 300 fathoms of the surface she was ordered to break it. The Great Eastern having stopped picking up when the bight was 800 fathoms from the surface, proceeded to resume the operation as soon as the intentional rupture of the cable had eased the strain, which, with a loose end of about two nautical miles, at once fell from 10 or 11 tons to 5 tons. Slowly, but surely, and amid breathless silence, the long-lost cable made its appearance at last (see opposite), for the third time above water, a little before one o’clock (early morn) of September 2d.[66]

Two hours afterward the precious end was on board, and signals were immediately exchanged with Valentia. This was at once led into the testing-room, where Mr. Willoughby Smith, in the presence of all the leaders on board, applied the tests which were to determine the important question regarding the condition of the cable, and whether it was entirely continuous to each end. In a few minutes all suspense was relieved, the tests showed the cable to be healthy and complete, and immediately afterward (in response to the ship’s call) the answering signals were received from the Valentia end, which were received with loud cheers that echoed and reechoed throughout the great ship.

Electricians Ashore: “Spot-watching.”—Let us now look at those patiently watching day after day, night after night, in the wooden telegraph cabin on shore, the experience of whom may be taken as a fair sample of that of the electrician{203} ashore during repairing operations in the present day.

Fig. 41.—Diagram Illustrative of the Final Tactics Adopted for Picking up the 1865 Cable.

Such a length of time had elapsed since the expedition left Newfoundland that the staff at Foilhommerum, under the superintendence of Mr. James Graves, felt they were almost hoping against hope. Suddenly, on a Sunday morning at a quarter to six, while the tiny ray of light from the reflecting instrument was being watched, the operator observed it moving to and fro upon the scale. A few minutes later the unsteady flickering was changed to coherency. The long-speechless cable began to talk, and the welcome assurance arrived, “Ship to shore; I have much pleasure in speaking to you through the 1865 cable. Just going to make splice.” Glad tidings were also sent from the ship via Valentia to London, and, by means of the 1866 cable, to Newfoundland and New York. Thus it happened that those being tossed about in a stormy sea held conversation{204} with Europe and America at one and the same time.[67]

“Putting Through.”—The recovered end was spliced on without delay to the cable on board, and the same morning at seven o’clock the Great Eastern started paying out about 680 nautical miles of cable toward Newfoundland. On September 8th, when only thirteen miles from the Bay of Heart’s Content, just after receiving a summary of the news in The Times of that morning, the tests showed a fault in the cable. The mischief was soon found to be on board the ship, and caused by the end of a broken wire, which, bending at right angles under the weight of the men employed in the tanks, had been forced into the core. This occurrence explained the probable cause of the faults (of same character) which had shown themselves during paying out the year before, tending to remove all suspicion of malicious intent. The faulty portion having been cut out, and the splice made without delay, paying out again proceeded, finishing the same day at eleven o’clock in the forenoon. The Medway immediately set to work laying the shore end, and that evening a second line of communication across the Atlantic was completed. The total length of this cable, commenced in 1865, was 1,896 miles; average depth, 1,900 fathoms.

Fig. 42.—S.S. Great Eastern with 1865 Cable at Bows; Depth, 2 Miles.

Pioneering.—The main feature and accomplishment in connection with the second and third Atlantic cables of 1865 and 1866 was, without doubt, the recovery of the former in deeper water{205} than had ever been before effected, and in the open ocean; just as in the first 1858 line it was the demonstration of the fact that a cable could be successfully laid in such a depth and worked through electrically. In the interval between the two undertakings cable repairs had certainly been carried out in the Mediterranean in 1,400 fathoms. Moreover, the recovery and repair of a cable from the depths of the open ocean are now matters of ordinary every-day occurrence, forming part and parcel of cable operations generally. These facts should not, however, in any way detract from the greatness of the achievement at that time in so vast and boisterous an ocean.

