650 



HISTOIIY OF THE SEA. 



The continuity of this cable was shortly afterwards oroken, 

 but it had so successfully demonstrated that it was possible to 

 lay one that another attempt was soon organized. For this 

 purpose the Great Eastern, which had been found too large a 

 ship to be ordinarily used in trade, since her great depth pre- 

 vented her from entering anv but the very deepest harbors, 

 was engaged. Her size enabled her easily to take in the cable 

 for the entire distance, and, starting from Ireland, she kept up 

 telegraphic communication with that station, wkhout interrup- 

 tion, throughout the whole of the voyage. This cable has 

 worked continously since that time. 



Beside this, another Atlantic cable, connecting France with 

 the American Continent, has been laid successfully and has 

 worked without interruption. From England fifteen submar- 

 ine wires, laid across the beds of the Channel or the North Sea, 

 connect that country with France, Belgium and Holland, 

 Sweden and Norway are connected with Germany by marine 

 cables across the Baltic, while Sicily and Sardinia are connected 

 with Italy by a cable in the bottom of the Mediterranean. 



In Europe, in 1872, it was estimated that at an expense oi 

 about $100,000,000 more than 1,300,000 miles of telegraphic 

 wire had been erected and counting the double and multiple 

 wires used on the most important lines, that a length of 621,- 

 000,000 miles had been stretched, a length sufficient to encircle 

 the entire globe, at the equator, some twenty -five times, while 

 the yearly increase of new lines consumed enough wire to 

 again encircle the earth. 



