The telegraph manual: a complete history and description of the semaphoric, electric and magnetic telegraphs of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, ancient and modern.

590 SUBTERRANEAN TELEGRAPHS.
the engineer of the above-named company, and under whose
direction a very large range of subterranean lines have been
constructed, I have been informed that the chief part of the
underground lines laid by him have been in troughs of kreosoted
Baltic timber, with a lid of galvanized roof iron, overlapping
the groove by half an inch on each side of the gauge No. 14 in
thickness.
It is drawn with six wires, but in some places ten are laid.
The line from Manchester to London, the first laid, has a
wooden lid instead of the iron lid afterward introduced. The
district is easy of access by railway the entire distance, and
the roads well attended to by the road surveyors (county, not
teleCgraph officers), who inform the company of any work,
&c., to be done on the line of the wires.
The wires on this line, ten in number, are covered with a
serving of tarred jute as an additional protection, especially
while laying, the expense being nearly covered by the saving
in labor and carriage, in having the wires all together in a rope,
and wound on the same drum.
A full size section is given at fig. 2. The two plans are
Fig. 2.
under the ordinary high road; but through the paved streets
of towns, where the roads are often oFened for laying gas and