to those in New York. It is the first successful Atlantic cable, and my
piece was cut from it before it was laid. Fig. 2 on the next page shows
how a section of it looks, and Fig. 3 shows a section of the shore
ends, which are larger.

Copper is one of the best conductors of electricity known, and hence
the wires in the center are made of that metal. Water, too, is an
excellent conductor, and if the wires were not closely protected, the
electricity would pass from them into the sea, instead of carrying its
message the whole length of the line. Therefore, the wires must be
encased or insulated in some material that will not admit water and is
not itself a conductor. Gutta-percha meets these needs, and the hemp
and galvanized wire are added for the strength and protection they
afford to the whole.

It was an American who first thought of laying such an electric cable
as this under the turbulent Atlantic. Some foolish people laughed at
the idea and declared it to be impracticable. How could a slender cord,
two thousand miles long, be lowered from an unsteady vessel to the
bottom of the ocean without break? It would part under the strain put
upon it, and it would be attacked by marine monsters, twisted and
broken by the currents. At one point the bed of the sea suddenly sinks
from a depth of two hundred and ten fathoms to a depth of two thousand
and fifty fathoms. Here the strain on the cable as it passed over the
ship's stern would be so great that it certainly must break. More than
this, the slightest flaw--a hole smaller than a pin's head--in the
gutta-percha insulator would spoil the entire work, and no remedy would
be possible. A great many people spoke in this way when the Atlantic
cable was first thought of, as others, years before, had spoken of Watt
and Stephenson. But Watt invented the steam-engine, Stephenson invented