Samuel Finlay Breese Morse to Faraday   30 September 1854¹

New York, United States. | Pokeepsie, Septr. 30th 1854

Sir,

I have had the gratification of making the acquaintance of C.D. Archibald², Esq F.R.S. who has visited this country on business in connection with the great and important project of uniting Europe and America by a submarine Telegraph, a project which has occupied my mind with much interest since the year 1842.

In the Prospectus of the British company formed for carrying out this project, I perceive with the highest gratification among the illustrious names who are giving it their countenance, your own illustrious name as Electrician of the company³. In the Company which had been previously formed on this side of the water for the same purpose, I have had the honor to be elected to a similar office. The negotiations for a Union of the cis-Atlantic and trans-Atlantic companies, conducted through Mr. Archibald’s agency on the part of the latter, and the Board of Directors in New York on the part of the former have resulted successfully and in view, therefore, of these relations I take the liberty of addressing you on the subject of the feasibility of a submarine communication across the Atlantic.

In the autumn of 1842 I laid down probably the first Submarine Telegraph line, ever laid, in the harbor of New York, connecting Governor’s Island, with Castle garden at the Battery, a distance of about one mile. The wire conductor was of copper No. 18 wound with cotton twine, passed through a shellac varnish, and then through a resinous compound of tar and asphaltum. Although this line was destroyed in the midst of my experiments by being accidentally drawn up the anchor of a vessel and cut off, it was not until I had passed communications through it from station to station. I had previously experimented on 33 miles of wire, (insulated in the same manner, and wound on reels,) for the purpose of ascertaining the number of pairs of plates in the Galvanic battery, which might be necessary to the successful working of my Telegraph on long distances, and in the autumn of (1843) eighteen hundred & forty three, having at my command 160 miles of wire thus insulated, I repeated the experiments confirming the inferences I had drawn from them, to wit; that in the application of the Battery to the Telegraph “while the distance increased in an Arithmetical ratio, an addition to the series of Galvanic pairs of plates increased the magnetic power in a geometric ratio.” Hence I felt assured that the voltaic current could be propelled with effective power to any distance, unless some new & unperceived obstacle growing out of a varied condition of the several parts should arise to prevent this result.

In my report to the Secretary of the Treasury of the results of these experiments on 33 miles of conductors, and dated August 10th 1843, I perceived their bearing on a suboceanic Telegraph, and thus alluded to it to the Secretary; “The practical inference from this law is that a telegraphic communication on my plan, may with certainty be established across the Atlantic! Startling as this may now seem, the time will come when this project will be realized.”

That time thus predicted eleven years since, seems now to be near, and the project seriously undertaken. It is, nevertheless, due to the distinguished personages and gentlemen on both sides of the Atlantic who have lent their names and their means to the enterprize, that every part of the process should be carefully reviewed and a plan of operation proposed that shall be cautious as well as energetic, and economical as well as ample for insuring the success of the work.

The experiments to which I have alluded as made in 1842 were the basis of the battery adaptation to my Telegraph from its first establishment. There are some 40,000 miles of Telegraphic conductors in this country. As yet the longest connected line is in length two thousand & fifty nine miles, (2059) from New York to New Orleans. This line from its being erected through dense forests and marshes at the extreme South has never been in a condition in which I could test an all important experiment bearing directly upon the practicability of transmitting an available current from two electro-motors, one at each extremity of the circuit. To test this point satisfactorily, whether the current may thus be transmitted effectively a distance of 2000 miles throug[h] a metal conductor, so that the possibility of a submarine Ocean Conductor from Newfoundland to Ireland may be pronounced a fact, all the relay magnets on such a line as well as the intermediate batteries should be removed, & the line connected in one continuous circuit of the same conducting capacity throughout. This I have never been able to try to the extent necessary to pronounce upon the result, owing to the fact that this line has hitherto not been reliable throughout the whole distance, at any one time. I am about, to try, however, a similar experiment on the New York, Albany, and Buffalo Telegraph line, a distance of 506 miles but having five wires throughout the whole distance, so that I can try distances of 506, 1012, 1518, 2024, and 2530 miles at pleasure.

This line I am in expectation of seeing in such a condition in the coming month of October that I may be able soon to give you my results.

In the meantime please inform me if in your profounder and more extended researches in Electricity you have any reason to doubt the practicability of transmitting a current of galvanic electricity through such a length and whether you apprehend any new conditions in a submerged wire well insulated, that would be likely to interfere with, and obstruct the process.

