162 SARDINIA-BONA DEEP-SEA CABLE. 



In this long line of about 400 miles difficulties in 

 the matter of signalling occurred through the electrical 

 capacity of the line, which in spite of my publications 

 in 1850 remained entirely unknown to the English. 

 When the needle telegraphs employed in England re- 

 fused to do their duty on the line, Newall & Co. 

 ordered signalling apparatus from my firm, with which 

 operations could very well be carried on. It was a 

 singular coincidence that in the two hostile camps of 

 Sebastopol and Balaclava Berlin apparatus with con- 

 secutive numbers of manufactur weere at work. 



Meanwhile in September 1855 Mr. Brett, com- 

 missioned by the Mediterranean Extension Telegraph 

 Company, had made the attempt to lay a heavy cable 

 with four conductors between the island of Sardinia 

 and the town of Bona in Algeria. He employed for 

 the purpose the same contrivances as in the North Sea, 

 but unfortunately his brake apparatus did not suffice 

 on reaching deep water, and in consequence the whole 

 cable rolled to the bottom without the possibility of 

 detaining it. When a second attempt in 1856 also 

 miscarried, he retired from the undertaking, which was 

 then taken up by Newall & Co. The latter contracted 

 with my firm for the delivery of the electric apparatus, 

 and requested me to undertake the electrical testing 

 on and after the laying. 



This first laying of a deep sea cable was both 

 interesting and instructive to me. At the beginning 

 of September 1857 I went at Genoa with an assistant 

 and the necessary electrical apparatus on board a 



