THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH. 373 



CHAPTEE XXI. 



THE SUBMARINE TELEGRAPH OF THE ATLANTIC. 



Its History, § 1025.— Attempt to be renewed, 1026.— Causes of Failure, 1027.— 

 The Probabilities of Success, 1028. — The real Question, 1029. 



1025. The Atlantic Telegraph quietly rests on its platean, aft- 

 er having performed its office as a channel of communication only 

 for a short time. The laying of it was celebrated with a pomp 

 and circumstance in New York seldom if ever witnessed. Thouo-h 

 short-lived, it was a grand achievement. It demonstrated the pos- 

 sibility of uniting, by a telegraph across the Atlantic, the New 

 World with the Old. Every thing that contributed toward the 

 accomplishment of this achievement is possessed of that peculiar 

 interest which attaches to the history of great events. 



It is in some sort a result arising from these researches concern- 

 ing the physics of the sea, and a short account of it may be given 

 here without prejudice to the specialties of this work. 



On the 1st September, before an immense assembly of people 

 in the Crystal Palace of New York, the history of this telegraphic 

 enterprise was given, in a speech of much beauty and eloquence, 

 by David Dudley Field, for and in behalf of the company— he 

 being one of the original projectors. 



In 1854 he and his associates had under consideration a line 

 from our own shores to Newfoundland, when the idea of extend- 

 ing it across the Atlantic was suggested ; but before they decided 

 upon any thing they wrote, said the orator, 'Ho Lieutenant Maury 

 to inquire about the practicability of submerging a cable, and 

 consulted Professor Morse about the possibility of telegraphing 

 through it. Their answers were favorable. On receiving them 

 it was decided to ' go ahead.' " 



It thus appears that this new department of science embodied 

 in the term '' Physical Geography of the Sea" has already contrib- 

 uted to the advancement of one of the grandest and most inter- 

 esting practical problems which this age of mind and intelligence 

 has been called on to demonstrate. 



In the summer of 1857, the United States steamer Niao-ara and 



