543 
ATLANTIC TELEGRAPHY. 
BY EGBERT HUNT, E.R.S. 
K >» ■ ■ ■ 
F OP the third time man has failed in his attempt to make 
a channel along the deep sea-bed of the Atlantic Ocean_, 
through which to send those electrical pulsations, by whose 
regulated throbs he desires to unite the great Continents of the 
world. These failures have been of no common order, immense 
sums of money have been expended, and a considerable amount 
of scientific knowledge has been brought to bear upon the 
Atlantic Telegraph. Are we to be discouraged at this recur =■ 
rence of accidents ? Or shall we learn good practical lessons 
from our failures, and thus secure a more favourable result 
when the next experiment is tried ? It is now eight years 
since the proposal was made to connect Europe and America 
by means of a submarine electric telegraph cable. About 
seven years have passed away since the first electric cable 
broke, 380 miles from the Irish coast. This occasioned a 
delay which was in every way disastrous. The cable was 
stored — with very insufficient care — in the Government yard 
at Keyham, where it remained for the winter, and in the latter 
summer of 1858, by the aid of the Agamemnon and the 
Niagara j the experiment of sinking it was again made. On 
the 5th of August, in that year, the cable was laid across from 
Ireland to Newfoundland, and we are informed, upon good 
authority, that between that date and the 1st of September 
300 messages passed between Europe and America. It must 
not be forgotten, that those messages were obtained with diffi- 
culty, and it is quite certain that, from the very first, the 
cable was not in working condition. While the cable was 
being coiled on board the Niagara, I had an opportunitj^ of 
examining it, which I did with some care. The result was a 
firm conviction, then expressed, that the cable had been greatly 
injured, and that, if sunk, it would very soon become useless. On 
the 1st of September, 1858, the electric band ceased to convey 
a sign, and until the present year nothing further has been 
efi’ected. The failures of the Red Sea line, and some other 
deep-sea telegraphic cables, have rendered the commercial 
VOL. IV. NO. XVII. 2 0 
