( 13 ) Atlantic cable which increased by the working of the cable, but that the whole cable was bad: it was bad when it was laid, and working through it completed the matter. Talk of a particular hole in a particular place in the Atlantic Cable!—it would be as sensible to say there was a hole in a sieve. And now a “ Don Quixote ” errand has been undertaken to endeavour to repair a cable at Newfoundland when the supposed fault is at the Valentia end of the cable; and while the Company are spending money on this sort of wild-goose chace, the Magnetic Company are taking down the line erected from Killarney to Va- lentia, and which, if there was the slightest chance of the cable working, would be kept up, as it is the only means of communi- cating with the cable over 40 miles of ground. Any attempt to raise the Atlantic Cable, and repair it, will prove just as useful and profitable as the attempt has been to raise the Russian fleet at Sebastopol, and repair it; it is simply throwing good money away after bad. WOKKING OF THE CABLE. But if in the laying of a cable of 2000 miles there were no diffi- culties, and a cable could be made, laid, and continue perfect, it would be an impossibility to work it at a remunerative rate of speed at anything like moderate charges. Curiously enough, to a certain extent, the very perfection of the cable itself would increase the difficulties of working through a cable 2000 miles long: this may seem strange, but it is nevertheless true. If a 16-gauge copper-wire is insulated on earthenware cups, or fixed on poles, you may work through it at any reasonable speed you choose; but coat that wire with gutta-percha, and place it under water, and the conditions have become changed. If a cur- rent be sent through the wire suspended on poles it will pass to earth, in the usual way, at the distant end, and signals will be sent quite as rapidly as the hand can work. For working a tele- graphic line, it is essential, however, that the wire should be dis-

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(56) Litaspjald