PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. 



THIS work has proved itself useful, and a second edition 

 has become necessary. From time to time it has 

 much gratified me to hear of the assistance derived 

 from it by many of my friends in the Cable Service and also 

 by that increasingly large world taking interest in cable 

 affairs. 



Mention has been made of the names and work of some 

 of the early pioneers, but not to the extent I should have 

 desired had the limits of the book permitted. To treat this 

 subject adequately would necessarily involve the history of 

 submarine telegraphy, which is sufficiently great in itself to 

 require separate handling, and, moreover, is already to be 

 found in several works and Papers. I trust, however, that 

 sufficient reference has been made to those who started and 

 developed the industry to show that their names and per- 

 sonality are ever cherished in the highest esteem. 



One of the earliest pioneers has recently passed from 

 amongst us, the impress of whose genius and marvellous 

 powers stamped itself from the beginning and for all time 

 upon every stage in the development of submarine cable 

 telegraphy. While this branch of applied science owed so 

 much to Lord Kelvin's inspiration and the many indispen- 

 sable devices and instruments of his creation it stood in but 

 small proportion to his brilliant work in the wider sphere 



