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

THE FIRST EXPEDITION FOR LAYING THE CABLE. 625
sand miles of wire, at the rate of 210, 241, and upon one occasion, 270 per minute."
The friends of the enterprise supposed that like results
would be accomplished on the ocean cable, and that, as a commercial fact, twenty words could be transmitted through the
cable per minute. Under the belief that these things would
be realized by the telegraph, capital was raised, and the company with rapid strides proceeded to the completion of the
enterprise.
THE FIRST EXPEDITION FOR LAYING THE CABLE.
The British government detailed the ship Cyclops, and the
United States government detailed the Arctic, to take the
soundings of the ocean on the proposed route. And to lay
the cable, the British government detailed the ships Agamemnon
and Leopard, and the United States, the Niagara and Susquehanna.
The cable was completed in due time, and placed on board
of the respective vessels; and on the 5th of August, 1857, at
Valentia Bay, Ireland, the end of the cable was taken on shore
from the Niagara. After some few incidental delays, the fleet
sailed from Yalentia on the 7th of August. All the cable had
been put on board of the Niagara and the Agamemnon. The
other vessels served as tenders. The cable was being laid with
success, until the morning of the 11th of August, when it
broke, and was lost in the sea. There had been submerged
380 miles. To enable the reader to understand the particulars
of this expedition, I insert the following from the report of Sir
Charles T. Bright, the distinguished engineer of the company:
" Early in the month of April, 1857, H. M. S. Agamemnon
was placed at my disposal as your engineer; and the fittings
necessary to adapt her to the reception of the cable having been
carried out with the utmost rapidity, she was moored at her
station at Greenwich to take in the eastern half of the cable.
On the 14th of May, the U. S. frigate Niagara arrived in the
Thames; but, on calculating the space available for our requirements, it was found that considerable alterations would
be necessary to suit her interior to our purpose. These were
put in hand at Portsmouth, and she finally proceeded to Birkenhead, to receive her portion of the cable.
In the Agamemnon, by clearing her hold of the tanks and
magazines, the available space allowed of the cable bein.r made
into one great coil, forty-eight feet in diameter and twelve feet
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