

-S7A' //'//./. /./.!/ \//;.J/A'.V.s-, l-.R.S. 39 



Mr. II '. Smith thought that Mr. Siemens was slightly in error 

 upon one or two of the facts he had brought forward. He had 

 stated that the first attempt to establish a subaqueous conductor 

 :MTI>SS the open sea, was made by Wollastone (from Dover to 

 Calais) in 18f><> ; and that in the following year Crampton laid 

 ;i cable between the same places successfully. This cable, it 

 was added, was sheathed with iron wire, according to Messrs. 

 Newall & Co.'s patent process. He (Mr. Smith) thought there 

 was some mistake here, inasmuch as he was not aware that 

 Messrs. Newall & Co. had any patent for that form of cable. 

 The fact was that in 1847 the first specimens of that form of 

 ruble were made by Mr. Brett, who, he believed, patented a 

 system of interoceanic telegraph in the year 1845. Mr. Brett's 

 plan was to coat copper wire with india-rubber the best insulator 

 then known and to enclose the wires in a series of iron tubes, 

 united by ball and socket joints. He (Mr. Smith) had no wish to 

 advance any claim to invention in connection with submarine 

 telegraph cables, but he would state that he believed he was the 

 first to communicate to Mr. Brett, in 1847, the idea of protecting 

 the insulated copper wires, forming the core, by a sheathing of 

 iron wire. Mr. Brett adopted the idea, and in the same year 

 some specimens of that form of cable were made for him. That 

 was long prior to the construction of the Dover and Calais cable. 

 The cable to which Mr. Siemens alluded, was manufactured at 

 Wapping, and was only completed, but not commenced, by Messrs. 

 Newall & Co. It was in consequence of some little difference 

 with the contractor, that Messrs. Newall & Co. undertook to 

 complete the cable, which was done with the very machinery 

 which was originally designed for the manufacture of that form oi' 

 cable. 



Mr. Latimer Clark, in reference to the acknowledgment of the 

 labours of Oersted and Ampere in the advancement of electrical 

 science, had been lately struck by a passage in a French work on 

 electricity, published in 1805,* from which it almost appeared 



* "Manuel du Galvanisme," par Giuseppe Izarn, Paris, 1805. The passage is 

 as follows : p. 120, " Appareil pour reconnaitre Faction du Galvanisme sur la 

 polarite d'une aiguille aimantde. 



"Preparation. Disposez les tiges liorizontales a, b, d, de 1'appareil, Fig. 53 

 (u common universal discharger) de maniere que les deux boutons se trouvent & 

 une distance un peu moindre que la longeur des aiguilles que rous voudrcz sou- 



