PIONEER CABLE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 255, 27 October 1928, Page 10 (Supplement)

PIONEER CABLE.

THE FIRST EXPERIMENTS.

SHORT-LIVED LINKS.

BRIDGING THE ATLANTIC.

The laying of a new cable across the Atlantic by the Western Union Company, a cable which can send four messages simultaneously in each direction, marks a fresh step in the progress of long-distance commmunication. The possibility of submarine telegraphy was suggested as far back as the closing years of the eighteenth century. Not until 1850, however, was the first practical attempt at submarine telegraphy made. On August 28 of that year the paddle tug Goliath left Dover, England, carrying twenty-five miles of cable, wound upon a large drum, and headed for Cape Gris Nez, France, which was later to acquire fame as a starting place for women Channel swimmers. Buoys Marked Course. A line of buoys marked the course of the Goliath, which steamed along at a speed of four knots, with her men attending to the turning of the drum. As this pioneer cable layer followed her course, tests were applied. A recording telegraph instrument was brought into use to demonstrate the capability of the transmission of signals. Throughout the trip the process of paying out was continued. Relatively few difficulties attended the laying of the first cable, and by nightfall telegraphic communication between Dover and Cape Gris Nez had been established. This pioneer line was, however, of short duration. A French fisherman, so the story goes, plying his vocation in the Channel waters, hooked up what he took to be a new and strange variety of seaweed which contained gold. He severed it with his knife, hauled into his boat as much of the line as the craft would hold, conveyed it in triumph to Boulogne, and so closed the first chapter in the history of submarine telegraphy. Stronger Cable Used. The fault of this first cable was in its construction. It lacked a protective armour, consisting merely of copper covered with gutta percha to half an inch diameter. In 1851, when another effort to link France and England was to be attempted, the necessity of some suitable form of protection for the entire length of the cable was recognised, and an improved type of caHe was designed. To give strength to this cable, four copper wires, each covered with two coatings of gutta percha, were laid together to form a multiple core. The interstices in this core were filled with tarred hemp yarns and a similar material was wound/ round the whole. As an outer casing there were ten helically laid strands of galvanised iron wire.

The second Channel cable was laid in the autumn of 1851 from the South Foreland to Sangatte, near Calais, and again the modus operandi was primitive compared with the present-day rapidity with which this task is performed. A ship lent by the British Government earned the cable, and was taken in tow by two tugs, with a Government steamer acting as pilot. This cable was opened on November 13, 1851, and lent great impetus to submarine telegraphy. After three attempts Ireland was brought into cable communication with England in May, 1853. Subsequently a cable was laid-from the port of Varna to Balaclava in the Crimea, and was of great help to the British in the Crimean War. Incidentally, this was the first occasion on which a submarine cable was used in war. Ocean Bed Studied. Larger and more ambitious cable undertakings were yet to come. Before Atlantic cables could be laid, it was necessary £o study carefully the physical conditions upon which the failure or success of the attempt must depend. The United States naval authorities had made deep-sea soundings which gave information upon the conformation and composition of the ocean bed between the two extremities of the proposed Atlantic cable, a distance of about 1600 nautical miles. Another Failure in 1857. In June, i 857, the United States frigate Niagara arrived in the Mersey to take on board at Birkenhead 1250 miles of cable. The British naval ship Agamemnon took on board at East Greenwich her part of the cable and both vessels set sail for Cork harbour, where final tests were made. The expedition started on Friday. August 7, 1857, but 280 miles from Valentia the cable brok A , and the vessels retraced their course. In the summer of 1858 the attempt ".vac renewed. Once more the Niagara and the Agamemnon, were lent to aid in the work. The plan of procedure on this attempt was for both vessels to meet at a point in midAtlantic, where the cable was to be spliced. From that point both ships were to pay out cable in different directions until one arrived at Valentia and the ether at Trinity Bry, Newfoundland. In calm weather ani under moderate strain the cable snapped. Ocean Span Completed. Again the two ships spliced their respective, ends, and this time fortune smiled on the attempt, and on August 5, 1858, the Agamemnon anchored at Vr'-it'a and the Niagara at Trinity Bay. Thus was the Atlantic first spanned by cable. The duration of this cable was destined to be short, however, for on September 6, 1858, it was announced that no messages had been received from Newfoundland since September 3. This cable, in the short span of its existence, carried only 400 messages. Not until 1863 was another attempt made to lay a trans-A'lantic cable, and the one then laid had many new features. Not only was it 75 per cent heavier than the pioneer line and twice as thick, but its breaking strain was also more than double. The famous Great Eastern was chartered to lay the cable, and on July 23, 1865, left Ireland for Newfoundland. On August 2, when 1186 miles had been laid, the „ cable parted, and vanished in 2000 fathoms of water.' Numerous attempts to retrieve it were unsuccessful, and the Great Eastern returned to Ireland. During the winter of 1865-'66, this ship was altered to fit her for the task of laying another cable. Success Celebrated. On July 13, 1866, the Great Eastern, accompanied by a convoy of three ships, set out again on her arduous task. The voyage was without many of the discouraging incidents of previous cablelaying trips, and though there was hard work, no serious mishaps occurred. On July 27, 1866, the Great Eastern steamed into Trinity Bay, ainiu the ringing of bells and the booming oi guns at Heart's Content. Again a strand of wire linked two continents.

The cable fulfilled every expectation, and Queen Victoria and President Andrew Johnson exchanged congratulatory messages. In August, 1866, the Great Eastern recovered the broken cable of 1865, and on September 8 it also wai placed in operation. The successful laying of the 1866 cable and the locating and completion of the 1865 cable removed doubts of the soundness of submarine telegraphy. During the sixty-two years that have elapsed since the completion of the first successful cable submarine telegraphy has advanced to great heights. Twenty cables now stretch across the north Atlantic.

Among the curious regimental pets belonging to units of the British Army at different times have been a chimpanzee, an ape, a lion, a sea eagle, a cheetah, a black bear, and a lamb.