WHO DID LAY THE ATLANTIC CABLE?

Lyttelton Times, Volume XI, Issue 645, 12 January 1859, Page 3

WHO DID LAY THE ATLANTIC CABLE?

(From the' Time-;.')

The way in which the people of England and America have received the news of the successful laying of the Atlantic Telegraph is perfectly characteristic. • The Agamemnon comes back to Ports* mouth and pays off,, officers, and orew going right or left without any one testifying extraordinary interest in their proceedings, or giving a second thought whether they go or stay, or even who they are. The staff: of engineers and electricians on. board. the Agamemnon—the working bees of the hive—the men who really laid the cable, are fast dispersing. The cause of submarine telegraphy stands in too urgent need of the services of these master,hands to leave them idle long. Ships are waiting freighted with.cables, and European Governments and companies are loud in their demands for the aid and assistance of these great cable layers. In another week, probably, of those actually engaged in laying the Atlantic cable, only Mr. Bright, the chief engineer, will be in England, and when he has received his well-merited ovation at the hands of-the municipality of Dublin, the whole affair of that cable will be forgotten iv its every day working, till on some other fine day our countrymen will learn, perhaps, that the same men -have completed our electric communication with Australia, with India, with the Cape, or. wherever else it may be wanted. In America, however, the case is different, and there the news has been received with all that enthusiasm of large "posters," speeches, and "Bunkum" addresses in which. on such occasions, Avhether of British union or British outrage, our cousins are always so prolific. No town or community too small to present its address of congratulation. There are to be-fireworks in New York. The city is to be illuminated, and 10,000 dollars have been voted for an entertainment to Mr. Cyrus Field" and—the thTs^ii-^rtal^^P/J 11? 1™! According to have on the whole rather uriderr^aTOT^WMpOaiSli&Bof the event; and, secondly, that the Americans are rather overdoing it, considering the object they have in view, which is simply that of monopolising all the credit due to the projection and completion of this great undertaking. In every speech made, in every address presented, not only is England not mentioned, but even allusions to the wealth and enterprise she embarked in the scheme are so studiously ignored, that people here begin to rub their eyes and wonder if English-science, English money and Englishmen really did conceive and carry out to a successful issue the whole plan of. the Atlantic cable from beginning to end. Under such circumstances it may be well to state at once that the idea of the submarine telegraph between England and America was started here and worked out here, formed into a practical plan, and by a company. By this company the money was raised almost entirely in England; in fact, all the shares held in 'America from first to last are scarcely more than half the number taken up in Liverpool in one week alone. The cable has been made in England, English engineers devised and constructed the paying out machine at the works of Easton and Amps, English electricians planned and ascertained by practical experience the best means of working through the wire. All the ships ofthe expedition, except the Niagara and Susquehanna last year, and the Niagara this year, were provided by the English Government, and both on board the Agamemnon and Niagara English electricians and English engineers Avere alone employed to submerge the cable—in fact, to accomplish the undertaking. Yet it is actiially upon such facts as these that the States go into ecstacies and get up demonstrations upon their own courage, perseverance, and enterprise in the accomplishment of this scheme, upon their firm belief in its ultimate success, and upon the wealth (some £80,000 or £90,000) they had embarked in it. A banquet is to be given at New York to the captain and officers of the Niagara, "to commemorate the successful laying of the cable." Not a word of the English electricians and engineers on board that vessel, the men who were sent to lay, and who did lay, the cable. It is generally the fate of those who grasp at inordinate quantities to have even the small share which would otherwise be given to them withheld. This rule is likely to apply in the case of the officers of the Niagara, and if they put in a claim to be considered foremost among the agents, in this great schemethey must expect to hear of things which, in the general satisfaction on this side of the water, would otherwise have been forgiven, if not forgotten. They will be told how the rough and, to say the very least of it, the careless manner in which they threw out the rope from the Niagara at Keyham, after the first failure, was nearly destroying that half, and it, in fact, did destroy very many miles of it. They will be told, also, how, even in the last trips even the character of " guest" did not suffice to protect the English gentlemen and.workmen on board their ship from sucli annoyance and insult that it was feared that when the vessel joined at the rendezvous"the English on board the Niagra would refuse to proceed any further in her, and so put a stop to the whole scheme. In fact, it was only through the influence of Mr. Canning, on board tlio Agamemnon, that such a strike, if we may so cal it, among the men was prevented before the vessels left Plymouth. Captain Hudson and his officers will also be reminded how, when the ships returned to Queenstown after the great storm, they were almost to a man against further attempts, and if then1 opposition had had the least weight with those entrusted with carrying out the undertaking, the second voyage would never have been made, and the completion of the Atlantic cable deterred at least'for many, very many years. This is not the first time that American ships, have gained great , names1 of ascertain kind under false colours, and the .officers' ofivfhe Niagara are building up a reputation on the Atlantic cable, with which, however, they

