COOK STRAIT SPANNED

Hokitika Guardian, 26 March 1926, Page 3

COOK STRAIT SPANNED

COMMUNICATION IN FEW DAYS Lin TKi.noH.vrji—cut rnnss association.] LL EN HEIM’, .March 20. The TutancKai armed on tilliid Uncr at live, o clock, )eslerday and was engaged all uignt in testing and jointing liio new cross strait came. ’I no final joint was blushed at 8,30 this morning. Tho l iuatiekai lelf, at !) a.m. tor Wellington. M itlnn a few days cominunical ion will fie open.

I'iic new cable is laid hot ween Lyall Bay at tlio Wellington cud, amt bund River (near Sediton) in Marlborough on the other .side ol this Strait. Bieinoun x. who made the new canle, are also supplying tlio machinery ior the repeat station at. '.Seddon. In long distance telephony liio sound lias io he amplified at certain points, and relaid, precisely in the manner that wireless signals are amplified, by the use ol vaves, etc. This required the erection of a room about 1511 by 181 Lat Seddon to contain the repeating apparatus, and switch board, 'this will he adequate to serve Nelson, Alurlborotigh and Canterbury. Whether another repeating station will be needed further south remains to bo seen by the experience of the one erected at Seddon. The. marvel of the. four-core continuousloading cable is that three conversations (engaging six (versons) and three Morse mesages, may he sent over the cable at one and the same time, without the slightest risk of interference one with the other, and yet the cable is only a two-pair one ; that is to sav, there are only four "copper wires running through the heart of the cable. Tho new cable is not of uniform thickness throughout its entire length irotn station to station. The deep sea length is one and tlireoquarter inches in diameter, and the shore, ends are two indies in diameter, whilst the armouring is proportionately heavier in the shore ends than the deep-sea. portions ol the cable, for the reason that extra strength is required in the cable as it reaches the shore, owing to the greater action of tides and sort. Round the central core containing the all-impor-tant copper wires, there are seventeen especially prepared iron wires, whilst on the shore-end portions there, are only twelve, hut the latter are considerably stouter. The composition of the cable, which is unique, in these parts, consists of the four copper wires, each contained in the centre of four circular compartments made by a running tube ol the finest brass tape, which makes tlio cable invulnerable to the attack of the torpedo the copper wires Iveing encased m belata (a form of gutta pereha) witbm the brass tape circles. Even inside the belata filling bound close to the- eopiver wires is the finest of iron wire-thread-like in character— which gives the continuous loading required The hi ass tape ducts nre geometrically placed " l the centre of the cable, and round them is the usual jute worming; then the stout iron wire armouring . winch in turn is protected with jute yarn and a hitunii m >us conipouncl.