Working the Two Lines.—Professor Thomson’s reflecting-apparatus for testing and signaling had been considerably improved since the first cable. In illustration of the degree of sensibility and perfection attained at this period in the appliances for working the line, the following experiment is of striking interest: Mr. Latimer Clark, who went to Valentia to test the cable for the “Atlantic” Company, had the conductor of the two lines joined together at the Newfoundland end, thus forming an unbroken length of 3,700 miles in circuit. He then placed some pure sulfuric acid in a silver thimble,[68] with a fragment of zinc weighing a grain or two. By this primitive agency he succeeded in conveying signals twice through the breadth of the Atlantic Ocean in little more than a second of time after making contact. The deflections were not of a dubious character,{207} but full and strong, the spot of light traversing freely over a space of twelve inches or more, from which it was manifest that an even smaller battery would suffice to produce somewhat similar effects. Again, in testing these cables it was found that if either was disconnected from the earth and charged with electricity, it required more than an hour for half of the charge to escape through the insulating material to the earth. This speaks well for the electrical components assigned to the two lines, and for the arrangements adopted in working them. It also shows the benefit derived from seven years’ extra experience in manufacture, backed up by the previously mentioned exhaustive Government inquiry thereon.

Notwithstanding the dimensions of the core, these cables were worked slowly at first, and at a rate of about eight words per minute. This, however, soon improved as the staff became more accustomed to the apparatus, and steadily increased up to fifteen—and even seventeen—words per minute on each line, with the application of condensers.

Unfortunately both these cables broke down a few months later, and one of them again during the following year. The faults were localized with great accuracy from Heart’s Content by Mr. F. Lambert on behalf of Messrs. Bright & Clark, engineers to the “Anglo-American” Company.

Unlike the 1858 line, however, these last cables had not been killed electrically, and, being worthy of repairs, they were maintained for a considerable time.{208}

CHAPTER XVII

JUBILATIONS

ON the return of the 1866 Expedition a banquet was given to the cable-layers by the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, as soon as the Great Eastern was safely moored in the Mersey.

The following from The Times will be of some interest here:

Then followed speeches from Lord Stanley, the American Consul (on behalf of Mr. Cyrus Field), and others.

Honors were subsequently bestowed on some of the various gentlemen most immediately concerned in these—at last—wholly successful undertakings of 1865 and 1866, which left their results behind in complete and lasting form.

CHAPTER XVIII

SUBSEQUENT ATLANTIC LINES

As a natural sequence other Atlantic cables followed in course of time.

Thus in 1869 France was put into direct telegraphic communication with America by means of a cable from Brest to the island of St. Pierre,{213} and another from St. Pierre to Sydney, U.S.A.[70] The former length was manufactured by the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company, and the latter by Mr. W. T. Henley. The Telegraph Construction Company were the contractors for laying the whole cable on behalf of the French Atlantic Cable Company (Société du Câble Trans-Atlantique Français).[71]

This work was successfully accomplished from the Great Eastern (Captain Robert Halpin) by the same staff as had laid the 1866 cable. Owing to the route, this line was materially longer than the previous Atlantic cables, its length (from Brest to St. Pierre) being as much as 2,685 nautical miles. The working-speed attained on the French Atlantic cable was ten and a half words per minute. The conductor of the Brest-St. Pierre section was composed of seven copper wires stranded together, weighing 400 pounds per nautical mile, covered with a gutta-percha insulator of the same weight. The core of the St. Pierre-Sydney section was made up as follows: Copper = 107 pounds per nautical mile; gutta-percha = 150 pounds per nautical mile. Like the previous lines, this cable has been “down,” electrically speaking, for some years. It proved a very costly one in repairs, one expedition alone having run into as much as £95,000.

In 1873 the Direct United States Cable Company{214} was formed, being the first competitor—from this country—with the “Anglo-American” Company.[72] Messrs. Siemens Brothers, who had taken an active part in the promotion of the scheme, were the contractors, both for manufacture and for submersion. It was, indeed, the first really important length with which this firm had been concerned as manufacturers. The laying was attended with complete success, and the line opened to the public in 1875. Later on, in 1877, the “Direct United States” Company was reconstructed, their system entering into the “pool” or “joint purse.” The latter was established shortly after the 1869 Atlantic cable had been laid, constituting one great financial combination.

