Part 5 (1/2)
”Cyrus W Field, Esq, 37 Jereraph across the ocean noent forward to organize a coland, had entered into an agreement with Mr Brett to join their efforts for this purpose With theineer, and Dr Whitehouse, as electrician These four gentlereed to forraph Co line of the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Co to be raph cable for the Atlantic”
As they were now ready to introduce the enterprise to the British public, Mr Field issued a circular in the name of the Newfoundland Coreat iraphic communication between the two hemispheres
The next step was to raise the capital After the ht that a cable could be e sum to ask from a public slow to move, and that lends a dull ear to all new scheures, with ineers and scientific men, they went to work, not only in London, but in other parts of the kingdom Mr Field, in company with Mr Brett, made a visit to Liverpool and Manchester, to address their Chambers of Commerce I have now before s held and the speeches or hich they pushed their enterprise This energy was rewarded with success The result justified their confidence In a feeeks the whole capital was subscribed It had been divided into three hundred and fifty shares of a thousand pounds each Of these, a hundred and one were taken in London, eighty-six in Liverpool, thirty-seven in Glasgoenty-eight in Manchester, and a few in other parts of England The grandeur of the design attracted public attention, and some subscribed solely fro these were Mr Thackeray and Lady Byron Mr Field subscribed 100,000, and Mr Brett 25,000
But when the books were closed, it was found that they had more money subscribed than they required, so that in the final division of shares, there were allotted to Mr Field eighty-eight, and to Mr Brett twelve
Mr Field's interest was thus one-fourth of the whole capital of the Coe a share, it was not his intention to carry this heavy load alone It was too large a proportion for one ht one fourth of the stock should be held in this country, and did not doubt, froland, that the remainder would be at once subscribed in America Had he been able, on his return, to attend to his own interests in the ht have been realized; but, as we shall see, hardly did he set foot in New York, before he was obliged to hurry off to Newfoundland on the business of the Company, and when he returned the interest had subsided, so that it required very great exertions, continued through many months, to dispose of twenty-seven shares Thus he was by far the largest stockholder in England or A over seven tiest next to hi more than double the aether
This was at least giving substantial proof of his own faith in the undertaking
But soreat as it see to the projectors a certain portion of the stock as a bonus for getting up the co the subscriptions to swell the capital It is indeed subscribed, _but not paid_ So soe subscription of Mr Field was not in part at least merely noranted to Mr Field and his associates for their services in getting up the Coent interest in the profits of the enterprise, _to be allowed only after the cable was laid_ So that the whole amount here subscribed was a _bona-fide_ subscription, and paid in solid English gold We have now before us the receipts of the bankers of the Coht thousand pounds sterling
The capital being thus raised, it only reanization of the Company by the choice of a Board of Directors, and to anized in December, 1856, by the choice of Directors chiefly fro bankers and merchants of London and Liverpool The list included such honored na, John W Brett, and T A Hankey, of London; Sir William Brown, Henry Harrison, Edward Johnston, Robert Crosbie, George Maxwell, and C W H Pickering, of Liverpool; John Pender and Jadale, of Manchester; and Professor Willialish Directors were two of our country abroad for more than a third of a century, did much in the commercial capital of the world to support the honor of the American name Mr
Peabody's firave more ti, the second Vice-Chairman, who, however, retired from the Company after the first failure in 1858, when Mr Lampson was chosen to fill his place The whole Board was full of zeal and energy All gave their services without coood fortune of the Co, in the ientlee Saward--a naraph, in England or Aan of communication with the press and the public; and honizing his intelligence and courtesy
The Co order, proceeded to make a contract for the manufacture of a cable to be laid across the Atlantic For many months the proper form and size of the cable had been the subject of constant experiree of strength with lightness and flexibility ItYet it would not do to have it too large, for it would be uneable Mr Brett had already lost a cable in the Mediterranean chiefly from its bulk Its size and stiffness ht, when once it broke loose, caused it to run out with fearful velocity, till it was soon lost in the sea It was only the year before, in Septe the cable fro on well, until suddenly, ”about two reatest violence in four or five ht to a dead stop, creating the greatest alarm for the safety of theto the character of the sub The bottom of the Mediterranean is volcanic, and is broken up into mountains and valleys The cable, doubtless, had just passed over so into soreat size and bulk of the cable This was a warning to the Atlantic Company
