182 FIRST EMPLOYMENT OF THE CONDENSER IN CABLE TELEGRAPHY. 



without the injurious resistance of the polarizing battery, 

 what I had expected of the latter. I therefore had 

 the more remote end of the cable insulated , when 

 the laying was completed, and used the cable as an 

 earth connection. The result was brilliant beyond 

 expectation. The Morse writing could now not only 

 be received direct from Suez without any difficulty, 

 but to my surprise could also be sent there without 

 lessening the speed of the signalling. 



This was the first employment of the condenser 

 in submarine telegraphy, without which it would not 

 have been possible to communicate on the long Atlantic 

 lines with the speed and certainty now permitted by 

 Thomson's mirror galvanometers. Instead of insulated 

 lengths of cable, paper or mica condensers are now 

 made use of, which we did not possess at that time. 



As regards the laying itself, I had introduced a 

 systematic method for the control of the electric 

 properties of the cable, which excluded all uncertainties 

 and misunderstandings. A clock was set up at the 

 starting point, which automatically insulated the end 

 of the cable at definite intervals of time, then connected 

 it with the earth, and finally with the telegraphic 

 apparatus. The ship could therefore carry out all the 

 measurements without the co-operation of the land 

 station, and the like held good of the land station, 

 which continuously telegraphed its measuring results to 

 the vessel, so that the latter possessed the requisite data 

 for calculating according to my formulae the situation 

 of any suddenly occurring fault. This supervising 



