344 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 



knots ; and the third, between Muscat and Kurrachee, 481 

 knots. 



Notwithstanding the ahle staff of electricians and en- 

 gineers present at the submersion, numerous faults were 

 paid out. Every section of this line, one after the other, 

 became faulty ; and after repeated attempts to repair it, the 

 cable had to be regarded as a failure. A marked progress 

 was, however, to be observed in the manufacture and sub- 

 mersion of this cable ; and, although the pecuniary loss 

 was great, a corresponding amount of information was gained, 

 which the next cable, of equal magnitude, was destined to 

 reap the benefit of. 



69. Passing over the shorter cables laid in the interval, 

 some of which struggled through the difficulties that beset 

 them, we come to the Malta- Alexandria cable. At this 

 date (1860) begins the scrupulous supervision of cables, both 

 of their electrical and mechanical conditions, during the 

 different stages of the manufacture. This progress we owe 

 to the late lamented Mr. Lionel Gisborne, and to Messrs. 

 Siemens, who were appointed by the Government to super- 

 intend the engineering and electrical departments. The 

 cable was originally designed to join Falmouth with Gibraltar 

 in telegraphic circuit. 



The core consists of a strand of seven copper wires, weigh- 

 ing 400 pounds per knot, covered with three coatings of 

 gutta-percha, alternating with three coatings of compound, 

 also weighing 400 pounds per knot. The core was served 

 at the sheathing works at Greenwich with hemp saturated 

 in tar, and covered with eighteen No. 11 iron wires for the 

 deep-sea portion, of which Fig. 160 gives a perspective view 

 and section ; the shore-end was made of two sizes, lengths of 

 the same core being covered with iron wires of two thick- 

 nesses for thick shore-end and intermediate shore-end. 



When the Gibraltar- Falmouth line was abandoned in 

 March, 1860, it was determined to lay the cable between 

 Rangoon and Singapoor ; and in December of the same year 

 the steam-ship Queen Victoria was laden with the first portion 

 of the cable. Stress of weather compelled the ship to put 



