U'GUST 1, 1915. J 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



58! ' 



of submarine cables and only the problems connected with the 

 great lengths oi the ocean cables and the vast depths thej must 

 be laid i < maim 'I foi solution. 



In the meantime, in Europe, gutta percha was falling into dis- 

 reputi as an insulating material and it remained for the Amer- 



to show that the useful gum had been sinned against i 

 than sinning. It is a curious illustration of the empirical meth 

 ods in vogue at that time— the utterly irrational manner in which 

 these cables were made by men who were at the same time wise 

 enough to make them at all. They knew that india rubber had 

 been "vulcanized" by heating it with sulphur, tints rendering it 

 immenselj more valuable, ["hey knew, possibly, that "brimstone 

 ami ti acle' wa pari i I the materia medico "i Dotheboy's Hall. 

 \i .m\ rate, with this or other information at hand they looked 

 at the defenseless gutta percha in their possession and decided 

 that its constitution would be improved bj a dosi of sulphur. 

 So the) remorselessly went 

 ahead with their brimstone 

 treatment, feeling certain that 

 n gutta percha were ex- 

 cellent, surelj vulcanized gutta 

 percha would be super-i eel 

 lent. But the result was not 

 just as expected. The electric 

 current promptly set up a 

 chemical union between the 

 sulphur of the sheath and 

 the I the wire, turn- 



ith v, ire and insulator in- 

 to sulphati i i copper, a sub- 

 stam e which, however e cel- 

 lenl i< r spraj ing cucumbei s, is 

 not well adapted for the trans- 

 mission oi electricity. The 

 cables turned into a pale blue 

 streak and the misguided vul- 

 canizers recorded their opinion 

 of uutta percha in speeches 

 which might have answered the 

 same description. 



The North River cable was 

 made by Stephen Armstrong. 

 of Brooklyn, and consisted of 

 a No. 9- some say No. 12 — 

 iron wire, enclosed in one-half 

 inch of gutta percha insulation. 

 Mr. Armstrong was not only the first cable-maker but the first 

 importer and manufacturer, in America, of gutta percha on a 

 commercial scale. He seems to have been one of the first, if not 

 the very first, of the manufacturers to question the necessity or 

 advisability of administering big medicine to a patient as healthy 

 as pure gutta percha. He showed Vulcan the front door of his 

 Brooklyn factory, but the lame god lingered for many years in 

 the establishments of many manufacturers, particularly on the 

 continent of Europe, freely distributing the yellow gift of Aetna 

 or Popocatapetl and spoiling everything he could, until the ex- 

 piry of the Goodyear patents placed rubber at his disposal and 

 gave him useful work to do. Mr. Armstrong, seeing the vast 

 possibilities of gutta percha insulation, proposed, in 1848, in the 

 Xew York "Journal of Commerce," that an ocean cable be laid be- 

 tween Europe and America. 



In 1851 the first important submarine cable was successfully 

 laid between Dover, England, and Calais, France. This was ac- 

 complished by the Brett Brothers, who, in 1846, had applied to 

 the French government for a concession to lay such a line. On 

 Vugust 28, 1850, a single gutta percha-covered wire, like that of 

 Dr Craven, was laid just in time to save theit concession. The 

 slight insulation led the makers to expect almost immediate fail- 

 ure but, meantime, messages had been exchanged and time was 



Gathering Gutta Percha. 



[From an Old Print.] 



permitted for repairs. It was afterward [earned that the expi 

 earlj failure was accelerated bj somi I rench fishermen who 

 gappled and brought up the wire and, wondering what it could 

 be, cut out a liberal sectii n to carrj back to France as a souvenir. 

 ["he second cable was opened t'> general business November 13, 



1851, and continued in Servici foi many years. 'Ibis was the 



prototype ol all later sul bles having i il copper 



win . insulated with gutta percha. surrounded by tarred hemp 

 and pi itected bj pirallj wound galvanized iron wires. It is a 

 curious illustration of the survival of early errors that nineteen 

 out of every twentj persons know what a cross section of the 

 ocean cable looks like and eighteen of the nineteen think that 

 a separate message passes over each ..i tin protecting 



Two years after this firsl cable Ireland was successfully annexed 

 to I urope bj submarine cable and a new line was laid from 

 Ramsgate, England, to Ostend, Belgium. This also was laid by 



Bretts. It not only gave 

 the British Isles connection 

 with tlie continent of Europe, 

 but had that connection free 

 from control by Napoleon the 

 Little, who had recently made 

 himself Emperor of the French. 

 \fter this, rapid progress was 

 in connecting the islands 

 i Europe and making short 

 cuts across waters which be- 

 fore had been expensively 

 skirled by land lines. But 

 America was still shut off from 

 the rest of the civilized world. 

 TIh question oi who first 

 thought of a transatlantic cable 

 is i me which will n< t be an- 

 swered The idea is one which 

 would occur to everj intelligent 

 mind as soon as the electric 

 b 1' graph had pn w ed a suco 

 And. as always happens, the 

 first suggestions were scoffed 

 at as the talk of idle dreamers 

 by the "hard headed" business 

 men and scientists. whose 

 boasted hardness of head is 

 often much of the quality of 

 cast iron. But, as is also 

 always the case, the dreamers went on dreaming until their 

 dreams were translated into reality. One of the earliest of these 

 dreamers and the first to make efforts leading to practical re- 

 sults was Cyrus W. Field, a member of the very remarkable 

 family of brothers, which included David Dudley Field, who 

 has been called one of the three code-makers of the world, the 

 other two being Justinian and Napoleon. In 1854 Mr. Field se- 

 cured a charter for a company, with the purpose of laying a 

 cable between the two continents, via Ireland and Newfoundland. 

 Among the names of those associated with the enterprise were 

 those of Marshall O. Roberts. Peter Cooper, David Dudley 

 Field and Professor F. B. Morse. Among the English sub- 

 scribers, one of tlie earliest and largest was John W. Brett, the 

 pioneer of ocean telegraphy. In England the chief promoter was 

 Sir Charles Bright, who was knighted tor his services. 



Mr. field bore up amid every discouragement and made fifty 

 trips across the Atlantic before winning final success. In 1857 

 the cable ship started, but the cable broke and was lost. Xext 

 year one was successfully landed, and on August 16, 1858, cable 

 messages of congratulation were exchanged between Queen Vic- 

 toria and President Buchanan. This line worked for a few- 

 weeks ami then became useless. Finally, on July 27. 1866, per- 

 manent connection was made between the two continents. 



