. Though young,
he proved entirely successful, and wan immensely popular with his
students. At that time the university had no experimental laboratory,
and Professor Thomson and his pupils performed their experiments
in the professor's room and in an abandoned coal-cellar, slowly
developing a laboratory for themselves. His development continued
until, when at the age of thirty-three he was called upon to assist
with the work of laying an Atlantic cable, he was possessed of
scientific attainments which made him invaluable among the cable
pioneers.

IX

THE PIONEER ATLANTIC CABLE

Making the Cable--The First Attempt at Laying--Another Effort
Checked by Storm--The Cable Laid at Last--Messages Cross the
Ocean--The Cable Fails--Professor Thomson's Inventions and
Discoveries--Their Part in Designing and Constructing an Improved
Cable and Apparatus.

Field and his business associates were extremely anxious that the
cable be laid with all possible speed, and little time was allowed the
engineers and electricians for experimentation. The work of building
the cable was begun early in 1857 by two English firms. It consisted
of seven copper wires covered with gutta-percha and wound with tarred
hemp. Over this were wound heavy iron wires to give protection and
added strength. The whole weighed about a ton to the mile, and was
both strong and flexible. The distance from the west coast of Ireland
to Newfoundland being 1,640 nautical miles, it was decided to supply
2,500 miles of cable, an extra length being, of course, necessary
to allow for the inequalities at the bottom of the sea, and the
possibility of accident.

The British and American governments had already provided subsidies,
and they now supplied war-ships for use in the work of laying the
cable. The _Agamemnon_, one of the largest of England's war-ships, and
the _Niagara_, giant of the United States Navy, were to do the actual
work of cable-laying, the cable being divided between them. They were
accompanied by the United States frigate _Susquehanna_ and the
British war-ships _Leopard_ and _Cyclops_. In August of 1857 the fleet
assembled on the Irish coast for the start, and the American sailors
landed the end of the cable amid great ceremony.

The work of cable-laying was begun by the _Niagara_, which steamed
slowly away, accompanied by the fleet. The great cable payed out
smoothly as the Irish coast was left behind and the frigate incre