In 1879 another French company was formed to establish independent communication between France and the rest of the European Continent on the one hand, and the United States of America on the other. The, to English ears and lips, somewhat cumbersome title of this concern was La Compagnie Française du Télégraphe de Paris à{215} New York, but it soon became styled in England the “P. Q. Company,” after M. Pouyer-Quertier, its presiding genius. The cable was made and laid in the same year by Messrs. Siemens Brothers, though the scheme had taken three years to reach contract point. The “P. Q.” Company in 1894 amalgamated with La Société Française des Télégraphes Sous-marins, under the title of La Compagnie Française des Câbles Télégraphiques.

In 1881 an American company was formed, under the guidance of the late Mr. Jay Gould, entitled The American Telegraph and Cable Company, with a view to partaking in the profits of transatlantic telegraphy by establishing another line of communication between the United States and Great Britain, and thence to the rest of Europe. This cable was also constructed and laid (in the course of that year) by Messrs. Siemens Brothers, who were part promoters of the enterprise, as well as another cable for the same system in the following year, 1882. This company’s cables are leased by the Western Union Telegraph Company, which was practically Jay Gould’s property, and remained so up to close on the time of his death, a few years ago. In 1883 the above system entered the “Pool”—the happy destination for which, maybe, it was originally launched into existence.

A fresh competitor arrived in 1884 in the person of the Commercial Cable Company. Two cables were laid across the Atlantic for this company in the same year, its promoters wisely foreseeing that, in view of the continual chance of a breakdown, this was the only way in which they could safely attempt to compete with their more{216} firmly established rivals. The “Commercial” Company was mainly promoted by two American millionaires, Mr. J. W. Mackay, the celebrated New York financier, and Mr. Gordon Bennett, the proprietor of the New York Herald; with them were associated Messrs. Siemens Brothers, who afterward became the contractors for the enterprise. These cables, like the Jay Gould lines, stretch from the extreme southwest point of Ireland (which is connected by special cable with England) to Nova Scotia, and thence to the United States, one of them direct to New York. The system is directly connected with that of the Canadian Pacific Railroad Company, thus affording ready communication with the Dominion.

Neither the “Commercial” Company’s system nor that of the Compagnie Française des Câbles Télégraphiques is at present in the “Atlantic Pool.”

In 1894 yet two more additions were made to the list of Atlantic cables—one on behalf of the Commercial Cable Company, and the other for the “Anglo-American” Company. The new “Commercial” line was constructed and laid by Messrs. Siemens Brothers, and the “Anglo” cable by the Telegraph Construction Company. Fig. 43 shows the type adopted for the deepest water of the latter, and Fig. 44 that for the shore ends. Here the wires, besides being of a very large gauge, are applied with an extremely short lay (hence the elliptic appearance, though circular in reality), in order to increase the weight of iron, and thereby avoid shifting and abrasion. This type is now in constant use where rocks, ice-floes, strong currents, or rough weather are experienced. Special{217} arrangements were made in the design of both these cables to meet the requirements of increased speed. Since the successful application to submarine cables of various modifications of Wheatstone’s automatic transmitter, the limit to the speed attainable only depends, practically speaking, upon the type of cable employed. On these principles the core of the new “Commercial” cable was composed of a copper conductor weighing 500 pounds per nautical mile, covered with a gutta-percha insulating-sheath weighing 320 pounds per nautical mile, while the new “Anglo” has a core with conductor weighing 650 pounds per nautical mile, and gutta-percha insulator 400 pounds per nautical mile, involving a completed cable (main type) nearly double the weight of previous corresponding lines.

Fig. 43.—Anglo-American Atlantic Cable (1894): deep-sea type.

Fig. 44.—Shore-end of the 1894 “Anglo” Cable. Reduced size.

