Show cooper and ocean telegraph famous philanthropist invented the machine which made possible the successful laying of sub marine cables peter cooper known to the present generation ae a philanthropist creator ot cooper union of new york was one of the foremost inventive geniuses who did much to advance the ma terdal development ot the united states in the first 60 years ot the past century it Is common knowledge that peter cooper invented a locomotive engine and actually put it upon the rails near baltimore a year or two after george stephenson Step benson invented the first locomotive engine it Is also widely known that mr cooper was very intimately associated with byrua W field in the alon ot the company which laid the first atlantic cable but it Is not so generally known that it was an apparatus invented by peter cooper which together with the wonderfully delicate apparatus invented by the late lord kelvin tor sending and receiving cable messages which made tho atlantic cable a commercial practicability tic peter cooper went to newfoundland to inspect the experiments which were being carried on to discover the best manner of laying the ocean cable and his experience there was afterwards narrated to me by his son in law the late abram S hewatt who was a member of congress for bome rears and mayor of new york city from the first idea which the cable people had in mind for laying an acdan cable involved the paying out of the cable broto the side or the stern of the vessel as the vessel edmed in an opposite direction said mr hewatt but it wae soon found that this method was unavailable for deep fea cable laying it did well enough when the water wa shallow but when the water was deep the cable was likely to become kicked kinked or to coll up mr cooper aid to mr field after experiments in deep sea cable laying bad made that it would be necessary nece esary to a entirety new apparatus 1 can you suggest anything mr field asked wot at present mr cooper e piled but I 1 will mahe a study of the matter and see what I 1 can do so peter cooper worked over the problem of how an ocean cable should be successfully laid he believed that there was a principle of mechanics which it he could discover it or the application of it could be successfully adopted that there would be no difficulty in laying a cable from ire land to newfoundland upon the bed of the atlantic no matter how deep mr cooper spent several months upon this problem at last he said to mr field that he believed he was on the right track it had occurred to him that if he could build an apparatus which would pay out the cable a little fatter than the steamship was going ahead then all difficulty would be overcome for peter cooper to think was immediately to act in a little while he had built a machine by means of which a cable could be uncoiled and paid out from the desk of a steamship at a rate of speed a little more rapid than that at which the steamship was going tho first test showed that mr cooper had perfected a machine which made it possible to lay the ocean cable and with this machine the first atlantic cable between newfoundland and the coast of ireland was laid copyright 11 by E J edward all richt |