Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

EARLY ATLANTIC CABLES. 285 and for 15 miles from the landing at New- foundland, in both of which localities rocks were known to abound. Only four months were allowed for the manufacture of these 2,500 miles of cable. Both conductor and sheathing being com- posed of strands, the entire length of copper and iron wire employed was 340,500 miles— subsequently laying it across the ocean. The British and American Governments agreed to lend vessels for the purpose. The Admiralty- placed at the disposal of the company H.M.S. Agamemnon, one of the finest screw- propelled battleships of that time, with a magnificent hold, 45 feet square and about 20 feet deep. In this capacious receptacle Fig. 6.—FIRST ATLANTIC CABLE (DEEP SEA TYPE). enough to engirdle the earth thirteen times, and considerably more than enough to extend from the earth to the moon. Fig. 7.—FIRST ATLANTIC SHORE END CABLE. Whilst having certain mechanical advan- tages, the stranded form of sheathing was found subsequently to possess certain defects, and to give a not very durable type of cable. It is in consequence never used nowadays. The contract price for the entire line was £225,000, whereas an Atlantic cable of the present day—with a much larger core—runs into half a million sterling. As fast as the line was made at the re- spective factories it was coiled into iron tanks ready for shipment. Ships and Paying-out Machinery. In addition to the cable itself, suitable ships had to be procured and prepared for nearly half the cable was stowed from the works at Greenwich. The American Government sent over the largest ship in their navy., the U.S. frigate Niagara, a scrow-corvette of 5,200 tons. As a consort, the U.S. paddle-frigate Susquehanna was also detailed for the expedition ; whilst H.M.S. Leopard and H.M. sounding - vessel Cyclops were similarly provided by our Govern- ment. The latter was to precede the fleet— nicknamed the “ Wire Squadron ”—to show the way. Apparatus for the manufacture of the cable was already in existence ; indeed, the sheath- ing machinery was practically the same as that employed for constructing pit-ropes. But this being the first ocean line, special apparatus had to be made for submerging a cable satisfactorily in great depths. The somewhat primitive gear employed on previous cable-laying enterprises had proved to possess insufficient restraining force, the line, when being laid in any but quite shallow water, having more than once obtained the mastery. In the new machine supplied by the then famous firm of Messrs. C. de Bergue and Company there was no lack of holding-back power. It was, indeed, so heavy and power- ful that it tended to break the cable under any material strain. Here the degree of