52 Original Articles. [ Jan. 
to account for the sudden cessation and reappearance of the signalling ; 
indeed it has been stated on good authority that skilled servants of the 
Gutta Percha Company who were sent to the contractor’s works for 
the express purpose of uniting the various sections of the cable in as 
perfect a manner as possible, were dismissed because they made the 
joints too slowly, and their places were supplied by other workmen. 
But even then, if skilled electricians had tested the cable properly 
under water, they ought to have found out the locality of the defects 
before it was too late to remedy them. When too late it was found 
that a very serious fault existed about 420 miles from the coast of 
Treland. It may be reasonably assumed that this was one of the im- 
perfect joints—good enough to carry the current without betraying 
itself before the paying out, but—seriously weakened by the repeated 
coilings and uncoilings that the cable had undergone. This was 
broken by the strain upon it during the paying out, was temporarily 
brought together again when lodged on the bed of the ocean, and 
finally succumbed under the burning discharges from the gigantic in- 
duction coils used during some part of the short existence of the line. 
Public attention is now being directed to the Persian Gulf cable, 
which will supply the one link wanting to connect this country with 
India. If the Atlantic disaster has done nothing else, it has proved 
the possibility of signalling through vast distances of submarine wire, 
whilst it has given to practical men such a fund of experience as to 
render a failure of the Indian line well-nigh impossible. Without 
going into the details of its construction we may briefly state that 
the copper wire possesses the highest practicable conducting value ; 
the remote chance of holes or faulty places in the four surrounding 
layers of gutta-percha has been removed by an intermediate layer of 
Chatterton’s highly insulating compound ; the cable has been not only 
kept under water whilst at the manufacturer’s works, but is carried in 
water-tanks on board ship to its destination, and its electrical con- 
dition is tested daily ; whilst the outer coating of tarred hemp acts as 
a protection to the iron armour, and prevents the twisting action 
occasioned by the rapid passage of the wire spirally through the water 
during the paying out; for when the cable passes down like a screw 
through a nut, there is a great liability to kink. 
When the cable left this island it was as electrically perfect as we 
can reasonably hope to get such a line in the present state of our 
knowledge, and the subsequent operation of paying out has been 
reduced to such certainty, that there is no doubt whatever about 
the eventual success of the enterprise. In the submarine lines 
hitherto laid, all the failures have been due to definite causes which 
can be readily guarded against. Possibly other causes of failure still 
remain to be traced out and surmounted, but we cannot imagine any 
combination of untoward circumstance which could affect the ultimate 
successful working of the Persian Gulf line. The greatest depth of 
water in which it will be laid is 60 fathoms, and should an accident 
happen during the paying out, causing the rope to snap, or should the 
electricians at either end discover leakage of insulation, or stoppage of the 
current, there will not be the least difficulty in fishing up and repair- 
