received far more encouragement in Great Britain, in Parliament and out of it, than he did at home. His bill was nearly rejected in the United States Senate, and it is stated only twenty-seven shares of the first stock were at first subscribed for in the States. On the motion of Mr. Seward, a resolution was passed in the Senate, United States, on the 23rd December, in compliance with which the President transmitted a copy of an application from the New York Office of the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company, dated December 15th, in which the Directors set forth “their earnest desire to secure for the United States Government equal privileges with those stipulated for by the British Government in a work prosecuted thus far with American capital,” and then recounted the terms agreed to by the Lords of the Treasury. On January 9th, 1857, Mr. Seward introduced a bill in the Senate to give and receive precisely the same privileges on the part of the United States Government. It was violently opposed, was only carried by one vote, and was not approved till March 3rd following.

The money being now forthcoming, the Provisional Directors of the Company proceeded to order the Atlantic Cable. Mr. Field was anxious that the order should be given to the firm which had manufactured the St. Lawrence Cable, but the Board thought it would be better to divide the contract, and on the 6th December, 1856, they entered upon agreements with the Gutta Percha Company for the supply of 2,500 miles of core, consisting of copper wire, with a triple covering of insulating substance, at 40l. per mile; and also with Messrs. Glass, Elliot, & Co., of East Greenwich, and Messrs. Newall & Co., of Birkenhead, respectively, for the supply from each of 1,250 miles of the completed Cable for 62,000l. Within six months from that day, namely, on the 6th of July, 1857, the entire Cable was completed.

The policy of dividing the contract for the manufacture of the Cable was questioned at the time. When one portion of the Cable was to be made at East Greenwich and the other at Birkenhead, how was it possible that there could be any uniformity of supervision, any integrity of design, or any individual responsibility? Again, how was it possible that the textile strength or conducting power of the Cable could be tested as satisfactorily as would have been the case were its manufacture entrusted to one firm? And, as it happened, the twist ran from right to left in one half, and from left to right in the other half of the Cable.

Before the prospectus was issued, every attention was paid that the characteristics of the Cable should be suited to its work; that it should not be too dense, lest its weight should render it unmanageable in the sea—nor too light, lest it should be at the mercy of the currents as it went down. It was decided that it should weigh a ton per mile, should be just so much heavier than the water which it displaced in sinking, and of such structure as could be easily coiled and yet be a rigid line, while its centre should be composed of wire capable of conveying electrical symbols through an extent of more than 2000 miles, and should retain complete insulation when immersed in the ocean. It was a subject of close and anxious inquiry how to obtain a Cable of this form and character. No fewer than sixty-two different kinds of rope were tested before one was determined on.

In the Cable finally adopted, the central conducting wire was a strand made up of seven wires of the purest copper, of the gauge known in the trade as No. 22. The strand itself was about the sixteenth of an inch in diameter, and was formed of one straightly drawn wire, with six others twisted round it; this was accomplished by the central wire being dragged from a drum through a hole in a horizontal table, while the table itself revolved rapidly, under the impulse of steam, carrying near its circumference six reels or drums each armed with copper wire. Every drum revolved upon its own horizontal axis, and so delivered its wire as it turned. This twisted form of conducting wire was first adopted for the rope laid across the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 1856, and was employed with a view to the reduction to the lowest possible amount of the chance of continuity being destroyed in the circuit. It seemed improbable in the highest degree that a fracture could be accidentally produced at precisely the same spot in more than one of the wires of this twisted strand. All the seven wires might be broken at different parts of the strand, even some hundreds of times, and yet its capacity for the transmission of the electric current not destroyed, or reduced in any inconvenient degree. The copper used in the formation of these wires was assayed from time to time during the manufacture to insure absolute homogeneity and purity. The strand itself, when subjected to strain, stretched 20 per cent. of its length without giving way, and indeed without having its conducting power much modified or impaired.

The copper strand of the Cable was rolled up on drums as it was completed, and was then taken from the drums to receive a coating of three separate layers of refined gutta percha; these brought its diameter up to about three-eighths of an inch. The coating of gutta percha was made unusually thick, for the sake of diminishing the influence of induction, and in order that the insulation might be rendered as perfect as possible. This latter object was also furthered by the several layers of the insulating material being laid on in succession; so that if there were accidentally any flaw in the one coat, the imperfection was sure to be removed when the next deposit was added. To prove the efficacy of the proceeding, a great number of holes were made near together in the first coating of a fragment of the wire, and the second coat was then applied in the usual way. The insulation of the strand was found to be perfect under these circumstances, and continued so even when the core was subjected to hydraulic pressure, amounting to five tons on the square inch. The gutta percha which was employed for the coating of the conducting strand, was prepared with the utmost possible care. Lumps of the crude substance were first rasped down by a revolving toothed cylinder, placed within a hollow case, the whole piece of apparatus somewhat resembling the agricultural turnip machine in its mode of action. The raspings were then passed between rollers, macerated in hot water, and well churned. They were next washed in cold water, and driven at a boiling-water temperature, by hydraulic power, through wire-gauze sieves, attached to the bottom of wide vertical pipes. The gutta percha came out from the sieves in plastic masses of exceeding purity and fineness, and those masses were then squeezed and kneaded for hours by screws, revolving in hollow cylinders, called masticators; this was done to get the water out, and to render the substance of the gutta percha sound and homogeneous everywhere. At each turn of the screw, the plastic mass protruded itself through an opening left for feeding in the upper part of the masticator, and was then drawn back as the screw rolled on. When the mechanical texture of the refined mass was perfected by masticating and kneading, it was placed in horizontal cylinders, heated by steam, and squeezed through them by screw pistons, driven down by the machinery very slowly, and with resistless force. The gutta percha emerged, under this pressure, through a die, which received the termination of both cylinders, and which at the same time had the strand of copper wire moving along through its centre. The strands were drawn by revolving drums between the cylinders, and through the die. They entered the die naked bright copper wire, and issued from it thick, dull-looking cords, a complete coating of gutta percha having been attached to them as they traversed the die. Six strands were coated together, ranging along side by side at the first covering. Then a series of three lengths of the strand received the second