h the lightning was to run,
was nearly three times larger than before. The old conductor was a
strand consisting of seven fine wires, six laid around one, and weighed
but 107 pounds to the mile. The new was composed of the same number of
wires, but weighed 300 pounds to the mile. It was made of the finest
copper obtainable.

To secure insulation, this conductor was first embedded in Chatterton's
compound, a preparation impervious to water, and then covered with four
layers of gutta-percha, which were laid on alternately with four thin
layers of Chatterton's compound. The old cable had but three coatings of
gutta-percha, with nothing between. Its entire insulation weighed but
261 pounds to the mile, while that of the new weighed 400 pounds.[1] The
exterior wires, ten in number, were of Bessemer steel, each separately
wound in pitch-soaked hemp yarn, the shore ends specially protected by
thirty-six wires girdling the whole. Here was a combination of the
tenacity of steel with much of the flexibility of rope. The insulation
of the copper was so excellent as to exceed by a hundredfold that of the
core of 1858--which, faulty though it was, had, nevertheless, sufficed
for signals. So much inconvenience and risk had been encountered in
dividing the task of cable-laying between two ships that this time it
was decided to charter a single vessel, the _Great Eastern_, which,
fortunately, was large enough to accommodate the cable in an unbroken
length. Foilhommerum Bay, about six miles from Valentia, was selected as
the new Irish terminus by the company. Although the most anxious care
was exercised in every detail, yet, when 1,186 miles had been laid, the
cable parted in 11,000 feet of water, and although thrice it was
grappled and brought toward the surface, thrice it slipped off the
grappling hooks and escaped to the ocean floor. Mr. Field was obliged to
return to England and face as best he might the men whose capital lay at
the bottom of the sea--perchance as worthless as so much Atlantic ooze.
With heroic persistence he argued that all difficulties would yield to a
renewed attack. There must be redoubled precautions and vigilance never
for a moment relaxed. Everything that deep-sea telegraphy has since
accomplished was at that moment daylight clear to his prophetic view.
Never has there been a more signal example of the power of enthusiasm to
stir cold-blooded men of business; never has there been a more striking
illustration