Submarine Telegraph across the Mediterranean. 257 
anticipated official honors. r. Goodyear has received the Gran 
Medal of Honor, of the 10th class, for his discoveries and inventions 
connected with India rubber. 
elegraph across the Mediterranean.—Among the inventors who 
have received the decoration, there occurs with justice the name of 
M. Jacob Brett, the maker of the first submarine cable. He had noth- 
ing on exhibition, but his brother had brought forward specimens of the 
cables which had been laid. en the prizes were under discussion, 
- Babinet, vice-president of the jury of the 9th class, and as such, 
member also of the jury of ‘presidents, proposed a reward to M. Brett, 
stating that he merited the medal of the “ Legion d’Honneur.” But as 
the name of John Brett was alone on the catalogue, he received the 
nomination and was felicitated on the honors he was to receive on the 
morrow, He called to thank M. Babinet, when the latter perceived the 
mistake that had been made, and hastened to correct it by substituting 
the name of Jacob Brett, who was found with some difficulty and drawn 
out of his retreat in order to be present at the distribution, = 
John Brett would have been decorated had he not failed in his at- 
tempt to lay down the Mediterranean cable. ‘The failure moreover was 
not his fault. No steamer could-.be found large enough to take the third 
Section,of the Algerian cable, it being 200 kilometers long and weighing 
more than 1500 tons; and they were therefore compelled to freight a 
Sailing vessel, the Result, of 1700 tons burthen. The vessel was ready 
by the 30th of July, and on the 6th of September it arrived at Cagliari 
in Sardinia after a violent gale in the Bay of Biscay. On the 24th the 
esult accompanied by the French steamer /e Tartare, steered for Cape 
Spartivento, which it reached before night. At 6 a. M. on the 25th, the 
cable was attached to the shore, and put in connection with the electric 
telegraph of the land ; and at 3p. M. the laying of the cable commenced. 
By midnight, 22 miles had been laid. At 3 a. M. the work recommenced 
and by 9 they communicated with Cagliari, distant 40 miles. The cable 
had descended to a depth of 1640 meters. But the sailing vessel could 
make only three miles an hour, and it did not lend itself to the unrolling 
of the cable whose tension had become enormous from the great th 
of submergence : suddenly, the cable broke the stop, and run out with a 
frightful Velocity, three miles slipping off in ten minutes, without an 
Possibility of stopping it, the vessel at the time hardly changing its 
Place. In the run of the last two miles, the coarse wire enveloping 
the cable gay 
Stooxp Skniss, Vol. XXI, No, 62.—March, 1858. 
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