CABLES.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 11789, 6 April 1900, Page 2

CABLES.

SUBMARINE When people (ulk lightly about laying doAvn two or three thousand miles or so of submarine e.ibie, it would bo interesting to know whether they fully realise what an enterprise 01 (his kind actually means. I (a Sydney Morning Herald Sorrespondent) have just beeu looking at a speci-

_&,» I ■ I I I!___U__— ■__—___- men of one of the existing cables, and its complexity certainly gives one a high idea of the triumph of human ingenuity over natural difficulties. Take, for instance, that part of tho cable which is used more especially in, the comparative shallows, and which consequently has to be specially protected against the inroads which the minuto life of the ocean makes upon all things which are left to its mercy. There is, in the first place, the metal core of seven substantial strands, along which the message actually passes. It is a Bmall thing in itself, and if it could be laid naked at the bottom of the sea would probably entail comparatively little trouble in the manufacture. Over this, however, comes a substantial covering of gntta percha which pretty well quadruples its size. Over this again there is a cover of a kind of waterproof tape which is coveied in the fourth place by a brass sheath. This again is covered by another tape, and over this there is a substantial coating of a specially saturated fibre. Next there is a substantial cover of twisted steel wire of 10 strands care, fully coated with a waterproof coveringOver this is a canvass covering saturated with waterproof material, and yet another covering about this, and the whole is finished off by a thick outer coating — the eleventh layer of hardened waterproof material. So that the copper core, which is really the only essential for the transmission of the electric fluid, has grown by this time with its various coatings to a substantial cable of considerably over an inch in diameter. People who suppose v that the construction of a cable means simply the dropping of a few strands of wire twisted together at the bottom of the sea would probably better understand the expense of these undertakings if they knew what was really wanted. I believe tho sample which I have been describing represents what would be tho actual nature of the proposed Pacific cable if it (should be laid. About this, however, there appears to be an increasing doubt.