5025 x 3363 px | 42,5 x 28,5 cm | 16,8 x 11,2 inches | 300dpi
Data acquisizione:
23 marzo 2008
Altre informazioni:
In 1868 Daniel Gooch replaced John Pender as Chairman of the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company (Telcon), as Pender was now engaged in forming a group of companies which would link all parts of the world to Britain. The 1868 Malta - Alexandria cable was the first cable to be ordered for this network, its owner being the Anglo-Mediterranean Telegraph Company. The cable was manufactured by Telcon and laid by Scanderia and Chiltern, commencing on 26 September 1868 at Malta. Traffic on the cable was so heavy that a duplicate was laid in 1870. The conductor consisted of seven copper wires, insulated by three layers of gutta percha, and finished with a layer of hemp and 18 armouring wires. The cable length was 943 nm. The new telegraph cable between Malta and Alexandria has been successfully laid. It has long been considered necessary to connect these two important ports by telegraphic communication, and so far back as 1858 a cable was laid between them. Owing, however, to the failures which, up to that time, had been experienced in laying deep‑sea, cables, it was thought advisable to lay this one in shoal water, which was done by taking it from Malta to Tripoli, and then following the coast of Africa to Alexandria. Since it was laid it has been continually breaking down, owing to the action of the sea causing it to chafe against the hard rocky ground at the bottom, and a ship has been almost constantly employed in repairing it. The success attending the laying of the Atlantic cable immediately turned the attention of the Mediterranean Telegraph Company to providing a deep-sea cable between Malta and Alexandria, and a contract was entered into with the Telegraph Maintenance Company for a cable to be laid between the two ports suited to the requirements of the bed of the Mediterranean. The cable differs in some important particulars from the Atlantic cable, being much smaller and heavier in proportion to its size. The copper wires which serve as the c
