OCEAN TELEGRAPHS.

Press, Volume VII, Issue 682, 5 January 1865, Page 5

OCEAN TELEGRAPHS.

jTrom the Saturday Betiew, October 22.] The partial success which has attended the attemps to connect England and India by a telegraphic wire seem to have revived the hopes which, after soaring bo high five ore ix years ago, were cruelly disappointed by the failure of the Atlantic line and many eubsequent disasters. After all the mishaps that have occurred, it is not surprising that any confident prediction as to future telegraphic achievements should be met with excessive suspicion; and when Sir Charles Bright wrote to the Times to say that the Indian telegraph was nearly complete—and that within three years China and Australia may, if we please, be in instant communication with London—it was quite a matter of course that he should be answered by a critic enjoying a preternatural sharpness of vision for the difficulties to which Sir C. Bright was a little blind. Mere spectators who are neither stimulated by participation in teleghaphic speculations nor terrified by the recollection of the losses incurred find it difficult to forego the hope that, sooner or later, all that has been dreamed of universal telegraphic communication will become a working reality. There is a fascination about the very magnitude and audacity of the larger schemes which captivates the fancy, even when it fails to secure actual cooperation. But there is better warrant than any hopes and fancies for believing that the great problems in telegraphy will before long be grappled with, and, it may be hoped, with a better issue than attended some of the earlier premature attempts. Those who have watched the progress of the practical science of telegraphy, though they see that enterprises of this land are much too arduous to justify sanguine predictions, know that the time which has elapsed since the most conspicuous failures has not been wasted. With the exception of the Malta and Alexandria cable, and other portions of the line to India, nothing on a very grand scale has been attempted since the breakdown of the Atlantic and Bed Sea cables; but not the less, perhaps all the more, on this account science has been making vigorous progress, the causes of past failure have been thoroughly ascertained, and the errors which vitiated the earlier efforts havenowbeencompletelyexploded. Whether our engineers are yet in a position to promise us a network of telegraphic wires over the whole earth may be still a moot point; but this great preliminary stride has been taken, that whereas in 185/ almost everytiiing connected with ocean telegraphy rested upon guess, it js now almost true to say that each separate danger haebeen ma* Bred, and the- feMability of jhnort the* moet difficult lines ledacad questkte -'- 4*F - e&iC "Kb" juHMiiMn l flr» ever reached *» point mi&^.rttiurtAf advancing much farther, and tbjmgh it would be rash to conjecture how many more years, and how many more failures, must bridge over the interval before complete success is attained, we l>elieve there is now less reason than ever to despair of the ultimate triumph of many of the boldest schemes. Out of nearly a hundred submarine cables that have been laid from time to "time, it is true tha| not much more than half are now in working order; and, as a rule, the successful cablej have been those of the strongest, theheavieJ and the most costly descriptions. Most <f the long cables and deep-sea cables ha broken down, but the causes of failure afb known. Many of them can be avoidef, though not without incurring heavier outliv than was once thought sufficient, and tie rest are said to be in a fair way to be surmounted by the improvements in manufacture and the discoveries of science. Whetler the projectors of telegraph schemes ire not even now too confident of immediate success, nothing but the event can prof c; but there are, at any rate, signs to be nqted more hopeful than the calculations of sanguine engineers- The project of carrying a cable from Ireland to Newfoundland across nearly 3000 miles of sea, with souncSngs occasionally of two and a-half miles, w* by far the most jaudacious that has ever been conceived; yet even for this scheme, jafter losing a capital of £600,000, the Atjmtic Company have succeeded in raising a second fund, and are now busily engaged in*anufacturing a cable which is to be paid out from the Great Eastern in the course # next summer. Everyone must wish success to so courageous an experiment, and tljbugh it is undeniable that many grave risks itill remain, it is equally certain that the principal dangers which caused the destructioji of the old cable have been either removed or greatly mitigated. At every stage of its progress a submarine cable is hedged round frith dangers. There is first the risk manufacture, then the chance of pishap in paying ont, and last, but by no mefns least of all, the certainty of deterioration; and ultimate destruction by natural or accidental causes after the cable is submerged. Each of these element of hazard is undoubtedly much diminished since the attempts of 1857 and 1858. Incredible its it seems, it is a fact that the ©Id Ailawe cable was laid down withottt jif fvdaspftry test of its soundness & tffe imJfaffc'-' value. A single pin-hole in tfe eottfcmg fi 3000 miles of wire would teenoerf the whole erierprise, and untfi tfc «*k lay at the bottom of th| $fft could say -whether auch adefcet did or did not exist Bince that tme Hie iAeJ* anachinery for * M w™W"Cr« Ifrw been revoludeteets the sHgktiit jttir WjF*y point, and have JtHi^OlwHitpprOT"" n 6 fte utmost nketr Urn jntuifp position of a fault, so that tie evil iyje remedied at any lame until ti» wire k «olutely out of

