The Atlantic Telegraph Part 9

A calm examination of the courses which led to the suspension of the Great Eastern's work, inspired those whose judgments were free from prejudice with the belief that a series of accidents, in their nature easily guarded against in future, had been the sole causes of the frustration of the enterprise. If the external coating had not been injured, no faults could have occurred, and if there had been no faults, the Cable would have been laid with the utmost ease. The success of the Telegraph becomes a.s.sured the moment the occurrence of faults can be obviated, or their detection can be followed by immediate reparation.

These objects are to be attained, and the Directors, encouraged by the confidence of the public, and by the enormous gains which must reward even a temporary success, set about to secure them. An arrangement was entered into with the Directors of the Great s.h.i.+p Company by which the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company secured the Great Eastern for a term of years, and another negotiation ended in obtaining the services of Captain Anderson in charge of her.

Now it may be fairly concluded, from our experience of the "Atlantic Telegraph Expeditions" in 1857, 1858, and 1865,--That a submarine telegraph Cable can be laid between Ireland and Newfoundland, because it was actually done in 1858. That messages can be transmitted through a Cable so laid, because 271 messages were sent from Newfoundland to Valentia, and 129 messages from Valentia to Newfoundland, in 1858. That the insulation of a Cable increases very much after its submersion in the cold deep water of the Atlantic, and that its conducting power is considerably improved thereby. That the steams.h.i.+p Great Eastern, from her size and constant steadiness, and from the control over her afforded by the joint use of paddle and screw, renders it possible and safe for her to lay an Atlantic Cable without regard to the weather. That the egress of a Cable in the course of being laid from the Great Eastern may be safely stopped on the appearance of a fault, and with strong tackle and good hauling-in machinery, the fault may be lifted from a depth of over 2000 fathoms, and cut out on board the s.h.i.+p, and the Cable respliced and laid in perfect condition. That in a depth of two miles a Cable can be caught at the bottom, because four attempts were made to grapple the Cable in 1865, and in three of them the Cable was caught by the grapnel.

The paying-out machinery, constructed by Messrs. Canning and Clifford, and used on board the Great Eastern in 1865, worked perfectly, and can be confidently relied on for laying Cables across the Atlantic. With the improved telegraphic instruments, for long submarine lines, of Professor W. Thomson and Mr. Varley, a speed of more than eight words per minute can be obtained through such a circuit as the Atlantic Cable of 1865, between Ireland and Newfoundland; as the amount of slack actually payed-out did not exceed 14 per cent., which would have made the total Cable laid between Valentia and Heart's Content less than 1,900 miles.

The Cable of 1865, though capable of bearing a strain of 7 tons, did not experience more than 14 cwt. in being payed-out into the deepest water of the Atlantic between Ireland and Newfoundland.

There is no difficulty in mooring buoys in the deep water of the Atlantic between Ireland and Newfoundland; a buoy, even when moored by a piece of the Atlantic Cable itself which had been previously lifted from a depth of over 2000 fathoms, has ridden out a gale.

More than four miles of the Atlantic Cable have been recovered from a depth of over two miles, and the insulation of the gutta-percha-covered wire was in no way whatever impaired, either by the depth of water or the strains to which it had been subjected by lifting and pa.s.sing through the hauling-in apparatus.

The Cable of 1865, owing to the improvements introduced into the manufacture of the gutta percha, insulated more than one hundred times better than Cables made in 1858, then considered perfect, and still working. The improvements effected since the beginning of 1851 in the conducting power of the copper wire, by selecting it, has increased the rate of signalling possible through long submarine Cables by more than 33 per cent. Electrical testing can be conducted at sea with such certainty as to discover the existence of faults in less than a minute of their occurrence. If a steam-engine be attached to the paying-out machinery, so as to permit of hauling-in the Cable immediately a fault is discovered, and a slight modification made in the construction of the external sheath of the Cable, the cause of the faults experienced will be entirely done away with; and should a fault occur, it can be picked up even before it has reached the bottom of the Atlantic.

The Great Eastern is now undergoing the alterations which will render her absolutely perfect for the purpose of laying the new Cable and picking up the old, and next year will see the renewal of the enterprise of connecting the Old World with the New by an enduring link which, under G.o.d's blessing, may confer unnumbered blessings on the nations which the ocean has so long divided, and add to the greatness and the power which this empire has achieved by the energy, enterprise, and perseverance of our countrymen, directed by Providence, to the promotion of the welfare and happiness of mankind. Remembering all that has occurred,--how well-grounded hopes were deceived, just expectations frustrated,--there are still grounds for confidence, absolute as far as the nature of human affairs permits them in any calculation of future events to be, that the year 1866 will witness the consummation of the greatest work of civilised man, and the grandest exposition of the development of the faculties bestowed on him to overcome material difficulties.

The last word transmitted through the old Telegraph from Europe to America, was "Forward," and "Forward" is the motto of the enterprise still.

FINISH.