TELEGRAPH, ELECTRIC. 



701 



the American side. In either case, some two 

 thousand miles of cable would be required, the 

 greatest length being across the Okhotsk Sea, 

 about six hundred miles, or by the other route 

 at most no longer than three hundred mile.-. 

 Mr. Collins has estimated the cost of the lino 

 by Behring's Strait at a maximum of $5,000- 

 000 ; by the Aleutian Islands route it would be 

 much greater. He has also indicated two in- 

 termediate routes, neither requiring more than 

 one-fourth the entire length of cable needful by 

 that just named. One of these would be by 

 way of Oulovorskoy (or Oliootorsk), in the north- 

 eastern part of Kamtschatka, to Gore's and 

 Nunivack Islands, and thence to Cape Van- 

 couver in Russian America ; the other, by Cape 

 Navarin, further north, to St. Lawrence Island, 

 and thence to Cape Romanzoff. The distance 

 from JSTew York to London by the overland 

 route has been estimated at about seventeen 

 thousand miles, throughout which, as already 

 seen, only about six thousand miles of tele- 

 graph line remain to be constructed. It is 

 believed that this can be accomplished within 

 two, or at the farthest, three years' time. The 

 rising and free commerce of the Amoor River 

 region has already attracted thither many 

 American merchants' ; but the successful estab- 

 lishment of the proposed line must be followed 

 by general commercial advantages of the high- 

 est magnitude, if not also by social and politi- 

 cal consequences the extent of which must 

 be at present quite beyond the reach of calcu- 

 lation. 



The route which in certain parts the overland 

 ine will finally take, it has already become ap- 

 parent, remains in a measure subject to the 

 decision of future developments ; and among 

 the changes to be made may possibly be the 

 choice of a more easterly point of departure 

 from the northern limit of the United States, 

 and perhaps also of a more inland course 

 through British America. Of certain acts of 

 Congress, approved July 2, 186-4, and which 

 make grants for railroad and telegraph lines to 

 the Pacific, one authorizes such road and line 

 from Lake Superior to Puget's Sound. By a 

 report of a committee of the Hudson's Bay 

 Company, also, it appears that that company 

 has already had surveys made, and material to 

 some extent ordered, for a telegraph line from 

 the settlements of the Red River (of the north), 

 through their territory and British Columbia, 

 to New Westminster this line also, at its west- 

 ern portion, to run along Frazer River. It is 

 hoped to have this line completed within a 

 year. As it would still require some years to 

 effect a junction with the Canadian system at 

 Collingwood or Ottawa, through the wilderness 

 north of the great lakes, it has been proposed 

 meantime to connect with the Hudson Bay 

 Company's line by a wire from some part of 

 the Western States; and among the proposi- 

 tions to effect this, a bill was (January 5, 1865) 

 introduced by Senator Ramsay, of Minnesota, 

 authorizing the Northwestern Telegraph Com- 



pany to extend one of their main lin 

 Paul by the route of the Pacific R. It. 

 Cloud, and thence to the southern boundary of 

 the British Possessions, at or near iVmbina, 

 there to connect with the line previously men- 

 tioned. "When completed, these lines "would 

 atFord continuous communication from Chicago, 

 by way of La Crosse, St. Paul, St. (.'loii'i. 

 Pembina, with the western coast of the Conti- 

 nent, at New Westminster. 



The Atlantic h Line. 



The new cable for this line, and which is in- 

 tended to be laid, as was the preceding one, 

 along the bed of the Atlantic Ocean from the 

 western coast of Ireland to Trinity Bay, New- 

 foundland, is at the present time tar advanced 

 toward completion. This cable, manufactured 

 by Messrs. Glass, Elliott & Co., at Morden 

 Wharf, E. Greenwich, is constructed with the 

 most minute attention to details, and with 

 every possible effort to guard by personal 

 care and by instrumental tests against imper- 

 fections of any kind. The plan of its construc- 

 tion differs in several particulars from that 

 adopted for the former cable, to which it is in 

 fact believed to be in all important respects 

 superior. It is believed that the first Atlantic 

 cable failed through the circumstance that, 

 from the manner of its construction, the strain 

 due to its weight in laying came chiefly upon 

 the core ; and accordingly, while in the new 

 cable the conducting wires are larger and 

 stronger than in the old, yet the great effort 

 has been so to construct the whole that the 

 core shall be relieved of strain. A section 

 of the new cable perfected measures one inch 

 and one-eighth in diameter. Its core prcper 

 presents the ends of seven conducting cop- 

 per wires, six of which are twisted about a 

 central one; around each of these is seen a 

 homogeneous coating of gutta percha, and 

 which in the section appears about the sixth 

 of an inch thick. About the core is a barely 

 distinguishable ring, marking the place of i 

 layer of jute ; and outermost of all, a ring of 

 strengthening and protecting material, some- 

 what over a quarter of an inch thick, in which 

 appear the ends of ten iron wires, about each 

 of which are closely twisted strands of Manilla 

 yarn. 



The core of the caMe is formed by twisting 

 together the copper wires, and then coating in 

 the manner above indicated. The twisted 

 wires are passed through a vessel containing a 

 compound the invention of a Mr. Chattcrtcn 

 the application of which secures a firm ad- 

 hesion of the film of gutta percha next applied. 

 The core is then subjected to hydraulic j 

 ure, and electrically tested. After this it is 

 again coated with Chattel-ton's compound, and 

 then with gutta percha ; and so on, until four 

 layers of each have been applied, and the en- 

 tire thickness is about half an inch. 



The iron wire, for covering and protecting the 

 core, is manufactured at Birmingham, being 

 drawn from Webster and HorsfalTs homoge- 