and how many more over the interval before complete access is attained, we believe there is now less reason than ever to despair of the ultimate triumph of many of the boldest schemes. Out o| nearly a hundred submarine cables that have, been laid from time to "time, it is true thaf not much more than half are now in working order; and, as a rule, tlie successful cable* have been those of the strongest, theheavieJ and the most costly descriptions. Jtf ost <f the long cables and deep-sea cables na broken down, but the causes of failure afb known. Many of them can be avoidej., though not without incurring heavier outliy than was once thought sufficient, and tie rest are said to be in a fair way to be surmounted by the improvements in manufacture and the discoveries of science. Whetler j the projectors of telegraph schemes ire not even now too confident of immedite success, nothing but the event can prore; but there are, at any rate, signs to be noted more hopeful than the calculations of sanguine engineers. The project of carrying a cable from Ireland to Newfoundland across nearly 3000 miles of sea, with souncSngs occasionally of two and a-half miles, w* by far the most .audacious that has ever been conceived; yet even for this scheme, jafter losing a capital of £600,000, the Atfintic Company have succeeded in raising a second fund, and are now busily engaged in*anufacturing a cable which is to be paid out from the Great Eastern in the course ft next summer. Everyone must wish success to so courageous an experiment, and tbbugh it is undeniable that many grave risks itill remain, it is equally certain that the principal dangers which caused the destructioji of the old cable have been either removed or greatly mitigated. At every stage of its progress a submarine cable is hedged round frith danger*. There is first the risk o£ defective manufacture, then the chance of pishap in paying out, and last, but by no peps least of all, the certainty of and ultimate destruction by natural or accidental causes after the cable is submerged. Each of these element of hazard is undoubtedly much dnninished since the abortive attempts of 1857 and 1858. Incredible as it seems, it is a fact that the ©Id Aiiattfec cable was laid down withottt itkf jpeUoipsry test of its eoundneae & flfe imJfaffc'-' value. A angle pin-hole in tfe ooafcmg f& 3000 miles of wire would feenoegfttoTjr?fo the whole aterpiise, and until tfce i#a lay et the bottom of th| could say -whether auch a>denet «L or did not exist Bince that tme Hie lAeJ* anacHnery for <^w^"Cl u> ' Ijjw been revoludetects the sHgktiit jfay rt,'*f cr J P o^ means have beta with ti»e utmost nioatr iLu jHUIfO position of a fwlt.sothattie evil iyje remedied at «nj lame until fee wir« * iiolutely out of

