| Show the atlantic tele telegraph 9 raph expedition writing from portland on the uit alt the correspondent of the tile london standard says the great eastern has for the second time commenced one of those great labors which astonish the world namely to lay a new atlantic cable from Valen valentia valentel tel ten to hearts content in newfoundland and then to return and pick up and repair the broken atlantic cable of 1865 the cable has it is believed quite parted at a distance the test shows tobe miles off valentia and in 1900 fathoms of water A it has parted at a depth of more than two miles beneath the atlantic The Great eastern ca came M e to portland on wednesday afternoon and anchored inside the east end of the breakwater in about eight g or nine fath fathoms bins the great aa eastern ste rn draws about thirty feet of water but bu fc has yet to take in tons of coal coill which will bring her down to 34 3 4 feet 6 inches at this depth she will have eighteen inches less immersion than when she started with the cable for india or than when she rounded the cape of good hope in very bad weather the cable is 2500 miles long and roughly speaking taken altogether may be said to average about aj 3 tons per mile that is to say the shore ends weigh eighteen tons per mile the intermediate portion ten tons per mile mlle and the deep sea portion 37 ewt per mile mlle out of water and 35 ewt in the cable is of three diffie different rent sizes for the three different depths but the conducting wires and the insulation are the same throughout it is merely in the outer casing of iron wires that the difference of weight consists the cable is much the same as the last that was waa laid except that its insulation la is higher the centi centre 0 C conducting on wire is upon strands of copper this is insulated by thin coats of gutta percha with one coat of smiths compound betwee between neach each around the core are eight strands of galvanized ir iron 0 11 wire each covered with tarred hemp and over all comes a coating of clarks compound of silica and tar which is most useful but makes the whole resemble a tarred stick of course this description mainly applies to the deep sea that is the greatest portion of the cable the intermediate portions though made on the same pattern are cased eased in with five times heavier wires while tile tiie shore ends are almost solid iron the breaking strain of the deep sea portions is aj 6 tons the breaking strain of the intermediate cable is at least twice that all ali the present cable is stowed in four tanks on board the great eastern tho the first tank which is 73 03 feet in diameter and 26 feet deep contains miles the tho main tank which is 78 feet in dia din diameter meter or about as large almost as the circus at contains 1010 miles the third and fourth tanks which are nearly the size of the first tank contain almost to a mile the same quantity all the tanks are kept filled with sea water but there are means for at once lettin letting it off in case of the ship getting IN into a beam sea and rolling much this however has never yet arisen and the contingency is not looked forward to now with the expedition go three steamers the robert jowe lowe the edinburgh and the hibernia the robert jrobert lowe takes only intermediate cable of this she has 30 miles that is to say tons which with coals and other apparatus makes a fair load for her the edinburgh Edinburg hand and hibernia take the cables which are to be laid from placentia bay near hearts content celip direct across aaros to the little town of sidney near cape breton |