v *liave had no more real connexion-than they had, it ■ (is -said, .with the -great public ball at 'Plymouth, ■j-given iivtheir name, and on which, likewise, they ■ •contrive&Ho found a brief reputation for hospitality «and profusion." If these officers deserve a public • ■•* recognition .at ;nll, -what, <lo not the real working men; of -the Agamemnon—Mr. ißright, Professor ■-Thompson, :Mr. Canning and .Mr. Clifford— deserve? - "As we have said, however^the cause of (telegraphy has too many demands upon ;thc^labours of most of •• these practised cable layers, to permit "thorn to be idle here. On Sunday or Monday next Mr. Clifford starts first for Valentia and next for Newfoundland, nvith the short ends of'the Athmtic cable. These ' ropes- are -very massive, -weighing upwards of six ' »tons>to the mile, and when these have befcn care- ' fully spliced and added on,- the Atlantic telegraph -will be complete, and we trust will remain so.for '• vinany years to come. About "live or six miles of the shore end at Valentia were laid last year, and this •■■«lengtli has been buoyed, so that Mr. Clifford will - only have to grapple for it <and to make the splice -with the rest. Submerging the portion at Newfoundland -will'require more care, and a judicious choice of. position, but such cables in such shallow "waters can neither be lost nor broken, and in the -j • care of "such •an _engineer as Mr. Clifford rthcy j "run 'little risk of either. In a short time also Mr. Canning, we believe, will have to start with • v the great cable which is now being made at Glass - and Elliott's, and which is to-be 'laid•■down." for the Electric and International Telegraph Company ": between this countrywide the Hague. This is the - largest and heaviest cable that has ever been yet- " manufactured, and it is not too much to say that no *> other-makers, besides Glass and Elliott; in the world "-cotfid'-produce'a wire so massive, and yet so finally ' - atM perfectly finished. to the present time the -•electrical •communications' between this country and- - the: Hague have been maintained nominally by four ■ light ropes, each containing one "copper conductor, •'"• andeaeh covered with solid 'iron wire. „ We say . - nominally four ropes, though really it has rarely"^beeri by more than two, as, from the shallowness of 1 the water between Lowestoft and Holland, someone ! • or more were always being injured by vessels'anchors, ■ so that it-was constantly necessary to keep a stea--mer employed to pick them up, mendiihein, and lay: - them down.again. vToputan end-once and for all ' to these perpetual sources of outlay, the company > have determined oil'the present monsterropeicom--'r bining the four wires'" in oneyarid'Otherwise of such - strength and weight that if a vessel is so unfortunate as to catch her anchor in it, she will infallibly lose it, as beyond a,doubt she can neither raisenor »■ break this cable. It is composed of an inner rope of four separately insulated No. 13-.copper wires, each ■ cased.in its own gutta perch'a,.aod the four twisted, ? r Svith hemp bet ween the interstices,into a ropß.' This-- : is bound round by six large strands of greased" hemp- ■ and the whole enclosed Svith tenirbn1 wires which " liave no-number in the-trade,, for each" in fact is a smoll iron rod/ being no~ less than-1| ;inclv; in "cir-r. cumference. The weigh t x'of the whole cable is nearly ' ten tons per mile, and its breaking strain is upwards of 100 tons. The length made:- is 240 miles ; the distance between the points bif landing—(Dunwich/ near Lowestoft, and Zandvoort, thirty miles from' ■ the Hague—is about 58 or 100 miles. fifty \ percent., therefore, is allowed for slack,-a large-. ; mtirgin1- considering the immense strength x>£ the" : cablej and that the vessel may put any strain on it ! ' she pleases. "The paying out machines to be used | on this occasion are double • drums of great ■ weight | - and strength, withfrictionclutcb.es of equal-power to ■ the size'and weights of theidrums. 'sTliismachine': was used with the first Mediterranean cable Kid byMr. Canning accross the "Gulf of St. Lawrence. The Vessel which is to take this monster cable and: apparatus is the "William Cory, a screw vsteamer,-* with a most capacious hold, and in all other respects ; one of the strongest and best adapted for the pur-. pose. :

At Glass and Elliott's works, two other cables, are also in progress, one for the Submarine Company, abont 30b miles long,-between Gromer, in Norfolk, and Emden, in Hanover, and another for 'the same Company to Denmark, near "Cuxhayen, a distance of 280 miles. 'Both these cables will be lieavy, as becomes the places they have to work across. We must defer, however, till another notice the further description* ofjJioap. wires ; and also of_ the "shipping and stowage of the great cable on board the William Cory;;' ;