Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 December 1902 — BEGIN TO LAY CABLE. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

BEGIN TO LAY CABLE.

BHIP LEAVES SAN FRANCISCO FOR HONOLULU. Wire Which Xs to Span the Pacific Being Uncoiled—Ceremonies Mark the Splicing in California Governor’s Daughter Breaks Wine Bottle. The long, thin cable that will connect this country with the Philippines and complete connection by wire around flic world was made fast at San Francisco Friday and the cable ship started for Honolulu. Ceremonies marked the splicing of the cable to the land wires. Speeches were made and the little daugh-

ter of Gov. Gage christened the cable, breaking a bottle of California wine. The company paid the custom house SB,IOO as duty on the cable instruments for this end and on the first three miles of line. Buildings have been rented in Manila for offices of the telegraph company end concessions for the underground connection have, been secured. Honolulu will be the base for the operation of the cable to the Philippines. It is the purpose to relieve frequently the relay operators at

Guam and the smaller Sandwich Islands. The lonely post's nre hard on operators. Messages from al! the world will go through their hands, yet they will hear nothing but the waves, the rustle of the palms and the shouts of naked children at play. Their part will be a strange one, and in selecting men for this service great care was taken to secure operators who can stand the strain of loneliness and hard work. Circuitous Route of Words. Few people who read in the newspapers the dispatches .from Manila realize what a circuitous route the words have taken. A message from Manila now goes through India, the Suez canal, Mediter»..nean sea, Portugal, England and Newfoundland. ”c’-onteen relays are passed, yet with all this >erk dispatches have been sent the long distance 1E iess than an hour. In 1896 an experiment was made. Chauncey Depew sent a message 35,000 miles in less than an hour. This message was transmitted from New York via Chicago to San Francisco (4,100 miles), to Canso, N. S., via Vancouver (4,900 miles), via Commercial cables (2,800 miles) to London, to Land’s End (250 miles!, to Lisbon, Portugal (856 miles), to Gibraltar (336 miles), to Malta (913 miles), to Alexandria (154 miles), to Suez (151 miles), to Aden (1,403 miles), to Bombay (1,850 miles), to Madras (500 miles), to Penang (1,497 miles), to Singapore (308 miles), to Saigon (630 miles), to Hongkong (991 miles), to Foo Chow (473 miles), to Shanghai (1,241 miles), to Tokyo (600 miles). Thus, adding the disfrom London to Tokyo, we have 13,677 miles, returning to London, we have 27,354 miles, plus the distance to London via Vancouver we reach the enormous distance of 32,754 miles, plus the distance London returning to New York we have roughly 35,000 miles.

CYRUS W. FIELD. The Father of Ocean Cables.

MAKING FAST THE FRISCO END OF THE CABLE.