14 



HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Several unsuccessful attempts were made to connect 

 England and Ireland by means of a cable between 

 Holyhead and Howth ; but communication between 

 the two countries was finally effected in 1853, when 

 a cable was successfully laid between Portpatrick 

 and Donaghadee (31). 



As showing one of the dangers to which cables 

 laid in comparatively shallow waters are exposed, we 

 may relate the curious accident that befell the 

 Portpatrick cable in 1873. During a severe storm in 

 that year the Port Glasgow ship "Marseilles" 

 capsized in the vicinity of Portpatrick, the anchor 

 fell out and caught on to the telegraph cable, which, 

 however, gave way. The ship was afterwards 

 captured and towed into Rothesay Bay, in an 

 inverted position, by a Greenock tug, when part of 

 the cable was found entangled about the anchor. 



The smallest private companies are the Indo- 

 European Telegraph Company, with two cables in 

 the Crimea of a total length of fourteen and a half 

 miles ; and the River Plate Telegraph Company with 

 one cable from Monte Video to Buenos Ayres, thirty- 

 two miles long. 



The smallest Government telegraph organisation is 

 that of New Caledonia with its one solitary cable one 

 mile long. 



We will now proceed to give a few particulars 

 regarding the companies having cables from Europe 

 to America. 



The most important company is the Anglo- 

 American Telegraph Company, whose history is 

 inseparably connected with that of the trials and 

 struggles of the pioneers of cable laying. 



Its history begins in 1S51 when Tebets, an 

 American, and Gisborne, an English engineer, formed 

 the Electric Telegraph Company of Newfoundland, 

 and laid down twelve miles of cable between Cape 

 Breton and Nova Scotia. This company was 

 shortly afterwards dissolved, and its property trans- 

 ferred to the Telegraphic Company of New York, 

 Newfoundland and London, founded by Cyrus W. 

 Field, and who in 1854 obtained an extension of the 

 monopoly from the Government to lay cables. 



A cable, eighty-five miles long, was laid between 

 Cape Breton and Newfoundland (22). 



Field then came to England and floated an English 

 company which amalgamated with the American 

 one under the title of the Atlantic Telegraph Com- 

 pany. 



The story of the laying of the Atlantic Cables of 

 1857 and 1865, their successes and failures has often 

 been told, so we need not go into any details. It 

 may be noted, however, that communication was first 

 established between Valentia and Newfoundland on 

 ',th August 1858, but the cable ceased to transmit 

 signals on ist September following. During that 

 period, ninety-seven messages had been sent from 

 Valentia, and two hundred and sixty-nine from 

 Newfoundland. At the present time, the ten 



Atlantic Cables now convey about ten thousand' 

 messages daily between the two continents. The 

 losses attending the laying of the 1865 Cable resulted 

 in the financial ruin of the Atlantic Company, and 

 its amalgamation with a new company. The Anglo- 

 American. In 1866 the Great Eastern successfully 

 laid the first cable for the new company, and with 

 the assistance of other vessels succeeded in picking, 

 up the broken end of the 1865 cable and completing 

 its connection with Newfoundland. 



The three cables of this company presently in use 

 and connecting Valentia in Ireland with Heart's 

 Content in Newfoundland, were laid in 1873, 1874, 

 and 1880; and (i) are respectively 1886, 1846, and 

 1890 nautical miles in 'length. This company also 

 owns the longest cable in the wor]d, that, namely 

 from Brest in France to St. Pierre Miquelon, one of 

 a small group of islands off the south coast of 

 Newfoundland, and which, strange to say, still' 

 belongs to France (6). 



The length of this cable is 2685 nautical miles, or 

 3092 statute miles. It was laid in 1869. There are 

 seven cables of a total length of 1773 miles,, 

 connecting Heart's Content, Placentia Bay and St. 

 Pierre, with North Sydney, Nova Scotia, and 

 Duxbury near Boston, belonging to the American 

 Company. Communication is maintained with 

 Germany and the rest of the continent by means of a 

 cable from Valentia to Emden 846 miles long (7), 

 and a cable from Brest to Salcombe, Devon, connects 

 the St. Pierre and Brest cable with the London oflice 

 of the company (10).* 



The station of the Direct United States Cable 

 Company is situated at Ballinskelligs Bay, Ireland 

 (2). Its cable was laid in 1874-5, and is 2565 miles 

 in length. The terminal point on the other side of 

 the Atlantic is at Halifax, Nova Scotia, from whence 

 the cable is continued to Rye Beach, New Hamp- 

 shire a distance of 536 miles and thence by a land 

 line of 500 miles to New York (17). 



The Commercial Cable Company's station in 

 Ireland is at Waterville, a short distance from 

 Ballinskelligs (3). It owns two cables laid in 1885 ; 

 the northern cable being 2350, and the southern 2388 

 miles long. They terminate in America at Canso, 

 Nova Scotia. From Canso a cable is laid to 

 Rockfort, about thirty miles south of Boston, Mass. ; 

 a distance of 518 miles (16), and another is laid to 

 New York 840 miles in length (15). This company 

 has direct communication with the Continent by 

 means of a cable from Waterville to Havre of 510 

 miles (9), and with England by a cable to Weston- 

 super-Mare, near Bristol, of 328 miles (8). 



* Cables not fully described in the text, Map E. Eight 

 cables at the Anglo-American Company ; 7, Heart's Content to 

 Placentia, two cablei ; 8, Placentia to St. Pierre ; 9, St. Pierre 

 to North Sydney ; 10, Placentia to North Sydney, two cables ; 

 II, St. Pierre to Duxbury; 18, Charlotte's Town to Nova 

 Scotia ; ig. Government Cable, North Sydney to Bird Rock, 

 Madeline Isles, and Anticosti ; 21, Halifax and Bermuda 

 Cable Company's proposed cable to Bermuda. 



