ELECTRIC CABLES.

Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 2, 15 May 1863, Page 3

ELECTRIC CABLES.

It will be remembered that some time ago a submarine telegraph cable had been wilfully damaged by driving a nail through the outer iron wires, and so destroying the insulating material, rendering one of the conductors entirely useless. That this was not an isolated instance of a submarine telegraph cable having been most maliciously injured, the following will show. The Hanoverian CEmden) cable, belonging to the Submarine Telegraph Company, was laid by the contractors in 1858, and during the submergence, when more than halfway towards the island of Borkman, a considerable loss of insulation wasobserved, and the cable buoyed, • in order to be able to return to the spot, if necessary, when the whole length was laid down, and the e;?d landed. When the paying out was completed, and the telegraph instruments attached on shore, it was found that both wires weie workable, and an arrangement was concluded between the contracting parties lor it to be repaired at the manufacturer's expense , should it be requisite to do so, within twelve months. The year expired, and both conductors are still at work. In the fall of 1861, however, one of the wires showed great leakage, and was seli dom used on account of the difficulty experienced in regulating the relays. In consequence of this the directors of the Submarine Telegraph Company determined that the repairs should be undertaken at the first appearance of fine weather. On the 15th of June last, the company's engineer left with a steamer for this purpose, and reached the ! Dutch coast on the 19th of that month. The weather, instead of proving fair, as might be 1 expected at that time of the year, was, on the • contrary, most boisterous, and up to the 10th of August, when the fault was cut out, there 1 weTe but seven days, and those not the very fittest, in which it was possible to handle the ' cable.' Great difficulties had to be encountered, on account of its having become deeply imbedded in the sand of the Dutch islands, at ■ the place where the fault was found. Some- : times the cable had to be grappled for some hundreds of yards away, at others it was only possible to get it out of the sands at the rate of 15 or 20 feet an hour. The position • of the fault was at last reduced to within a : space of about six feet, which piece was cut 1 out, kept intact, and handed over to the sec- ' retary in London, so that it might be ulti- . mately carefully examined, and a fresh length ! of new cable spaced in its place. Sir James • Carmichael, chairman of the company, some , of the directors, and Mr. France, the com- •> pany's engineer, together with Messrs. Glass, Elliott, and Canning, were present at the examination of these two yards of cable, which. ! had caused so much anxiety and loss to the 1 company. Exteriorly no fault could be ' found, but on mi.iute inspection a slight in- ! dication of rust was observed between two of ! the outer wires, caused, as might be imagined '• by- the removal of the tar by the abrasion of ; the implements used in making the juncture. The iron wires were then carefully removed, ' and at the particular spot it was found a sharp instrument, such as a sailor's knife, ! had been forced through, the iron wires, serving, penetrating and cutting through the 1 gutta percha to the copper of one wire; the incision on the other side was not quite so deep, proving, beyond question, the malicious i origin of the injury, which must have been done either during the manufacture, or at ; the laying down of the cable. The reason of this fault resting so long dormant, was owing 1 to the serving of tarred jute closing under the pressure of the protecting iron wire of the sheathing on to the gutta-percha, it requiring some time, during which the cable was worked, before the current forced its way through the artificial insulation. The damaged core is sealed up again, and placed in the hands of the secretary.