The First Atlantic Cables 



London, the first specimens of gutta-percha 

 brought to Europe. A few months later, Dr. 

 W. Montgomerie, a surgeon, gave other speci- 

 mens to the Society of Arts, of London, which 

 exhibited them; but it was four years before the 

 chief, characteristic of the gum was recognized. 

 In 1847 Mr- S. T. Armstrong of New York, during 

 a visit to London, inspected a pound or two of 

 gutta-percha, and found it to be twice as good a 

 non-conductor as glass. The next year, through 

 his instrumentality, a cable covered with this 

 new insulator was laid between New York and 

 Jersey City; its success prompted Mr Armstrong 

 to suggest that a similarly protected cable be 

 submerged between America and Europe. 

 Eighteen years of untiring effort, impeded by 

 the errors inevitable to the pioneer, stood be- 

 tween the proposal and its fulfilment. In 1848 

 the Messrs. Siemens laid under water in the port 

 of Kiel a wire covered with seamless gutta- 

 percha, such as, beginning with 1847, they had 

 employed for subterranean conductors. This 

 particular wire was not used for telegraphy, but 

 formed part of a submarine-mine system. In 

 1849 Mr. C. V. Walker laid an experimental line 

 in the English Channel ; he proved the possibility 

 of signalling for two miles through a wire covered 

 with gutta-percha, and so prepared the way for 

 a venture which joined the shores of France and 

 England. 



In 1850 a cable twenty-five miles in length 

 was laid from Dover to Calais, only to prove 

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