THE CONSTRUCTION OF TTIE 



CABLE. 



635 



two vessels should proceed to mid-ocean, should there splice 

 their respective ends of the wire, and that the Agamemnon 

 should then steam to Valentia Harbor and the Niagara to 

 Trinity Bay. They were each furnished with an ingenious 

 contrivance for paying out the cable,— the invention of Mr. 

 Everett, of the United States Navy. June was the month 

 selected, and the ships departed upon their errand. They were 

 absent much longer than was expected, in the event of a suc- 

 cessful accomplishment of their purpose. When they returned 

 to Queenstown, it was to tell of storm, disaster, and failure. 

 Still undaunted, the Company again despatched the ships. The 

 Niagara and Agamemnon met in mid-ocean on the 28th of 

 July : the splice was effected, and the task began. The Niagara 

 had eight hundred and eighty-two miles to sail, and eleven 

 hundred miles of cable ; the Agamemnon, with the same quantity 

 of cable, had but eight hundred and thirteen miles to sail. The 

 Niagara had three hundred tons of coal, the Agamemnon five 

 hundred. At one o'clock the wire began to reel over the stern 

 of the Niagara, westward and homeward bound. 



The following engraving will give a correct idea of the 

 manner in which the cable is formed. The core, or conductor, 

 is composed of seven copper wires wound tightly together. 



1. Wire — eighteen strands, seven to an inch. 



2. Six strands of yarn. 



3. Gutta percha, three coats. 



4. Conducting wires, seven in number. 



5. Section of the cable, eleven-sixteenths of an inch in diameter. 



The flexibility of this cable is so great that it may be tied in 

 a knot round the arm without injury. Its weight is eighteen 

 hundred and sixty pounds to the mile, and its strength such 



