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

600 AMERICAN SUBMARINE TELEGRAPHS.
a calm, and the monuments of ruin were to be seen in every
direction. This memorable event was on the 27th of November, 1850.
The mast constructed on the island at the crossing of the
Ohio river was swept away by the great flood in January, 1851.
Soon after that was repaired, some evil-disposed persons cut
down the one at the Tennessee crossing. A few days thereafter
the one on the Illinois side of the Ohio river was destroyed by
a hurricane; and a few weeks thereafter the great mast on the
Kentucky side, 307 feet high, was torn to pieces by a tornado.
The five masts just mentioned were erected and destroyed
within a space of six months.
ADOPTION OF SUBMARINE CABLES.
It was during these misfortunes that my attention was called
to the practicability of submarine crossings. Gutta-percha
insulated wire had been found to be successful in tide-water
streams, but to meet the powerful currents of the Mississippi
and Ohio rivers no plan had been devised commensurate with
the circumstances. During low water I had submerged No.
10 iron wires covered with three coatings of gutta-percha, but
they lasted but a short time. The sand that thickens the water
of the Mississippi river would wear off the gutta-percha and
leave the iron wire bare. I found many such interruptions.
In order to protect the insulation from being thus worn off, I
had it covered with three coatings of osnaburg well saturated
with tar; and in order to hold the osnaburg on the insulated
wire, I had six No. 10 wires lashed to it the whole length, laid
laterally. These wires were then tied, by lashing around
them a No. 16 iron wire about every twenty inches. When
this cable was laid, like all the rest, it worked well for a few
months and then failed for ever. Soon after this effort was
made, Mr. J. H. Wade was completing his line from the east to
St. Louis. The crossing of the river was under the direction
of Mr. Andrew Wade. I informed him of my experiments,
and he concluded to cover the insulated wire entire with lateral
wires laid on to the gutta-percha. They were fastened with
ties of small wire at every twelve inches. He constructed the
cable in that manner, and it proved to be a success.
THE SUBMARINE CABLES PERFECTED.
After this I had made several cables, with some additions to
the plan adopted by Mr. Wade. Fig. 1 represents the cable as
finally improved by me, in the perfection of which, however, I