reach. Pa ally, there is no difficulty in enstiring tjL rfect soundness of a telegraphic cable up" i> > the moment when it is paid out over the sh p's stern. The second c lass of risks, those incidental to the laying of the cable, have in great measure been due to neglect of scientific precautions, and are almost entirely obviated now by the use of much stronger cables than were formerly in vogue. The new Atlantic cable, for example, though very slight in comparison with many others, will be more than twice as strong and nearly twice as heavy as that which was for a time at work, while its -weight in water, on which the strain depends, will be scarcely increased at all. But the really formidable risk is that of more or less injury after the submergence. That the wire will be successfully laid, and will remain for a greater or less time in working order, may, in the absence of special . ill-luck, be reasonably expected, but very few data exist for forming any opinion how long it will stand. With a mile or two of water above it, it will be safe from the accidents so often damage more accessible cables ;•■ but in this case injury is ruin. Iron will rust, and insects will gnaw even at the bottom of the Atlantic; and there is, besides, the possibility that the strongest rope of iron and hemp may give way when it lies stretched across the uneven rocks which will probably form some portion of its bed. The great safeguard .against gangers such as these is to make the rope verjr thick and strong; but in the case of an Atlantic cable, not only the extravagant cost, bijt the difficulty of stowing on ship board, and laying 3000 miles of very heavy cable, rendered it quite impossible to carry this precaution nearly so far as has been done il all the most successful cables. Certainty of wearing out sooner or later ; uncertainty how soon the end may come ; absolute impossibility of repairing damages — these are the conditions of the problem. But, after all, the difficulty is reducible to a question of-cost, and it must be presumed that t|ose who have ventured once more on the eiferprise have done so on the calculation that fheir cable will be long-lived enough to pijjf for its construction. Actual experieice has shown how very large an income may he realized out of a long cable when in workjbg order, and it is quite possible that a coiiparatively short term of years would remiiierate the Atlantic Company for their spirited outlay, T\fcile experience has thus encouraged the bold st of our telegraph projectors to a renewfl of their experiment, under circumstai|es at any rate much less unfavorable thai! those of their first essay, it has led othi , engineers to the conclusion that, for thepresent at any rate, the safest course is to ivoid deep water whenever that can be doife. The Malta and Alexandria line was lail on the principle of never exceeding a delbh of 100 fathoms for more than a few mies. At the same time, the sheathing was ixfended to be strong enough to allow of the fwfo'beiiig picked up and repaired at almost afy point, as has already been done on more I *an ffltt occasion. "Whether the requisite i Ibsjetained after a few years of tErroeioii may be doubtful, but though the limit of danger may have been approached Rob closely in this particular case, the prinjpible of keeping a cable always accessible for fcepairs is obviously right, as taking away [much of the extreme hazard of such specuflation. The controversy in the Times, to which we have already referred, raises a very interesting question as to the feasibility of laying telegraphs all over the world without abandoning this useful precaution. If Australia and China can be reached across shallow seas, the Atlantic will be the only deep ocean which it will be necessary to cross. Sir Charles Bright asserts that a route may be selected in comparatively shallow water all the way to China, on the one hand, and to Australia on the other, and that for the most part tho inevitable deep seas and coral reefs exist only in the imagination of his critic. The project seems to be to creep in fifty-fathom water from Eangoon, along the coast of the Malay peninsula, to Singapore; and from that point to diverge with one line to the left, f by the coast of Cochin China and China Proper, to Hong Kong, and with another to the right, through Java, and thence by tte island of Timor to the Gulf of Carpentaria. According to Sir Charles Bright this last section is the only one where deep water cannot be avoided, and even there he insists that the difficulty would occur only over a distance of seventy miles; so that the cable would be accessible for repair in every othe? part, and a fault in the worst possible position would not involve any more serious oss lhan that of seventy miles of wire. It seemi to be acknowledged that the soundings are by no means so complete as would be desirable for laying such a cable, but if Sir Charles Bright is right in saving that shallow water is known to exist in all but this jortion of the projected line, there is certataly nothing, in an engineering point of vW, to prevent the cable being laid withfi the three years claimed as sufficient for tiie work. The occasional or even the freqifent occurrence of coral on the route wouli be rather a financial than an engineemg difficulty. It is known that cables can ie made strong enough to lie uninjured on ajcoral bed, and we have no doubt that to lar a cable from India to Australia and China, and to keep it in repair, is a feat quit* within the compass of modern science. Thef completion and maintenance of the Indian line is a matter of much greater doubt. A message sent from Rurrachee on thefJ7th of September did, it seems, reach Bafdadonthe 3rd, Constantinople on the 7tl I and London on the 9th of this month; but before the speed upon this line can be ma serially improved, the Constantinople and Bajjdad telegraph must be made secure ani* effective, and 150 miles of wire mirt be laid across the Valley of the Ti-ris between Bagdad and the head off the Persian Gulf. A more hopeful pijjepect is afforded by the continuation of t& Eussian line through Persia to the shores

of the Gulf, which is expected to be finished in a fevr weeks. It is not many years since the notion of receiving our earliest Indian news through a Russian channel would have filled English statesmen with consternation, and, thoagh a telegraph by any route would now be heartily welcomed* it would be more desirable to have a line free from the danger of interruption in the event of a European war. When the Indian telegraph is securely established, by whatever route it may happen to go, the extension to China and Australia would not seem to be attended by any insuperable difficulty •, and, if once these lines and the Atlantic telegraph were laid, nothing but comparatively easy work would j remain to complete a network .which would leave New Zealand and the Cape almost the only places in the world of any importance excluded from the telegraphic circuit. For the realization of these, like most other engineering visions, time and money are the only things wanting. Telegraphy, after all its failures, and mainly through its failures, has passed out of the merely engineering into the commercial phase. Its task now is to prove, not only that this or that cable can be made, but that it can be made to pay. The renewal of the Atlantic enterprise shows that there are capitalists who have faith enough even in that hazardous undertaking to embark in it once more, and, although the Government is not likely to carry its own ventures farther than it has already done in the laying of the Malta and Alexandria cable, private enterprise may be trusted to complete any telegraphic line which promises a reasonable return for the risk incurred. Every year, by supplying fresh experience, reduces the risk of this class of undertakings, aud the time must so mer or later come when even the vast sch mc of carrying our electric wires as far as rud Australia will be no longer as the dream of a poetical engineer.