QUEER SEAWEED.

Bruce Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 3175, 22 June 1900, Page 2

QUEER SEAWEED.

In 1850 a submarine cable was laid across the English Channel from Dover to Cape Grisnez. It consisted of a half-inch copper wire covered with nothing but gutta peroha, and loaded with lead to keep it down. The communication was perfect for a day, and then the wire refused to act. The electrical engineers were unable to explain the facts. At last the mystsry was solved by a fisherman. A Frenoh fisherman set his trawl off Cape Grisnez. When he hauled it in, he picked up the submerged cable, from which he cut off a piece. The piece he carried in triumph to Boulogue, where he exhibited it as a specimen of rare seawood with its centr© filled with gold. The ignorant man had mistaken the copper wire for gold, but unwittingly he had served the electricians. They caw from the accident that it was not sufficient perfectly to insulate the cable, but that it muat also be protected. In 1851 there was laid across the Channel a cable twenty-four miles long, consisting of four copper wires, insulated with gutta-percha, covered with tarred yarn, and protected by an outer covering of galvanised iron wirea. That submarine cable proved a success, aad ocean telegraphy became possible through an accident which compelled invention.