180 APPARATUS FOR THE KED SEA LINE. 



stations to be set up between Suez and Kurrachee, 

 which had to be provided with automatic translation, 

 so as to be able to work without troublesome and 

 embarrassing manual transferring of signals. The 

 fitting up of these translation stations was however 

 attended with peculiar difficulties in the case of long 

 submarine lines, as the charge left in the cable produced 

 disturbances, when as on the Corfu line it was un- 

 desirable to telegraph with secondary currents. There 

 were practical reasons moreover against the latter 

 mode of operating, which especially consisted in the 

 greater complexity of the whole arrangement. I accor- 

 dingly constructed a new system of signalling apparatus, 

 which was afterwards designated the "Red Sea system". 

 In this, not intermitting currents produced by induction, 

 but battery currents of varying direction, were employed. 

 The effect of this was that after every word an inter- 

 ruption of the second demagnetising battery, and a 

 discharge of the cable, must occur, before the latter 

 was again connected with the relay. For this purpose 

 special simple contrivances were made use of, which 

 were described at length in the account of the system, 

 which I published in 1859 in the German - Austrian 

 Telegraphic Journal, with the title "Apparatus for 

 w r orking long submarine lines". In the first part of 

 the line between Suez and Aden, which was laid in 

 the spring of 1859, such translation stations were 

 established at Cosseir and Suakim. They acted in a 

 very reliable and satisfactory manner, so that it was 

 possible to correspond with the Morse key provided 



