The Hillsdale Standard

Mr. Field's Account of the Laying of the Cable.

His arrival at Trinity Bay—Operators Asleep—He tests the insulation by his Tongue—Is Knocked Over—Is Another Cable to be Laid?

Mr. Field describes the feeling which pervaded all on board the Niagara while the cable was being laid, as one of the most intense excitement. Every man exerted himself to the utmost to achieve success in the work. Throughout the six and a half days the most perfect silence and attention pervaded among the men, lest a single moment of negligence should destroy the cable. On the first day after the paying out began, it was found that the cable was being paid out at a rate which, in proportion to the distance run, would, if continued, have defeated the enterprise. This was owing to the fact that the cable on board the Niagara had caused so much local attraction as to seriously derange the compasses, rendering it impossible to steer the ship. Next day, the commander of the Gorgon being apprised of the fact, ran ahead of the Niagara, steering in the most direct course for Trinity Bay. This he continued to do day and night until they arrived, never leaving the deck, except for a few moments, and varying his position by repeated observations by the sun, moon and stars. To his agency, therefore, the success of the achievement is greatly indebted.

Mr. Field landed near the telegraph station, Trinity Bay, at two o'clock in the morning, and walked to the house, half a mile distant, through the wilderness, not a person being visible on the beach. At the telegraph house he found the telegraph operators from London fast asleep, not one of them expecting that the enterprise would succeed. Indeed they had not unpacked their trunks, anticipating that in a week or two they would be ordered back to London.

The reason why signals and not words were sent through the cable as it was being laid, is that on the previous attempt the clerks indulged in irrelevant conversation, which distracted their attention from duty, at a time when the faintest obstruction might be fatal to the work. The Directors therefore ordered that signals only should be sent through the cable from ship to ship. Both vessels had Greenwich time, and the electric current played to and fro between them for ten minutes each way.

The signals showed that on the first day the speed of the Agamemnon slightly exceeded that of the Niagara, but on the succeeding days they went at the same pace, there never being more than twenty miles difference between them. When the cable was laid at both ends, Mr. Field applied his tongue to the end, and received the cheerful information that the insulation was perfect, in a shock that nearly threw him over. The reason why messages were not transmitted earlier was from the fact that all the apparatus, at both ends, was new and untried, and required a great deal of skill to adjust.

Mr. Field states that there is not the slightest doubt that the cable is an entire success, as great or greater than its most sanguine friends looked forward to. By the Persia to-day, he writes to the Directors to prepare another cable at once, as it is evident that the present one, which will in a short time transmit messages as rapidly as an aerial line, will be entirely insufficient for the business which will flow to it. Until the first of September the line will be closed to all messages save those from the governments of Great Britain and United States. During that time Mr. Field will keep the public advised of all matters affecting the success of the cable.

[N. Y. Tribune.