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

SUBMERGING OF THE CABLE. 601
was aided by Mr. John B. Sleeth, an experienced mechanical
engineer. Letter a, the electric conductor, is a No. 10 iron
wire, made from the best Swedish bar, and drawn with great
care, being capable of sustaining a Fig, 1.
strain of 1,300 pounds. b is the
gutta percha insulation, being three a
coatings carefully manufactured. c
the three coverings of osnaburg,
saturated with a composition made
of tar, rosin and tallow. d are the
No. 10 lateral wires, and e the bind- b
ing wire of No. 12 gauge, placed
spirally around the whole cable.
Several of these cables were laid in
1853, and some of them are being!
worked at the present time.
In manufacturing these cables we'
did not have the convenience of
machinery and the variety of mechan- i
ical appliances common to populated
countries. We were in the West, d
the great West, in the shades of the
forest. The earth was our floor, the
blue arched heaven our canopy, and
the horizon the only limit of our
saloon. Fig. 2 (overleaf) is a repre- e
sentation of the making of the cable.
The reel is seen on the left. At the
tree a wedge holds fast the finished
cable. The men are engaged in
putting on the binding wires. The
circular board around which the
lateral wires are spread is moved for-
ward as the tie process requires. The
board distributes the lateral wires
around the electric conductor. The
gutta-percha insulated wire, covered with the osnaburg, runs through a hole in the centre of
the circular board. To avoid confusion, the insulated wire
has been left out of the figure.
SUBMERGING OF THE CABLE.
When the cable has been finished it is ready to be submerged. The frame is erected in a boat and the reel suspended, as seen in fig. 3. The oarsmen then perform their task,