330 . Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



III. The Laying of the Cable. 



Telegraph cables are vastly more expensive than land- 

 lines, in their first cost, in their maintenance, and especially 

 if a line needs to be duplicated. If a cable has to be dupli- 

 cated an entirely new one must be manufactured and laid, 

 while a second land-line can be insulated on the poles that 

 cany the first line. It is the object, therefore, of the tele- 

 graph engineer, in connecting places separated by the ocean, 

 to lay the cable where the sea is narrowest. Hence com- 

 munication between England and the Continent of Europe 

 was first made by the cable across the Strait of Dover. 

 Hence, too, the first Atlantic cables were laid from Ireland to 

 the east coast of Newfoundland, communication from thence 

 to the United States and Canada being afforded nearly all the 

 way by land-lines. The bed of the Atlantic between the 

 points named is very suitable for cables, being very free from 

 steep declivities and ravines, of a moderate depth, sufficiently 

 deep for the cables not to be exposed to the violence of 

 storms, and not excessively deep in case it is necessary to lift 

 the cables for repairs. Accordingly this part of the bed of 

 the ocean is known as " Telegraph Plateau." 



About twenty years ago the Great Western Telegraph 

 Company was formed to connect the United States with 

 Europe by way of the West Indies, an entirely new route. 

 After many hundreds of miles of cable had actually been 

 manufactured for this route the company was induced to 

 abandon the enterprise. The Anglo-American company who 

 owned the existing Atlantic cables feared the effect of com- 

 petition, and paid the Great Western Company a sum of 

 money to take their cable to another part of the world. At 

 that time Brazil was being connected with Europe by tele- 

 graph, a cable being laid from Lisbon to Pernambuco, the 

 easternmost port of Brazil, in accordance with the principle I 

 have mentioned of laying cables across the ocean where it is 

 narrowest. But the example of North America in respect to 

 the use of land telegraph-lines could not be followed in South 

 America, where the circumstances are totally different. A 

 tropical climate, with heavy rainfall, dense forest, where there 

 are very few roads and very little settlement except near the 

 river ports, necessitated telegraphic connection with the other 

 large cities of South America being made by cable. Here, 

 accordingly, the company resolved to transfer their cable, and 

 so changed their title to the " Western and Brazilian Tele- 

 graph Company." The cables of this company, two thou- 

 sand miles in length, and extending from Eio de Janeiro to the 

 mouth of the Amazon, were manufactured and successfully 

 laid by the company known as " Hooper's Telegraph Works 



