TELEPHONE CABLE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22260, 7 November 1935, Page 6

TELEPHONE CABLE

LINE TO TASMANIA WORLD SYSTEM LINKED WORK OF SPECIAL STEAMER [from our own correspondent] A dream long cherished by Tasinanians of linking the island State with the mainland of Australia by telephone will soon bo realised. The world-famous cable ship Faraday arrived in Melbourne at the week-end to lay tho 160-miles cable on the bed of Bass y Strait. Tho Faraday iB tho specially-built cable steamer belonging to tho wellknown firm of Siemens, which has constructed and laid many of the submarine cables of the world. As soon as the Australian Postal Department placed tho contract, the making of the cnblo was begun at Woolwich. This cable, now lying flaked down carefidly in tho big tank holds of tho Faraday, is tho most modern and longest cable of its typo in the world. It is, in the words of one of the Faraday's experts, "the cablo industry's reply to the wonderful advances made by wireless telegraphy." It took eight months to manufacture, and is the first of its kind made by a British firm. Built up, layer upon layer, from a single thread of copper, it has a diameter of ljin. The insulating material surrounding the central wire is a new material known as paragutta, which enables the cable to work with alternating current of a frequency of 42,000 cycles a second. Improved Carrier System / Para-gutta, a compound of rubber and gutta-percha, has never before been used for submarine cables. By means of tho improved carrier system, the cablo will carry simultaneously a high-fidelity circuit for broadcasting purposes, six telephone channels, and 12 or more telegraph channels. When the weather is favourable the Faraday will leave Melbourne and lay tho Victorian end of the cable Ift Foul Bay, which has been chosen because of the soft, sandy bottom, and because it is the nearest point to King Island, where an intermediate station will be established. From King Island the cable will go at a different angle U> tho Tasmanian terminal station near Stanley. The laying of the cable will b<j a comparatively brief task, occupying, in fine weather, and barring accidents and delays, not more than ten days. The sea will be marked by electrically-lit buoys ten miles apart. Ceremony to Mark Completion Once the cable has been laid and all the splices at the various stations made, the ship's personnel will begin tes;s. Provided these aro satisfactory, officers of the Postal Department will make independent tests before the cablo is accepted from the makers. After that, the Faraday will remain in tho vicinity for about a month, so that the cable may bo tested under full working conditions. If everything is satisfactory, the Faraday 'will steam away to her next job—the laying of a short length of cable from Fremantle, Western Australia, to Rottnest Island, eight miles off the coast? The cablo across Bass Strait will link the last of the Australian States with the whole of the telephone world. The occasion will bo marked by a formal ceremony in which the Prime Minister, Mr. Lyons, himself a Tasmanian, will officially open the service.