THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAM.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XV, Issue 738, 22 September 1866, Page 4

THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAM.

If any illustration were ever needed to show the unflinching determination of English enterprise, no more signal example could bo pointed out than in the repeated costly ana almost yearly efforts made to establish perraament electrical communication beiween this conntry a d America. Within a week from this date the fifth expedition organised for this purpose will leave England. In 1857 the first effort was made, and failed, when abont 300 i miles from the Irish shore. In 1858 it was again attempted, with the two foalvo3 >ef the cable stowed <away in the Niagara and Agammemnon, and the terrific hurricane which 'both vessels met with then no doubt did serious injury to their easily injured freight. Nevertheless, the effort was preserved with, and some 100 miles were laid and lost between the two ships. Agaiu the " wire squadron," as it was called, returned to Ireland, to start again for •ano'her attempt, and, te the astonishment of all, the damaged cable was not only laid, \mb actually^ worked with clearness for some days, wfaen it gradually became incoherent, then rambling with ■occasional gleams of intelligence, till at last it became utterly unintelligible, and bo died out. It is Beedless to say &ow unhappily the expedition of last year failed, and to tlbis day it is not known Tvhether the injury to the cable's insulation was caused by accident or wanton mischief. The commercial 1038 upon these failures has been great,but even out ef evil has come some good, for in the interim the science of making, testing, and laying has so much improved that an uadetected fault in insulated wire has now become literally impossible, while so much *re the instruments for signalling improved that not only -can a slight fault be disregarded if necessary, but it is «yen easy to werk through a snbmarine wire with a foot of its wire •copper conductor stripped and bare to the water. This latter result, nstonishing as it may appear, has actually been achieved for some dayspasfc with the whole Atlantic cable on board the Great Eastern. Oat of a length of more than 1700 miles, a coil ias been taken from its centre, the copper <sondoctor stripped -clean -of its insulation for a foot in length, and iv -this condition lowered over the vessel's side till it rested on the ground. Yet through this the «learest signals have been sent — has clear, indeed, as at one time to raise the question whether it would not be worth while t© grapple for the first old Atlantic cable ever laid, and, with these new instruments working gently through it for a year or so, at least, make it pay its cost. — Times.