TELEGRAPH CABLE. 



659 



the remainder in full flight. His action re- 

 ceived the approval of all good citizens. It 

 was eight years before another riot was at- 

 tempted in New York. Mr. Tallmadge con- 

 tinued in office as Recorder till the close of 

 1851. When the Metropolitan Police was 

 established in 1857, Mr. Tallmadge was its first 

 Superintendent, remaining in that position, and 

 doing much to perfect its organization, until 

 1859. In 1861 he was the Union candidate for 

 Canal Commissioner,- but was defeated. In 

 1862 he was candidate for Clerk of the Court 

 of Appeals, and was elected by 3,669 majority. 

 He served from 1862 to 1865, and then returned 

 to New York City and to the practice of his 

 profession. 



TELEGRAPHIC CABLE. The laying of 

 the telegraphic cable from Brest, France, to 

 the island of St. Pierre, near the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence, and thence to Duxbury on the coast 

 of Massachusetts, was successfully accomplished 

 in July of the year 1869. The Societ6 du Cable 

 Transatlantique Francais was organized under 

 a charter granted by the French Govern- 

 ment in the summer of 1867 to Emile d'Er- 

 langer, of Paris, and Julius Renter, of London, 

 who were empowered to lay the cable and 

 control its operation for a period of twenty 

 years from the 1st of September, 1869. It was 

 provided in the charter that no soil foreign to 

 the United States or France should be touched 

 in the transit of the cable, and that the price 

 for transmitting messages should not exceed 

 $20 for twenty words. The capital stock of 

 the company was fixed at $6,000,000 in 60,000 

 shares of $100 each, the whole of which was 

 speedily taken by capitalists in London and 

 Paris. The contract for constructing and lay- 

 ing the cable was given to the Telegraph Con- 

 struction and Maintenance Company, of Eng- 

 land, who were to receive 920,000 for suc- 

 cessfully performing the work. The entire 

 length of the cable is about 3,047 miles, which 

 is upward of 1,000 miles longer than the English 

 cable; it consists of two main sections, one 

 from Brest to St. Pierre, 2,325 miles, and the 

 other from St. Pierre to the American termi- 

 nus, 722 miles. The cable was so manufac- 

 tured as to give it the greatest strength and 

 the greatest conductive capacity. The central 

 copper wire is larger than that in the English 

 cable, the former weighing 400 Ibs., and the 

 latter 300 Ibs. to the mile. To render insula- 

 tion more perfect, the wire is covered with 

 Chatterton's compound, and over that are four 

 layers of gutta-percha. Around these is bound 

 a spiral net of steel wires, each wire being sur- 

 rounded with five strands of Russian hemp, sat- 

 urated with a preservative compound. The 

 actual strength of this hemp and steel cable is 

 7f tons, while the strain required for sub- 

 mersion was estimated not to exceed 14 cwt. 

 The conductive capacity of the French cable 

 was estimated at twelve words per minute, 

 which represented a gain of four words per 

 minute over what had previously been at- 



tained. On the 22d of June, the Great East- 

 ern, carrying 2,725 miles of cable, departed from 

 Brest, and on the 13th of July reached St. 

 Pierre, when successful communication be- 

 tween these two points was established, as 

 proved by the transmission of a message to the 

 Emperor Napoleon. The remaining section of 

 the cable was soon laid to Duxbury, the 

 American terminus. 



The physical character of the ocean-bed 

 along the route chosen is such as to afford 

 complete protection to the cable from anchor- 

 ages and dangers from icebergs. The main 

 cable, extending from deep water off Brest to 

 the junction with the shore end at St. Pierre, 

 lies on one of the great plateaus known to ex- 

 ist at the bottom of the Atlantic, on one of 

 which the cable between Newfoundland and 

 Valentia was laid. The path of the cable 

 from Minou Bay is in water gradually increas- 

 ing in depth from shallow to ninety fathoms, 

 until in a line with the most westerly part of 

 the coast of Ireland, where, taking a northerly 

 course, it passes down a gentle slope of sand, 

 and in a short distance a depth of 1,700 fath- 

 oms was reached. The course then continues 

 in a uniform depth of 2,000 and 2,200 fathoms 

 on a bottom of mud, shells, and sand. The 

 line is taken in an arc of a large circle, the 

 most southerly point of the cable being in lati- 

 tude 42 N., and the most northerly 48. 

 Along the southern end of the Newfoundland 

 Bank it is sunk in a depth of from 150 to 200 

 fathoms, the water on the bank itself varying 

 from 50 to 90 fathoms. From this point to 

 the western terminus of the line the water 

 varies in depth from 100 to 500 fathoms. 



Before the completion of the enterprise the 

 question arose as to the right of a foreign com- 

 pany to land a cable upon territory of the 

 United States with out first having obtained the 

 consent of Congress. The position of ,the 

 United States Government on this subject may 

 be considered as set forth in the bill relating 

 to telegraphic communication between the 

 United States and foreign countries which 

 passed the Senate in February, but was not 

 acted upon by the House, for want of time. 

 The bill provides that, whenever communica- 

 tion shall hereafter be established between a 

 foreign country and any point within the juris- 

 diction of the United States, the same shall be 

 subject to the following conditions and stipu- 

 lations : 



1. The Government of the United States shall be 

 entitled to exercise and enjoy the same or similar 

 privileges with regard to the control and use of any 

 such line or cable, and the lines or cables connected 

 therewith, that may bylaw, agreement, or otherwise, 

 be exercised and enjoyed by any foreign government 

 whatever. 



2. The United States Government shall at all times 

 be entitled to the use of any such line or cable, and 

 the lines or cables connected therewith, by a tele- 

 graphic operator of its own selection to transmit 

 any messages to and from its military, naval, diplo- 

 matic and consular agents ; and such messages shall 

 be entitled to take precedence of all other messages. 



