2-979-605 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Machines covering with Gutta Percha the Atlantic Cable Wire, at the Gutta Percha Company's Works, Wharf-Road, [London], 1857. 'The core is composed of seven copper wires...wound spirally together so as to form a strand or cord; the object of this arrangement, instead of a single wire of the same sectional area, being to provide against the possibility of any break of continuity taking place in the metal. This strand...is covered with three layers of the purest gutta percha, separately applied, in the manner usual with telegraphic wire. The core thus formed by the treble covering of gutta percha...is three-eighths of an inch in diameter...the advantage thereby gained in the integrity of insulation is of the highest importance. The core of this gigantic cable (2500 miles in length) is now in the course of manufacture, under the superintendence of Mr. Samuel Statham...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1857.