Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

278 ENGINEERING WONDERS OF THE WORLD. A new cable This out- New substitution for the but after forty miles Fig. 1.—NEW YORK AND NEWFOUNDLAND TELE- GRAPH STATION. REMOVED AFTER LANDING OF THE FIRST ATLANTIC CABLE IN 1858. Cyrus West Field, a retired merchant, who became enthusiastic on the subject, purchased Gisborne’s rights, and formed a syndicate for realizing the latter’s scheme. A cable eighty-five miles in length was made in England for connecting up Newfoundland with Cape Breton, in carrier pigeon service ; had been laid, rough weather brought the undertaking to an end. was thereupon made, and laid successfully across the gulf, thus, with the aid of the Newfoundland over- head wire, linking up St. John’s with Can- ada and the Ameri- can land lines, work was the come of the York, Newfoundland, and London Tele- graph Company ; and in view of the fact that their president possessed the sole landing rights for any cable on the shores of Newfoundland, their position in regard to a transatlantic cable was naturally a very strong one—indeed, practically unassailable. During the foregoing work steady progress was being made towards the realization of the idea of connecting up the United Kingdom with America by telegraph. Exploring the substantial amount of know- Ocean Bed. ledge regarding the bed or the Atlantic Ocean became available about this time, resulting from a series of soundings taken independently by the American and British navies, revealing what was termed “ a gently undulating plateau extending the whole distance between Ireland and British North America.” The ground was found to shoal gradually on the Newfoundland side, whilst rising more rapidly towards the Irish shore. The soundings were taken with the in- genious apparatus of Lieutenant. J. M. Brooke, United States Navy, which formed the prototype of all simi- lar deep-sea sounding tubes of the present day. In this a light iron rod, C (see Fig. 2), hollowed at its lower end, is passed loosely through a hole in the centre of a cannon- ball weight, A, fas- tened to the line by a couple of links, LL. On the bottom being touched the links re- verse position, owing to the weight being taken off; and the cannon-ball, or plum- met, thus set free, remains on the ground, leaving the light tube only to be drawn up with the line. In the act of “grounding,” the open end of the tube presses into the bottom, a specimen of which is con- sequently obtained, unless it be rock or coral. An oozy bottom was found throughout the soundings. The specimens brought up to the surface were shown under the microscope to consist of the tiny shells of animalcula (Fig. 3). No sand or gravel being discovered on the ocean bed, it was concluded that no currents I