In Europe, in 1872, it was estimated that at an expense of about $100,000,000 more than 1,300,000 miles of telegraphic wire had been erected, and counting the double and multiple wires used on the most important lines, that a length of 621,000,000 miles had been stretched, a length sufficient to encircle the entire globe, at the equator, some twenty-five times, while the yearly increase of new lines consumed enough wire to again encircle the earth.
A telegraphic cable is also proposed from Lisbon to Rio Janeiro. France has been also connected with Algeria, and lines connecting the Eastern Mediterranean, the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, have been laid, though they have frequently been injured.
The Pacific Ocean has also its cable connecting California with India, bringing Calcutta, San Francisco, New York, London, Vienna, Constantinople and Bagdad within a circuit measuring about 12,400 miles in length.
The cables which have been laid in the beds of oceans and seas, connecting islands, peninsulas and continents, are estimated to measure about 12,400 miles in length.
There are now three Atlantic cables connecting Europe and America. These are the Anglo-American, the New York, Newfoundland and London, and the French. Of these the French one is singular from its method of conveying intelligence. A minute mirror is placed on the needle, and a beam of light from a lamp is reflected from this upon a screen. As the current of electricity affects the needle, this light moves in curves upon the screen, and the meaning of these curves is read off by the observer, according to a prearranged code of symbols. Beside these three companies, there is a fourth proposed line, to be known as the American Atlantic, and which it is proposed to lay this coming summer, 1873.
The rates of ocean telegraphing have recently been raised, and it is found that the lines contemplate combining with each other, and forming a monopoly. They have been acting in concert for some time, but without any formal agreement. As ocean telegraphing has become a necessity, this promptness on the part of the companies to combine into a monopoly gives greater force to the proposition that the telegraph, in the public interest, should be owned and controlled by government. Especially is this becoming more apparent, since the telegraphic reports of weather observations, which in the hands of the Signal Bureau have become of such practical public service, have recently been extended, so as to embrace Europe and this country in a single circuit.
THE SEAL.