MEH He CileB A} Ren Ve Ey Ww 15 
DIREC? TELEPEONE BETWEEN CUBA) AND: THE 
UNITED STATES 
Cuba and the United States will soon be holding conversation with each other 
by telephone, this being possible by means of the installation of three telephone cables 
between Havana and Key West. 
The Government of the United States, as well as that of Cuba, has granted 
permits for the laying of the cables, terminals have been installed, and a commercial 
service between New York and Havana by means of three circuits is promised for 
the time when the new President of the United States takes office. 
The Cuban-American Telephone and Telegraph Company, which holds the per- 
mits, has had the three cables constructed in a way that overcomes the peculiar 
physical difficulties which the enterprise encountered, and which presented some 
absolutely new difficulties to the engineering profession. 
The establishment of this service will unite the two countries more closely 
commercially, especially in so far as the large ports of New York and Havana are- 
concerned, between which ports there is a constantly growing trade. It will supply 
the most advanced and in many respects the most important bridge across the canal 
which separates Cuba from the continent, a barrier of water already less formidable 
by communications of steamers, ferries, telegraph, radio and aeroplanes. 
Aside from the commercial importance of the plan developed to facilitate com- 
munication between the two busiest ports of the Western Hemisphere, there are 
other important aspects which point to this enterprise as of extraordinary magnitude. 
The cables will be the longest used in the world for submarine telephonic com- 
munications. It will be the first time that a submarine telephonic cable has been 
placed at such a great depth, and in order to give a complete, clear and perfect 
service from Havana to New York or to any other American city, mechanical re- 
_peaters will be used which will work under conditions never before attempted. 
Special attention has been given to the protection of the cables against the 
temperature of the tropical seas and the action of the insect known as the “Teredo,” 
which perforates everything, has been overcome, Also, special attention has been 
given to the great pressure of the water at a depth of 1,000 fathoms. 
New York will have three telephonic circuits with Havana by means of three 
distinct cables. This arrangement has been made in view of the fact that Havana’s 
importations through the Port of New York are the largest of any of the New Con- 
tinent and New York at the same time is the city that receives the greater part of 
the exportations from Havana. For this reason, and in order to reduce the pos- 
‘sibility of a complete interruption in the service as much as possible on account of 
any accident, the three circuits with New York will be established with distinct 
cables. 
In spite of this preferred attention to New York for the reasons stated, the 
Districts of Central and Southern United States will also be served by two circuits 
‘across from the central offices of Jacksonville and Key West, respectively, connected 
directly with the Havana central. ‘ 
The Cuban-American Telephone and Telegraph Company, which will establish 
this service so beneficial to Cuba, is owned jointly by the powerful! American com- 
pany, American Telephone and Telegraph Company of New York, known as the 
Bell system, and by the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation of New 
York. The latter will develop international telephonic seryice in Latin-America and 
among its associates is the Cuban Telephone Company, which, with all its lines in 
Cuban territory, forms a chain of international communications. 
The distance between Havana and Key West is approximately 100 land miles. 
The longest submarine telephone cable working at the present time is that from. 
