THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VII, Issue 453, 7 March 1857, Page 5

THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH.

(From the 'Times,' Nov. \l.) The projectors of the Atlantic Telegraph oriipany have published an announcement of ieir anticipation "that they will have the cable completed in time to lay it in the summer of 1857, and, under any circumstances, not - iter than the spring of i 858." Thus, within c space of a twelvemonth or thereabouts, if " ese hopes ba realised, a mei'chant in London ill be able to communicate with his correspon-

Nt at Now Orleans with the speed of lightning.

abit has so familiarised us with the . marvel-' jus triumphs of physical science that we have ceased to feel or express astonishment at results which, not so many year's ago,*would have -been dismissed from the consideration of rational men as the visions of a fantastic imagination. To run a railway train over the surface of a country a the rate of a mile a-minute; to cross the Atlantic in a"steamship in eight or nine days; to communicate with any of the principal towns of Europe in less time than is required to put the words upon paper, and other results'.of the like nature; have become so completely part of our daily life that we have ceased to regard them as extraordinary. That which -is really worthy of note is the rate of progression atwhich discoveries are made. One miracle seems to beget another. It is Wheatstone and his Electric Telegraph one year —it is the Great Glass Palace the next; one day we have the monster steamship, another Bessemer's discoveries in the method of working iron. This comes of living in a scientific age. We areas vet but stumbling at the threshold of the cavern~in which the secrets of nature have lain hidden for so many years. As yet the human race seem to have been mainly _ struggling with gloomy and mischievous superstitions, or contendingagainst the tyranny and violence of their rulers and the devastations of war. Even now. when we consider.the spiritual and intellectual condition of the great mass of mankind; when we look .back at the bloody trenches of Sebastopol; when we see Europe bristling with bayonets, and even the citizens of the United States turning their fratricidal hands against each other, we cannot hope that we have yet read the last chronicles of darkness and of slaughter. The inventions of our modern men of science, however, give us reason for hope. When the continent of Europe and the continent of America are united by the electric current, which is to pass to and from the British Isles as its head-quarters, it seems difficult to conceive that the civilised nations of the world will. not. become so bound together by a community of interests that the era of unprofitable warfai-e and of selfish tyrannies will find its natural termination. Many a problem in economic science and in the political situation of the Western world which now seems to present insuperable difficulties will then be easily solved by the mere force of circumstances and the progress of human thought. Many persons now living, and of an age to comprehend the Humming of what is passing around them, will live to see the year A.D. 1900. It will be a twanged world then! _ , The projectors of the Atlantic Telegraph have published their prospectus. It is not our custom to come forward as.the advocates of joint-stock companies, but surely this project constitutes au exception. The interests of this nation and o-ethe civilised world are so closely bound, up

with, its sueceps that we feel justified in recom> mending it to the notice of our readers. With the commercial conditions of the project as they stand at present we have nothing to do, but certainly, the enterprise must be badly carried out indeed if the revenue arising from the electric service between the two continents is not sufficient to pay a handsome interest upon the outlay. The feasibility of the scheme has been recognized by men who have devoted their whole lives to the consideration of such subjects, and who have successfully handled submarine wires in other directions. * The only feature of novelty which the electric communication between America and England involves is the length of the wire. At first sight it would not seem as though this carried with it any real drawback, save some extra difficulty in laying the wire in the first instance, and the increased difficulty \>f repairing damage in case of accident. Professor Faraday had, however* thrown some doubt upon the matter by the discovery of certain phenomena of induction and retardation, but this doubt has been completely; set aside by subsequent experiment on 1125 arid on 1020 miles of wire. The point is to connect the coast of Newfoundland with the coast of Ireland. Now, it is found that between these very points there is a submarine ridge, or plateau, admirably adapted for the purpose. Lieutenant Maury, in his Physical Geography of the Sea, says " this plateau is not too deep for the cable to sink down and rest upon, and yet not so shallow that currents, or icebergs, or any abrading force can derange the wire after it is once lodged upon it." In the line of the Gulf Stream there is a series of precipitous hollows which would render such a route impracticable, but to the northward of the Great Banks these abysses are no longer found. Between Valentia, on the Irish coast, and St. John's, Newfoundland, we say, is the line of nearly absolute rest for the Atlantic waters. It has been carefully sounded along its length, and from the ocean depths throughout there have have been drawn up " the most minute "microscopic shells, which; from their delicate organism and the perfect state in which they are found, prove the, utter absence of all motion in the water surrounding them." Now, the ouccessful submersion of a telegraph cable depends upon the absence of currents, for these would interfere with the descent of the line, and upon the existence of a, level bottom where it may lie undisturbed. Between Valentia and St. John's both these conditions are fulfilled. The soundings, along the plateau increase from 1,000 fathoms. on either side to 2,070 fathoms in the middle, but this depth, or veiy nearly this depth, and under less favourable conditions, has been already dealt with. Two steamships are to be employed in the submersion of the line. They are to meet half' way, each laden with half the cable, and then to proceed in opposite directions, paying out the cable as they draw asunder. Thus each vessel will have about 820 miles of sea to cover in order to accomplish its task.

There should be no insuperable difficulties in carrying out this magnificent project. In the year 1851 Mr. Brett united France with England, and we have now six distinct submarine cables to adjacent coasts. On the other side of the Atlantic a cable eighty-five miles in length passes under'the waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, from Cape Ray, Newfoundland, to Ashpee Bay, Cape "Breton. What has been so often and so successfully accomplished can surely be as easily accomplished again, when the only additional obstacle is that; of greater length, but under more favourable circumstances. What has been achieved towards the extension of the electric telegraph over the continent-'of Eiirop'e is matter- of notoriety. In the British North American province and in the United States the system has been carried out with equal vigour. When once St. John's Newfoundland, and Valentia are united, every portion of the American continent will be brought into instantaneous connexion with every portion of the continent of Europe., Already we are beginning to meditate even greater conquests over time and space. India soon,*and Australia, will be brought within the current of the electric stream, which will carry the advices and the commands of- England'with the speed of lightning through every portion of the Empire.