Masterpieces of Science 



view. Never has there been a more signal ex- 

 ample of the power of enthusiasm to stir cold- 

 blooded men of business; never has there been a 

 more striking illustration of how much science 

 may depend for success upon the intelligence 

 and the courage of capital. Electricians might 

 have gone on perfecting exquisite apparatus for 

 ocean telegraphy, or indicated the weak points in 

 the comparatively rude machinery which made 

 and laid the cable, yet their exertions would 

 have been wasted if men of wealth had not re- 

 sponded to Mr. Field's renewed appeal for help. 

 Thrice these men had invested largely, and thrice 

 disaster had pursued their ventures; neverthe- 

 less they had faith surviving all misfortunes for 

 a fourth attempt. 



In 1866 a new company was organized, for two 

 objects: first, to recover the cable lost the pre- 

 vious year and complete it to the American shore ; 

 second, to lay another beside it in a parallel 

 course. The Great Eastern was again put in 

 commission, and remodelled in accordance with 

 the experience of her preceding voyage. This 

 time the exterior wires of the cable were of gal- 

 vanized iron, the better to resist corrosion. The 

 paying-out machinery was reconstructed and 

 greatly improved. On July 13, 1866, the huge 

 steamer began running out her cable twenty- 

 five miles north of the line struck out during the 

 expedition of 1865; she arrived without mishap 

 in Newfoundland on July 2 7 , and electrical com- 

 munication was re-established between America 

 46 