The actual speed obtained by automatic transmission with the latter cable is as high as forty-seven (or even up to fifty) five-letter words per minute. On the previous, lighter, Atlantic cores twenty-five to twenty-eight words per minute was the usual maximum speed attainable; the former,{218} say, by average transmission and average receiving, and the latter by automatic transmission—other circumstances corresponding. Practically all submarine cables between important points—and certainly all those across the Atlantic—are now “duplexed”—a system of electrical working (instituted by Messrs. Muirhead in 1875) which enables messages to be sent in both directions at the same time. The result of this is nowadays to practically double the carrying capacity and earning power of the line, the effective speed in either direction remaining virtually the same as in “simplex” working, provided the cable is in good condition.[73] The armor of this cable (Fig. 43) is also a good example of present-day practise, each wire (usually covered with compounded tape) butting against the next; this is found to be the most durable form for a deep-sea cable.

In 1898 another French Atlantic line of a similar type to the above was laid. This involved the longest Atlantic cable-section in existence, i.e., 3,174 nautical miles, from Brest to Cape Cod, and was the first Atlantic line made and laid by Frenchmen, with the active assistance, as regards laying, of the Silvertown Company.

Recently, too, a German Atlantic cable has been laid by the Telegraph Construction Company from Emden to the Azores, and hence to New York.

The various proprietary companies here named have had duplicating lines laid for them from{219} time to time, but these it is not necessary to further allude to.

Neither has it been thought necessary to give particulars regarding the methods of construction, laying, testing or working of any of these later lines following on the pioneer undertakings, except where special novelties were introduced. For similar reasons—and seeing that the responsibility of these later lines rested with contractors—the names of their permanent staff acting for them have not been introduced.

CHAPTER XIX

ATLANTIC CABLE SYSTEMS OF TO-DAY

AS a part of the union between the old world and the new, there are altogether fifteen cables now working across the North Atlantic Ocean (see Fig. 45), such as are usually termed “Atlantic cables.” Some of the Atlantic companies have special cables of their own from the landing place on the coast of Ireland to points on the Continental coasts. The figure on page 221 suggests one of the difficulties any wireless system would have to contend with in attempting at transatlantic telegraphy on a commercial basis.[74] Some of{220} these cables at each end of the corresponding main section contain more than one insulated conductor.

Tariff.—In the early pioneer days of ocean telegraphy the Atlantic Telegraph Company started with a minimum tariff of £20 for twenty words, and £1 for each additional word. This was first reduced to £10 for twenty words, and was further altered later on to £5 for ten words. After this it stood for a long time at a minimum of 30s. for ten words of five letters each. Subsequently, in 1867, the Anglo-American Company tried a word-rate of £1 for the 1865 and 1866 Atlantic cables; but it was not until 1872 that Mr. Henry Weaver, their able manager, first instituted a regular word-rate system (without any minimum) of 4s. per word. At the present time (1903), thanks to competition, to technical improvements in the plant, and increased traffic—bringing in its train those economies in the working which are always possible in a larger scale of operation—the rate stands at 1s. a word with all the Atlantic companies. Some day we may, perhaps, see a sixpenny transatlantic tariff in permanent force.

Fig. 45.—Atlantic Cable Systems, 1903.

Revenue.—The fifteen Atlantic cables now in use represent a total capital of well over £20,000,000 sterling. A knowledge of the profits derived from each system is not readily arrived at; but{221} from a comparison of the traffic receipts or “money returns” of the oldest existing Atlantic company at different periods, we are bound to conclude that the “takings” are, roughly speaking, very much the same now as they were twenty-five years ago. This is explainable by the fact that, although the number of messages now passing is much greater, the reduction of the rate (with the ever-increasing competition of rival lines) just about cancels the advantage, so far as receipts are concerned. Roughly speaking, however, the annual gross traffic on transatlantic telegraphy stands at about £1,200,000, divided among two English companies, two American, one French, and one German company. Both the two latter are materially subsidized by their respective Governments, who now foresee the desirability of being independent of cables under English control.