THE JUBILEE OF SUBMARINE TELEGRAPHY.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 10785, 12 October 1900, Page 4

THE JUBILEE OF SUBMARINE TELEGRAPHY.

A few days ago we referred to the great submarine kingdom possessed by Great Britain in the wonderful network of cables which keep her in touch with every part of the world. It ie interesting to reflect that the whole of this kingdonf has come into existence during the last fifty years. As a matter of fact, the Jubilee of Submarine Telegraphy has occurred just a month or two before we are called upon to celebrate the Jubilee of the Province of Canterbury. It was on the 28th- August, 1850, as "The j Times" in a recent article reminds us, that telegrams passed between Dover and the coast of France through, a make-shift cable coated w;th gutta percha, and what had been held by nearly everyone to be a wild dream —namely, the possibility of sending messages under the sea became an accomplished fact. Scientific men had hinted at the possibility, and some of them had experimented in that direction, but it wus reserved for the Brothers Brett, just fifty years ago, to put submarine telegraphy iato practical operation. Jacob Brett was an electrician; his brother, John Watkins Brett, was a sharp man of business. Jit 1845 they were discussing the recently-established land telegraph, between London and Slough, and proceeded to ask the question why similar communication should not be 'carried on under the sea. In 1845 they registered a project for an Atlantic cable, and offered to connect Dublin Castle with Downing street if the Government would advance £20,000. But the British Government, as usual in matters of this kind, was slow to move, and did nothing beyond granting the enthusiasts leave to lay a cable across the Channel from Dover, if they could get anyone to find the money. Similar permission* was obtained first from "King Louis Philippe, and afterwards, the Revolution intervening, from. Louis Napoleon, President of the Republic. The concession was transferred to a small company, consisting of Mr J. W. Brett, Mr (afterwards Sir Charles) Fox, Mr Francis Edwards, and Mr Charles J. Wollaston, who e.ach put down £500 for the purpose of the experiment. It is interesting to learn that Mr Wollaston, who was the engineer of the undertaking, is still alive, hale and hearty. -Like many other originators of great public benefits, he has made no fortune for himself, but he is in the enjoyment of a Civil List pension, most worthily bestowed on him, in recognition of

his services to electricity. The conditions of the concession were that the cable was to be laid by September Ist, 1850, and the company had only three months in which to complete the * work. However, they carried out their preparations with great energy. A wire cable was made and coated with gutta percha, the tug Goliath was fitted up with a large drum on which the cable, 24 miles in length, was wound. Oh the morning of August 28th, in the words of "The Times'" narrative, the tug was at Dover. A coil of wire was twisted round a pile belonging to the harbour works, and then carried up above to a horse box which the South-Eastern Railway Company had lent the Submarine Cable Company to serve as their Dover office 1 The end securely fixed, the tug started off in a straight line for Cape Gris Nez. The cable, weighted with small pieces of lead to keep it down, was sunk without accident, and the otEer end was made fast in an old custom-house that stood on the French cliffs. Our contemporary describes very graphically the suspense that was felt until it was known whether the experiment was a success or not, The instrument in the horse box at Dover clicked out a message to Louis Napoleon congratulating him on the happy result of the experiment—although at the time it was sent they did' not, of course, knew whether it would ever reach the other side or not. With such a roughly-contrived cable the chances \rere all In favour of leakage and consequent failure. "Nervously and impatiently they waited, and then, to their intense joy, the needle moved again, andthey knew that twenty-four mileg away across the sea tiieir message had been safely received , . Their labours had borne fruit. They had done what very few people believed ! they could do." Wollaston was a pupil of Brunei, and when the company vras first formed the great engineer met the*ounger \ man and said, "I hear, Wollaston., you have ' " something to do with this. I'm sorry for , " it. •" When asked, why? he replied with emphasis—"lt can't succeed; it can't succeed." It is satisfactory to learn that when Wollaston proved his prophecy to be wrong Brunei congratulated him warmly, and at once declared that "nothing could stop it "from going all over the world."

Brunei's second prophecy proved, as everybody knows, far sounder than his first. The pioneer cable had a very short existence, and a some-what inglorious end. On August ar , *—caly tjjtro <ky« after it vai laid «

Boulogne fisherman hauled it up in his net and cut it open as he said to "see if it had gold at the centre." A fresh concession was granted to the Submarine Telegraph Company, and on November 13th, 1851, ananother trans-channel cable, constructed on improved principles, was opened for public use. In 1855 cables between England and Ireland, and Dover and Ostend were opened. In 1854 the enterprise was extended to tke Mediterranean, and in 1858 electric communication was established across the Atlantic. Of the subsequent progress of submarine telegraphy there is no need to speak. It is one of the greatest triumphs of British perseverance and British energy. We, in these colonies, owe much to the "grand old man" who m his placid retirement is able even yet to recall the thrill of joy with which he heard that returning "click" across the channel, which was to mean so much to the future happiness and' progress of the world. Our readers, in spirit at any rate, will, we feel sure, send him their grateful acknowledgments and their best wishes for the span which yet remains to him of so useful and well-spent a. life.