NEW ATLANTIC CABLE

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12558, 22 September 1926, Page 4

NEW ATLANTIC CABLE

. NOW OPEN FOR TRAFFIC PENZANCE TO NEW YORK. NEW YORK, September 9. The Western Union Cable Company has opened the world’s fastest cable, which will make the twentieth line of communication between York apd London. Its capacity is 2500 letters a mi»ute —eight times as fast ns any other cable. The largest section of the new type of trans-Atlantic cable was completed between Penzance and Bay Roberts, Newfoundland, on July 13th last. This

section of the cable, nearly 2000 miles in length, was laid by the cable steamer Colonia, which then went to Greenwich and loaded • another 1000 miles of cable to connect Bay Roberts with .New York. This wonderful new , trans-Atlantic link, which is said to be workable at the hitherto unknown cable speed ol 2500 letters,, or 500 words, per minute both ways simultaneously, is the first 1 great change in submarine cable telej grapliy for over fifty years, and should hare a far-reaching effect on the present cable rates, as well as being a substantial reply to the claims of the wireless beam. This invention embodies for the first time in a submarine telegraph cable the familiar principle of inductivo loading, « method which made long-

s distance telephony possible. It has ® been accomplished in this instance, 0 however, in a novel fashion by wraps ping the copper conductor or core c throughout its entire length in a thin t tape of a new metallic alloy known as *' “permalloy,” a composition of nicke l ® and iron, which makes it possible for t the telegraphic signals to follow each ' other at a far greater speed than pre--1 viously. The first cable of the new “permalloy” type was laid early m ‘ 1925, between New York and the Azores, and has surpassed expectations. The former cables across the Att lantic work at a speed round about 3 fifty words, or 250 letters, per minute. ) so that the new connection will pro- - vide a capacity of ten such cables.