The point to be aimed at was to combine the flexibility of a common shi+p's rope with the tenacity of iron These conditions were thought to be united in the form that was adopted[B] A contract was at once iven to Messrs Glass, Elliot & Co, of London, and the other to Messrs R S Newall & Co, of Liverpool The whole was to be coed in the sea The coanized on the ninth of December, and the very next day Mr Field sailed for A New York on the twenty-fifth of December, after an absence of more than five months
FOOTNOTES:
[A] Professor Morse was fond of the distinction between the words practical and practicable A thing ht be practicable, that is, possible of accomplishment, when it was not a practical enterprise, that is, one which could be worked to advantage He here argues that the Atlantic Telegraph is both practicable, (or possible,) and at the sa
[B] On his return to Aard to the form and structure of the cable, in answer to which he wrote a letter of explanation in which he said:
”No particular connected with this great project has been the subject of so h the press as the forraph cable It may be well believed that the Directors have not decided upon athemselves of the most eminent talent and experience which could be coraphs dates from the successful submersion of the cable between Dover and Calais in 1851, and advantage has been taken of whatever instruction this history could furnish or suggest Of the sub others, the one between Dover and Calais weighs six tons to the ht tons to thethe war in the Crimea, less than three hundred pounds to the raph is between nineteen hundred pounds and one ton to the mile This cable, to use the words of Dr Whitehouse, 'is the result of ht, experiment, and trial Hundreds of speci every variety of form, size, and structure, and most severely tested as to their powers and capabilities; and the result has been the adoption of this, which we know to possess all the properties required, and in a far higher degree than any cable that has yet been laid Its flexibility is such as to th such that it will bear, in water, over sixht copper-wire, but of seven wires of copper of the best quality, twisted round each other spirally, and capable of undergoing great tension without injury This conductor is then enveloped in three separate coverings of gutta-percha, of the best quality, for the core of the cable, round which tarred he of eighteen strands of the best quality of iron-wire; each strand composed of seven distinct wires, twisted spirally, in the most approved manner, by machinery specially adapted to the purpose The atte-wire or medium would not only have increased the chances of failure of all of them, but would have necessitated the adoption of a proportionably heavier and more cu of the cable, being very much less than that of the conductor within it, the latter is protected froer its insulation without an entire fracture of the cable”
CHAPTER VII
SEEKING AID FROM CONGRESS
When Mr Field reached home from abroad, he hoped for a brief respite
He had had a pretty hard caland, and needed at least a feeeks of rest; but that was denied him He landed in New York on Christmas Day, and was not allowed even to spend the New Year with his family There were interests of the Company in Newfoundland which required immediate attention, and it was io there without delay As usual, it devolved upon him He left at once for Boston, where he took the steae reeable in su to face the store was unusually tempestuous At St John's he broke down, and was put under the care of a physician But he did not stop to think of hih the physician warned hireat risk to leave his bed, he took the steaain in New York after a month's absence--a , such as he had long occasion to ree caraph Co Mr Field a vote of thanks for ”the great services he had rendered to the Coy, and devotion” Mr
Brooking, the Vice-Chaire part of his life in Newfoundland, and knew the dangers of that inhospitable coast, and in seconding the resolution he said:
”It is now about a year and a half ago since I had the pleasure ofthe acquaintance of my friend Mr Field It was he who initiated me into this Company, and induced e From that period to the present I have observed in Mr Field the reat talent, extraordinary assiduity and diligence, coupled with an amount of fortitude which has seldom been equalled I have known him cross the Atlantic in the depth of winter, and, within twenty-four hours after his arrival in New York, having ascertained that his presence was necessary in a distant British colony, he has not hesitated at once to direct his course thitherward That colony is one hich I a resided in it for upward of twenty years, and aer which attend a voyage to it in winter Mr
Field no sooner arrived at New York, in the latter part of Deceot aboard a steamer for Halifax, and proceeded to St John's, Newfoundland In three weeks he accoreat object for this Coislature which has given to our Co on those shores [The rights before conferred, it would seem, applied only to the Newfoundland Company] That is only one of the acts which he has perforreat enterprise”
The very next day after his return froton, to seek the aid of his own Governlish Governenerous aid, both in shi+ps to lay the cable, and in an annual subsidy of 14,000 It was on every account desirable that this should beliberality on the part of the Aland, he had sent home the letter received from the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury; and thereupon the Directors of the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company had inclosed a copy to the President, with a letter asking for the same aid in shi+ps, and in an annual suovernes, the latter to be conditioned on the success of the telegraph, and to be continued only so long as it was in full operation