"HULLO' SYDNEY!"

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3171, 23 August 1917, Page 6

"HULLO' SYDNEY!"

DIRECT CABLE OPEN£ TO-DAY EASTERN EXTENSION . ; : : ENTERPRISE ;'■ SIR JOSEPHWARD TO SEND FIRST - - -MESSAGE. Half of the Eastern Extension Com- . pany's staff from.»Wakapiiaka will arrive •.. from Nelson this morning, and' the other . half will leave to-night and reach hero to-morrow morning, so that at tile weekend the company will say good-bye to the little bay. The only regret anyone ■will have at leaving the old spot will . be one of sentiment. The "Waka" cable was laid down as far back as 1876, and the service has been steadily maintained ever 6ince, with the -:■ exception of those periods during which there was a break in-the single cable days. "Waka" was made the cable station for the simple reason that it afforded a good safe landing, and avoided the wear and tear of Cook; Strait. The station had to be on the South Island because in the 70's that island was deemed to be 'the most important half of New •Zealand. Prosperity sat smiling on the broad shoulders of the Caledonian mer- ' chants of Dunedin. and the North Island was more or less of an unexplored wilderness. At length, after many days, the: tide turned, and as it.has gathered in strength it has even washed the cable to our shores, and in future the South Island will be connected with the outside world through the medium of tho Cook Strait cables onl}'. It will be remembered that tho com- •" pany' decided, a year ago, to make the cable ■ terminal Wellington Instead of "Waka," and fo that end new lengths of cable were laid for about 60 milesone out from Titahi Bay and the other - out from Bondi,- instead of La Perouse, at- Sydney. The new shore ends on the Sydney side were joined up with tho cables about'two months ago. The junction with the Titahi Bay shore ends was only made on Tuesday last. Tests have been made already, proving co -- munication. to be established, with Sydney. In the meantimo "Waka" maintains the service with the second cablej which will be similarly detached and reconnected up with a new shore end at the first opportunity; A cable house has . been established at Titahi Bay as a testing place, and to provide a place to work the instruments in should defects in the land linfe develop„'whjch contingency appears to be a fairly remote one, yet ono . which had to be provided for. Thcro are 19 operators on the staff of the .bastem Extension Company, and they are employed for the wholo of the 24 hours in seven-hour shifts. The work is a fluctuating quantity, but there is comparatively little doing between 2 a.m. and 7 a.m., though operators are kept on during those hours at present owing to the possibility of urgent Government messages coming through at any time.. It is to the corner room on the 'top flat of J. .Natuan «.nd Co 's building that tho news of all the \ world will come for the future-a tog. ; ai?y, sunshiny apartment, overlooking the city, harbour, and tho surrounding hills —an ideal office for the work, away a'.x.ve the' clatter of the streets and yet in the verv heart of tho city. Here, on pollistied,red cedar tables, are the instrument/'that respond so faithfully <o the •electric touch at Sydney. .'- \. What a marvel of spider-web delicacy in mechanics the instruments Bie'l Even the lay mind,- that is only confused by a flood of technical talk, is fascinated by "the action of tho gossamer-like syphon ' (which on first sight appears to be floating on air), one end of which is the pen that traces on the paper tape, as it slowly unwinds, the little wavy line of Morse dots and dashes-; that mead so' much when written down in plain English. Tho suspension of this hair-like syphon is a work of art. One end, of course, dips into a little cistern of analyno dye mixed with water,.but the rest is suspended by four almost invisible stays, two,- from side to side, being 'hairs of phosphor-bronze (one of which is connected with a-vibrator),- and two from the syphon back to the instrument •by threads of cocoon silk. This "Ma- - hornet's coffin" method of suspension is | rendered necessary owing "to tho extreme sensitiveness of the typnon point when properly adjusted.' The tape control •las-to bo carefully adjusted just to tho right tension, for if it were pressed too far forward on to the tho delicacy of outline would bo Tost, or at 'least affected. As it iff, the.syjjhon does .

- its work in the clearest possible manner, " -writing down the message so that it can be clearly read' as it. passes the officer, who, with his pad before him, is tranj; scribing it as it unreela. From _ that ' officer it goes on to another, who checks ."it to see that no errqr has been made by |the receiving officer. Yesterday this was. ■ 'demonstrated to a Dominion reporter by the supervisor, Mr. H. ii. Black, by using one of the "artificial ' lines."; The simplicity of this part of the business is just as amazing as it is difficult to, grasp tile' intricacies of the testing apparatus and the everlasting problems tliat arise through unaccountable aerial and oarth .currents. The Eastern Extension Company s cables can bo worked duplex. Tho.t is to eay, messages may be seat and received simultaneously over the same cable. AVhilst this was . considered . a, great achievement in cable work, land lines - can bo. worked quadruples with very little trouble—less, indeed, than to work a cable duplex, owing to the necessity of :'"-Kavin'f to" reproduce- precisely the electric condition of the cable; which is ', sometimes a rather uncertain quantity. For example, at the present time, or at ' least yesterday afternoon, the will-o'-the--wisp light reflected from a tiny mirror suspended on an O'Sullivan Galvanometer, was dancing madly all over the .chart register, .an indication that' the cable was carrying much more current 'than normally, said to bo due to tho magnetic influences of the sun spots on the earth. The cables aro synchronised olectrically by' the use of "artificial : lines"—tiers of metal boxes, containing tinfoil.and paraffin wax, which brings about exactly the same degreo of con■'ductivity in the cable wires. Each/artificial line-box represents sixty miles of cable. When the oporatingri-oom is fully equipped there will bo Bix instruments installed, all readily interchangeable. The automatic idea in telegraphy has been successfully adopted in cable work. Tor example, a message can now be dispatched from Port Darwin to Wellington, via Adelaide and Sydney, .without being repeated by human, agency— surely a great achievement over such a distance. ,' ~, ■ On account of the fineness of tho instruments in use the cable can -be worked on a voltage of 23-certainly never moro than SO is required—whereas the Cook Strait cables probably work 1 on a ■voltage of 150. Th.e current will be supplied by a regiment of Laclanche cells, the mills that drive the ttfpe drums by 'Thompson tray cells, with the new Gordon Burnham cells as spares. Later on, when they are more readily obtainable, accumulators will be substituted for cells. ■'.'■'„ . Tho Eastern Extension Company s business here will be conducted by the supervisor, Mr. E. It. Black, with Mr. H. Maleaky (who fitted up tho office) as second in command. ' The first official messago will- be sent over the new cable by the PostmasterGeneral (Sir Joseph Ward) to the Post-master-General of the Australian Commonwealth at 2.80 o'clock this aftermoon,