Other cities were equally gracious, equally complimentary, but equally prudent. In New York he succeeded better, but only by indefatigable exertions. He addressed the Chamber of Commerce, the Board of Brokers, and the Corn Exchange, and then he went almost literally from door to door, calling on merchants and bankers to enlist their aid. The result was, subscriptions amounting to about seventy thousand pounds, the whole of which was due to persevering personal solicitation. Even of those who subscribed, a large part did so more from sympathy and admiration of his indomitable spirit than from confidence in the success of the enterprise.
In England, however, the subject was better understood. For obvious reasons, the science of submarine telegraphy had made greater advances in that country than in ours. As England is an island, she is obliged to hold all her telegraphic communication with the continent by cables under the sea. She has colonial possessions in all parts of the world. A power that rules so large a part of the earth cannot be shut up in her island home. No one has depicted the extent of her dominion in nobler phrase than our own Webster when he speaks of the imperial sway which "has dotted the face of the whole globe with its possessions and military posts, whose morning drumbeat, following the sun and keeping company with the hours, encircles the whole earth with one continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England." Was it strange that this mother of nations should reach out her long arms to embrace her distant children?
Hence it was that the subject of submarine telegraphs was so much better understood in England than in America, not only by scientific men, but by capitalists. The appeal could be made to them with more assurance of intelligent sympathy. And yet so vast was the undertaking, that it required ceaseless effort to roll the stone to the top of the mountain, and the result was not completely achieved till the beginning of the year 1864.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE EXPEDITION OF 1865.
It is a long night which has no morning. At last the day is breaking. While weary eyes are watching the East, daylight comes over the sea. Five years have passed away, and though the time seemed long as an Arctic winter, that only made more bright the rising of the sun. Those years of patient experiment, when scientific men were applying tests without number, and submarine lines were feeling their way along the deep-sea floor in all the waters of the world, at last brought forth their fruit in that renewed confidence which is the forerunner of victory.
So strong was this feeling, that as early as August, 1863, although the capital was not raised, the Board advertised for proposals for a cable suitable to be laid across the Atlantic Ocean; and in order to leave invention entirely unfettered, abstained from any dictation as to the form or materials to be adopted, merely stipulating for a working speed of eight words a minute.
To this request they received, in the course of a few weeks, seventeen different proposals from as many companies, many of them firms of large wealth and experience. These different tenders, with the numerous specimens of cable and materials, were at once submitted to a Consulting Committee composed in part of members of the Committee which had already rendered such service by its advice. It consisted of Captain Douglas Galton, William Fairbairn, Professor C. Wheatstone, William Whitworth and Professor William Thomson. There were no more distinguished engineers and electricians in the world. They examined all the proposals, and then, taking up one by one the different samples of cable, caused them in turn to be subjected to the severest tests. This took a long time, as it required a great number of experiments; but the result was highly satisfactory. The Committee were all of one mind, and recommended unanimously that the Board should accept the tender of Messrs. Glass, Elliot & Co., and the general principle of their proposed cable; but advised that before settling the final specification, every portion of the material to be employed should be tested with the greatest care, both separately and in combination, so as to ascertain what further improvements could be made. To this the manufacturers readily consented, feeling a noble ambition to justify the confidence of the Committee and the public. They provided abundant materials for fresh experiments. New cables were made and tested in different lengths; and experiments were also tried upon different qualities of wire and hemp, that were to compose its external protection. The result of all these investigations was the selection of a model which seemed to combine every excellence, and to approach absolute perfection.
Such was the cable which this eminent firm offered to manufacture, and to lay across the Atlantic, and that on terms so favorable, that it seemed as if it could not be difficult to raise the capital and proceed with the work. Indeed, a contract was partially made to that effect. So confident was Mr. Field, who was then in London, that an expedition would sail the following summer, that he insured his stock, part of it only against ordinary sea-risks, but part also to be laid and to work! But hardly had he left England before there was some unforeseen hitch in the arrangements, the money was not forthcoming, or some of the conditions were not complied with, and he had the mortification to receive letters, saying that the whole enterprise was postponed for another year!