X . APPENDIX 

 History- 

 Early developments in submarine cables had their origins in the 

 British Isles. Cut off from the European mainland bv the English Channel, 

 England had a pressing need to establish communication with Europe. 

 Michael Faraday, soon after the discovery of gutta percha, suggested that 

 this raw Indian rubber substance might be used as an underwater insulator 

 for submarine cables. 



The famous Gutta Percha Company was incorporated in 1845 and learned 

 the processes of extruding gutta percha on copper, and in 1848 a two- 

 mile length was tested in the ocean prior to being put to use in a wet 

 railway tunnel. This first application of a submerged electrical cable 

 produced grandiose schemes for promoting international communications 

 using submarine cables. 



The first submarine cable was laid between England (Dover) and France 

 (Calais) in 1850. The cable used was gutta percha insulated copper wire. 

 The cable had to be weighted because of the buoyancy effect of the gutta 

 percha. Lead weights were attached everv 125 yards. Telegraphs were 

 undecipherable due to a phenomenon caused by the capacity of the cable 

 and not understood by these pioneers. 



In 1851 the first successful crossing of the English Channel with a 

 workable telegraph cable was completed using four #16 copper wires, each 

 insulated by gutta percha and armored with steel wrap. The armoring of 

 gutta percha insulated copper wire was made possible by a development in 

 1840 by a technique for laying wire rope over a hemp center. 



The patent was later shown through litigation to cover tbe armoring 

 of gutta percha. This monopoly lasted until the patent ran out in 1854. 

 Some other companies attempted to use hemp armor over gutta percha, but 

 without success. Almost all of the submarine cables laid before 1865 were 

 supplied by the Gutta Percha Company. 



In 1855 several cables were laid in the Black Sea for the British and 

 Ottowan governments who were allied with the French against Russia in the 

 Crimea. Because of their urgent need only the shore ends were armored 

 with unprotected gutta percha in the deeper water. 



These were the first submarine cables used for military purposes. The 

 cables were laid by ELBA, the first ship to be fitted with a circular tank, 

 cone, and crinoline, the chief components of cable storage used today to 

 assure a constant rate of pay out for the cable, and avoiding fouling of 

 the cable by insuring its egress from the center of the tank. 



Although the vulcanization of rubber was invented by Goodyear in 

 1839 and continuous vulcanization of rubber around a conductor was accom- 

 plished in 1845 by a chemist named William Hooper, rubber insulation was 

 not used extensively in the ocean because of its partial solubility in 

 seawater. Rubber was, however, superior to gutta percha in some areas 

 such as resistance to Toredos and extreme temperature ranges. The first 

 rubber-insulated cable was laid in 1865 between India and Ceylon. It was 

 not until 1926 that a deproteinization process discovered by Simplex Com- 

 pany made rubber a practical insulation material for submerged applications, 



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