The Charleston Daily News

The Atlantic Telegraph.

The following article on this enterprise is from the New York Evening Post:

It seems to be certain that another serious effort to establish telegraphic communication between Europe and the United States will be made during the coming summer. The energy and hopefulness of the Atlantic Telegraph Company are worthy of the highest praise, for, although two great cables lie at the bottom of the ocean, and heavy capital has been sunk with no hope of return, disaster does not check the enterprise nor cool the zeal of the directors. Even patient and long suffering stockholders do not murmur, but submit willingly to new assessments, and the stock of the company has gone up in the London market.

A new company has been formed in England, under the title of the "Anglo-American Telegraph Company," with a capital of $3,000,000. This company will act as the agent for the old organization, and an issue of twelve per cent. preference stock has been made for the purpose of providing the necessary funds. The annual meeting of the shareholders of the old company, held in London on the 8th instant, accepted this arrangement, and renewed confidence in the final success of the enterprise was freely expressed. Old and new interests are, therefore, united.

The manufacture of the new cable is going on rapidly, about one hundred miles having been finished weekly for some months past. The Great Eastern will again be employed in laying the cable, and it is intended that she shall start in the latter part of June or the beginning of July. The electrical tests applied to the remains of last year's cable, still on board the Great Eastern, produce satisfactory results, showing that the long stowage in the tanks has not injured the continuity. The new cable—much stronger than that of last year—contains, in every mile, besides the Manilla which holds the composition, seven miles of copper wire, four miles of gutta percha, ten miles of galvanized wire, and fifty miles of Manilla spun yarn—so that in every mile of cable there are seventy-one miles of material.

It is understood that an attempt will be made to recover the lost part of the cable by grappling; but this will be merely incidental to the greater work of laying a new line, for which an abundant length of wire will be provided. The Great Eastern will carry the whole of the new cable and lay it from Ireland to Newfoundland, and after coaling will return to the mid-Atlantic to grapple for the lost end. New grappling-gear is in preparation, which is believed to be capable of recovering all that was sunk; but the process will be difficult, and it is not safe to rely upon the success of this part of the new experiment.

The English journals speak hopefully of the prospect. The London Daily News observes that "the qualities of the Great Eastern remove half the difficulties that would attend the laying of a cable from a first-class steamer of the ordinary dimensions. Her unequalled steadiness, the result of her size, and the perfect control over her movements which is obtained by the joint use of paddles and screws, make the work she has to do virtually independent of the accidents of weather. And an equal measure of confidence may be placed in her paying out machinery, which worked so perfectly last year. It is just as certain, that with good tackle and strong hauling in machinery, a fault, when it occurs, may be lifted from a depth of two thousand feet, and cut out on board the ship, when the cable may be spliced and laid in perfect condition. Moreover, it is proved that in a depth of two miles a cable may be caught up at the bottom of the sea by the grapnel; this operation having been performed three times in 1865. In fact, more than four nautical miles of the Atlantic cable were recovered last year from a depth of over two miles. It is further a great advantage that electrical testing at sea can be conducted with such entire certainty that the existence of a fault in the cable may be discovered in less than a minute after its occurrence, and its position in the cable accurately ascertained."

The wisdom gained through repeated disappointments is useful in all enterprises of this kind, in which many novel difficulties are to be overcome, and new applications of scientific skill are required. The improvements made in the experiment of last year gave so much assurance of a practical advance since 1858, that there was a reasonable hope of final success; and the failure of 1865 was really an accident in which ordinary precautions naturally failed. The faults of last year may be remedied next summer, and, in any event, the enterprise will be regarded with increasing interest.