SCIENCE IN THE INDUSTRIAL WORLD 



lying idle at her dock because she had not proved a 

 commercial success. This was the Great Eastern, the 

 monster vessel of 22,500 tons displacement, which had 

 been completed in 1858, half a century in advance of her 

 time. She was propelled both by paddle-wheels and 

 propeller, and her enormous size and corresponding 

 steadiness made her an ideal boat for cable-laying. 

 The new cable was therefore stored aboard and the 

 laying commenced. On this voyage the tireless promoter 

 Field and the scientist Sir William Thomson were 

 aboard with many others either directly or indirectly 

 connected with the enterprise. 



The advance that had been made in cable-laying 

 since the achievement of 1858 was shown in many 

 ways on this voyage. For example, if a fault was dis- 

 covered in the cable after it had been dropped overboard, 

 it was now possible to reverse the machinery, pick up 

 the cable to the point at which the fault occurred and 

 repair it. This was necessary on one occasion when 

 the fault had been passed ten miles before discovery, 

 but this was accomplished successfully and with no 

 very great difficulty. After laying 1186 miles of cable, 

 however, and when the end of the voyage was almost 

 in sight, the cable parted and could not be recovered. 

 Picking-up machinery had been carried by the boat for 

 just such an emergency, but this machinery was not 

 effective, although the cable was grappled and raised 

 part way to the surface several times. The attempt to 

 complete the laying was therefore abandoned for the 

 moment. 



By the middle of the following year, however, new 



[42] 



