Press enter after choosing selection

Cyrus W. Field On The Pacific Cable

Cyrus W. Field On The Pacific Cable image
Parent Issue
Day
3
Month
July
Year
1874
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Mr. Field said : "All the capitalists with whom I have conversed in regard te the Pacific cable are much in favor of the project and seem well aware of the great benefits it wiil entail on this city and country when completed. When the time comes for the moneyed men of California to pay their money and assist in forming a company, they will come to the front with all their tnight and with that generosity for which they are famous. Nothing will be done, however, in the matter, as I have already told you, until the soundings are finished. When I know the depth of the water along the entire route, and have calculated the kind of cable to be used, and the cost, I shall be ready to begin. Then I shall draw up a subscription paper, head it with my own name, and I do not think it will take long to form a company." " Where will the members of a company be found V" " It will be composed of capitaliats of London, New York and San Francisco." " Can you give me sn approximate esimate of the cost of the cable from what you already know of the soundings, and ,he character of the bottom 'r" " I think the entire cost not likely to exceed 120,000,000, and I have little doubt it would do a paying business in two years. Thfi first Atlantic cable belfan with thirty messages a day, for which $5 a word was charged and not ess than 100 words could be sent. Now, any number of words oan be sent for $1.20 each, and 700 messages pass over the various oables daily." " What are some of the prices now paid 'or messages by the ocean cables ?" " It now costs f 42 to send a message 'rom here to Hong Kong, and about $54 rom here to Yokohama. By Pacific cable it would not cost more than half as mioh. Dispatches from London to Yocohama could be sent by the Pacific cable ust about as cheap as they are sent at resent by the old lines, and in much less ime. So we should compete for the Asiatic business of London with the dif'erence of time in our favor, and should mdoubtedly get all the business of New York." " Is there mach variation in the size of yonr Atlantic cablea?" " Not much. They are very large at the shore end - soma three inches in diameter - for twenty or thirty miles from the starting-point. Then they decrease in size, and are of uniform width the rest of the way. I don't suppose there need be much difference in the Paciflö cable in these respects. As to the bottom, it is of light consequence, so it is not precipitous. Hills of smooth and easy slope, liko the foot-hills, we should care nothing about ; but precipices at the bottom of the sea, two or three thousand feet high, like those of the Yoseinite, would be very dangerous to the cable."

Article

Subjects
Old News
Michigan Argus