Masterpieces of Science 



miles of her cable it snapped under a sudden in- 

 crease of strain at the paying-out machinery; 

 all attempts at recovery were unavailing, and the 

 work for that year was abandoned. The next 

 year it was resumed, a liberal supply of new 

 cable having been manufactured to replace the 

 lost section, and to meet any fresh emergency 

 that might arise. A new plan of voyages was 

 adopted: the vessels now sailed together to 

 mid-sea, uniting there both portions of the cable; 

 then one ship steamed off to Ireland, the other 

 to the Newfoundland coast. Both reached their 

 destinations on the same day, August 5, 1858, 

 and, feeble and irregular though it was, an elec- 

 tric pulse for the first time now bore a message 

 from hemisphere to hemisphere. After 732 

 despatches had passed through the wire it be- 

 came silent forever. In one of these despatches 

 from London, the War Office countermanded 

 the departure of two regiments about to leave 

 Canada for England, which saved an outlay of 

 about $250,000. This widely quoted fact demon- 

 strated with telling effect the value of cable 

 telegraphy. 



Now followed years of struggle which would 

 have dismayed any less resolute soul than Mr. 

 Field. The Civil War had broken out, with its 

 perils to the Union, its alarms and anxieties for 

 every American heart. But while battleships 

 and cruisers were patrolling the coast from 

 Maine to Florida, and regiments were marching 

 through Washington on their way to battle, 

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