CABLE, Submarine specially con structed ropes of wire, hemp and gutta-percha, or other waterproofing and protecting materials, laid on ocean or river beds for the purpose of providing means of electrical communication across large bodies of water.
Until the discovery of gutta-percha such communication was impossible, as water is so good a conductor of electricity that the sub mersion of current-carrying wires was de pendent upon complete insulation. In this gum, however, such a perfect insulator was found that submarine communication all over the world became merely a question of time, ex perience and necessity. In 1843 Prof. S. F. B. Morse suggested electrical communication be tween the United States and Great Britain, but it was not until more than 20 years had passed that practical telegraphy across the Atlantic Ocean was established.
Early Cables.— The first under-water cables were short ones laid across rivers; later the English Channel was electrically in this manner. In 1852 Dover and Ostend were connected by a cable 75 miles long and containing six wires. In 1854 Sweden and Den mark, Italy and Corsica, and Corsica and Sar dinia were linked. In the same year the New York, Newfoundland & London Telegraph Company was incorporated, mainly through the efforts of Cyrus W. Field and Peter Cooper: of New York, for the purpose of lay ing a cable between Newfoundland and Ireland, a distance of about 2,000 miles. It received a charter from the Newfoundland legislature, with an exclusive right for 50 years to establish a telegraph between the American continent and Europe via Newfoundland. In 1856 Cape Ray and Cape Breton were united, as well as Prince Edward's Island and New Brunswick. The same year Mr. Field organized the Atlantic Telegraph Company. It was supported by both the United States and British governments, but the results of its efforts were discouraging for several years. In August 1857 an attempt was made to lay a cable by the American frigate Niagara and the British ship-of-war Agamem non, but about 300 miles from the Irish coast the cable parted, owing to a strain caused by a sudden dip of the sea-bottom. In 1858 the
same two ships, each with half the cable on board, steamed to a point in the Atlantic mid way between Valentia, Ireland, and Heart's Content, Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, spliced the cable, and, steering in opposite directions, safely landed the ends at their destinations on 5 August. The cable was 2,500 miles in length, weighed about one ton per mile and cost $1,256, 250. It was composed of seven copper wires encased in gutta-percha, which in turn was surrounded by a covering of hemp saturated with oil, pitch and beesWax; the whole being protected by an outer sheath composed of 18 strands of seven iron wires each. Despite the success in laying, however, the cable was prac tically useless. The current was so weak that a message of 90 words from Queen Victoria to President Buchanan took 67 minutes to trans mit, and after a few more messages the cable ceased to transmit signals. Two more cables were laid in this year to connect Great Britain with the Continent,— one to Holland and the other to Hanover; and 1859 saw, among other cable connections, the joining of England with Denmark and France, and of Malta with Sicily. In 1860 a cable was laid between France and Algiers, and in 1861 Malta was connected with Alexandria and Batavia with Singapore. Fail ures were met with in attempts to lay cables through the Red Sea and from Falmouth to Gibraltar, and these, with the ill-success of the Atlantic cable, caused great disappointment to the promoters of the latter enterprise. Capital seemed to have made up its mind that a success ful cable across the Atlantic was impossible. In 1865, however, another cable of 2,300 miles and weighing 4,000 tons, was shipped on the Great Eastern, and was successfully paid out for 1,065 miles from Valentia, when it broke, and was abandoned after vain attempts to grapple the lost end. The following year the Great Eastern sailed with a lighter but stronger cable of 2,370 miles and laid it successfully. She then grappled the lost cable of the year before, recovering it from a depth of two miles, spliced it and completed the task by landing the end at Heart's Content.