KEEPING 



DOTS DflSHES 

 S Ed 



^^ BY G EO F WO RT S 





NE puncture the size of a needle in a three thou~ 

 sand mile length of submarine cable would sever 

 the ties that bind continents. The utmost care must 

 be observed in the manufacturing, the laying and the 

 repairing of cables. Every step tal?en is the result of 

 exhaustive scientific research, of the rigid guidance of 

 experienced engineers for millions of dollars are 

 staffed on the success or failure of the tiny thread of 

 copper which reaches out under the sea. 



BECAUSE a whale became entangled 

 in a submarine cable, one of the 

 arteries through which throbbed the life 

 of two continents was severed. That is 

 just one of the contingencies which may 

 arise to test the resourcefulness and the 

 daring of the "trouble shooters of the 

 depths." Another time, a hungry tiger 

 shark bit deep into the gutta-percha in- 

 sulation and let the dots and dashes 

 leak out into the sea. But before relating 

 any further mishaps, let us turn to a 

 few of the interesting incidents in the 

 career of a submarine cable which leads 

 to the point where the first-aid-to-the- 

 injured services of. a repair ship are re- 

 quired. 



The War and the Cable 



Before hostilities began in Europe, 

 322,000 miles of submarine cable were in 

 operation more than enough to encir- 

 cle the world a dozen times. It would be 



difficult to say just how many miles have 

 been destroyed or rendered inoperative 

 by the warring powers. Raising a cable 

 in shallow water and cutting it, if its 

 approximate location be known, is a com- 

 paratively simple matter. But it is a 

 much easier matter to steam into an un- 

 guarded port, where a cable station is 

 located, and destroy the instruments, as 

 did the German cruiser Emden, for in- 

 stance, at Discovery Island. Then, too, 

 a cable may lie between two hostile na- 

 tions, Germany and Great Britain, for 

 example; needless to say, the Anglo- 

 German cables will lie idle until the war 

 is over. 



Submarine cables owe their successful 

 existence to the fact that gutta percha, 

 a form of rubber gum, has high electrical 

 insulating qualities, and, like the cypress, 

 will deteriorate if it is not submerged 

 in water. 



Gutta percha is the sap of a curious 

 tree found in the Malay and Sunda Ar- 



193 



