SILENT CABLES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXIV, Issue 9167, 29 July 1890, Page 5

SILENT CABLES.

THE WOEK OP EEPAIE. [Per Press Association.] s WELLINGTON, July ?8. The Secretary of the Eastern Extension Telegraph Company sends the following to the Press Association:—“Chairman aa4 Board greatly regret unfortunate interrap* tioh, which was caused by ‘ force majenzo,* but prompt repair should convince Colonies that everything possible is done bj tho Company to maintain communication in the highest state of efficiency. Eeoent, and previous interruptions two years ago, are the only instances of the kind in OUT system during a period of over'twenty years, and we may now have, immunity for many years.” The repairing of cables, says a writer in the Sydney Morning Herald , is usually a matter of the greatest difficulty. The Secretary of the Eastern Extension Tele* graph Company, writing to the postal authorities of New South Waleu iu reference to the interruptions in 1883, pointed out the nature of these difficulties, and stated that the trouble encountered byth# Company’s officials in repairing the cablet could hardly be imagined, and that the lines on being repaired were separated M far as' possible in order to avoid the possibility of breaking or injuring one. cable in grappling for the other. The idee of the broken ends of these cables lying hundreds of fathoms deep beneath the town •of passing vessels, appeals in a peculiar manner to the imagination of anyone who has any knowledge of whst the bottom of the ocean is like. Fdsribly..the prevailing notion is that the bottom of the sea it all sand and extends pretty ranch „in an unbroken surface, like a billtard-table, from one continent to another, so . that all thhl has to be done in laying ,a cable is to drop it intoithe bed of the ocean and lei it Ue there. But fancy for a mdmant a cable; strung across mountains and, then «ng into deep valleys and gorge!'; by eer force of its own.weight. And w is the picture of these broken cables, broken possibly half-way down a hill or buried in the sands half-way across avalley, that captivates the fancy and makes one marvel at theskill of man which enables hint to pick up these ends from themysterkms depths of ocean, and put thdm together agaiiu The looation df a cable bretA ban be very accurately determined by eleo* trioians. After having found out how far the break extends," the captain of the repairing veesol .course of the cable, and steams Tor the epot where the fault lids'; difficulty is geodtelly found in grapplbg for the cable; , In fine weather; and-ohder favourable con* ) ditionSi ..the cable., is picked up |n two or three days, hut .it more often takes a week or more. The), grappling-irons ere, t immense affairs attached to cables, neat* pointed from the deokof the-steaniMvaad are plunged downwards and dragged over : the bottom of the.opean. When thecable is finally grappled, the fafotje-rnade at the steamer endiof the linehy reaSCtt of the strain to which is subjected. The.-strain is revealed by aninstrument on board the-steamer known as a dynamometer. When thisinstrnmsnt revpals the presence of such a strain as the grappling of the cable wonld bring about, thedron is hauled up with the cable at the end of it. The repairers always calculate to grapple the cable about ten moles away from the point at which the break haa occurred. If - the irons -grappled, the cable too soon ihe c end- of the cable would «Up awsy long, before it reached the de°kcf tba pteamer. The break is then spliced; and .thedefocteremedied, andtherehabilUailted 'cable is once more consigned'to tbedetp.