22 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT. 



machinery is new, and it takes time to get it well oiled and nin- 

 nin<>: at I'nll speed. But after that, I trust we shall be able to 

 satisfy all the demands of the public. 



"A word about the tariff. Complaint has been made that it was 

 so hi<i:h as to be very oppressive. I beg all to remember, that it 

 is only three months and a half since the cable was laid. It was 

 laid at a gr(>at cost and a great risk. Different companies had 

 sunk in their attempts $r2,000,(X)0. It was still an experiment, 

 of which the result was doubtful. This, too, might prove a costly 

 failure. Even if successful, we did not know liow long it would 

 work. Evil i)rophcts in both countries predicted that it would not 

 last a month. If it did, we were not sure of having more than 

 one cable, nor how much work that one could do. Now these 

 doubts are resolved. AVe have not only one cable but two, Ijoth 

 in working order; and Ave lind, instead of five words a minute, 

 we can send fifteen. Now we are free to reduce the tariff. Ac- 

 cordingly, it has been cut down one-half, and I hope in a few 

 montlis we can bring it down to one-quarter. 1 am in favor of 

 reducing it to the lowest point at which we can do the business, 

 keeping the lines working day and night. And tiien, if the work 

 grows upon us so enormously that we cannot do it, why, we must 

 go to work and lay more calile." 



In addition to the precedinjj remarks of Mr. Field, a few addi- 

 tional details may well be added to complete the histoiy. Four 

 attempts were made to lay a cable across the Atlantic before suc- 

 cess was attained. In the first attempt, in 1857, the cable gave 

 way owing to a strain being put on tlie paying-out machinery, by 

 the sudden dip of the Irish bank, which the ap2>aratus was neither 

 strong enough nor fl(!xible enough to withstand. The second 

 attempt was made in 1858, when the " Agamemnon" and the 

 "Niagai'a" met in mid-ocean, effected a sj^lice, and steering in 

 opposite directions ultimately laid the cable, which in a few 

 weeks transmitted about 400 messages, and then failed. The 

 attempts of 1865 and 1860 have been sufficiently described by Mr. 

 Field. The great fact that a cable could be laid between Euro2Je 

 and America, and that messages could be sent and received 

 through its length, Avas practically demonstrated in 1858; the 

 failure of the cable of 1865 aa'us due to mechanical causes, evident 

 enough and easily remedied, as the success of the cable of 1866 

 fully shoAvs. 



The cable of 1858 had for a conductor a copper sti-and of^seven 

 AA-ires, six laid around one ; Aveight, 107 lbs. per nautical mile. 

 The insulator Avas of gutta percha, laid on in thi-ee coverings; 

 weight, 261 lbs. per nautical mile. The outer coat Avas composed 

 of 18 strands of charcoal iron-Avire, each strand made of seven 

 wires, tAvisted six around one, laid equally around the core, Avhich 

 had previously been padded Avith a serving of tarred hemp. 

 Breaking strain, three tons five CAvt. ; capable of bearing its OAvn 

 weight in a trifle less than five miles depth of Avater. Length of 

 cable, 2,174 nautical miles ; diameter, five-eighths of an inch. 

 In the cable of 1865, the conductor Avas a copper strand of seven 

 wii-es, six laid around one ; weight, 300 lbs. per nautical mile ; 