This point I conceive is the most important to be settled, of all the apprehended difficulties of a submarine Telegraph across the Ocean. This point once determined favorably, the other parts of the enterprize range themselves under the head of simple engineering. British and American seamen will speedily do the rest, for all that will remain, will depend on the skill with which a perfect and indestructible well insulated wire cable, is deposited uninjured in its Ocean bed.

A question, indeed, arises which has been the subject of some speculation with me, to wit; Whether there is not a new condition of things in the fact of so deep a submersion in the Ocean, that may develope some new and unlooked for influence and impediment in the condition of electricity in a conductor of such length. If I have been rightly informed, there has been noticed in Europe some difference in the character of the conduction in wires above ground and beneath the ground⁴. As we have no subterranean wires in this country I am unable to verify these rumors by experiment. I have been informed that in subterranean wires extended more that 300 miles the current when continued in a closed circuit for a second of time does not cease at the moment of opening the circuit with that promptness with which it does in conductors above ground, so that the current lingers, as in the case of the magnetism of the Electro magnet when the helices of the magnet are of great size, and requires an appreciable time to be discharged.

Have you met with any facts on this subject corroborative of the rumors reported to me?

But taking for granted a successful result of the experiment on the propulsion of a current to the required distance that is to say from Newfoundland to Ireland, I have proposed that the cable conductor be constructed in the following manner, to wit;

The conducting wires of the circuit I propose to be of the purest copper, each not less than one eighth (1/8th) of an inch in sectional diameter.

Each wire to be insulated to the thickness also of one eighth of an inch with gutta percha. If it should be decided by the company that in the first instance a single conductor shall be laid down, then as in Fig. 1. of the enclosed sheet of diagrams, representing a section of the cable, a thin tube of lead about one sixteenth of an inch (1/16th) in thickness is drawn over the wire conductor and its gutta percha covering, and then a series of strands of common iron wire and of hempen cord, or rope yarn of the same size, say four or five of the former, and the rest of the latter, are to be laid parallell with the interior conducting wire, on the exterior of the tube (Fig. 6.) and these are to be confined in place by two spiral cords wound in contrary directions and crossing each other around the cable at intervals say of nine or twelve inches.

If it is thought best to lay down, in the first instance, more than one conductor in the same package or fascis, then the number chosen may be three as in Fig. 3. or seven as in Fig. 2 these being the numbers most economically packed in a tube to form the fascis of conductors. Six wires as in Fig. 5, and four wires as in Fig. 4 do not pack in a tube economically.

On the propriety of such a mode of forming the cable I reason thus;

Supposing that more than one wire is adopted, the increased expense of preparing seven wires, over a less number is scarcely worthy of mention, when it is considered that the other expenses attending the enterprize, such as chartering of ships, laying out the cable &c. would be incurred nearly if not quite as largely for a smaller number of wires as for a larger number, especially too when, as an offset, a provision for an increased Telegraphic correspondence is thus made. I, therefore, propose the number seven as most convenient and economical for packing in a tube.

I propose the leaden tube for the sole purpose of protecting the gutta percha insulation from the action of sea water. This substance being of recent introduction in the arts has as yet not had its qualities for resisting, for a period of years, the action of salt water sufficiently tested, to warrant an unqualified recommendation of it without this outer protection of lead. Lead if I am rightly informed is not corroded beneath the salt water. On this point, however, I ask your opinion from your superior knowledge. But the thickness of the tube proposed is very small so small that without extensive aid it probably could not, in a length of only a few hundred feet, sustain its own weight. This feebleness of tenacity I compensate by the exterior series of strands of wire and hempen cord, and these are laid parallell to the interior conducting wire, in order to have the advantage of the full strength of the iron wires interspersed with the hempen cord. I depend on the leaden tube not for strength but only for protection of the insulation. I depend on the exterior series of strands of iron wire only for such strength to the cable as will fit it for being paid out without injury to the protecting tube, or interior conductor. The number of iron wires interspersed with the cord may of course be varied to suit the calculated weight of three or four miles of the cable suspended at a time in its reach from the ship to its Ocean bed. I propose hempen cord to fill the space between the iron wires to keep them in place as a cheap contrivance for that purpose, and I consider the whole exterior covering of the leaden tube doomed speedily to perish by the action of sea water, having performed its whole duty in simply imparting strength sufficient to lay the cable in its place.

In regard to the cable previous to its being laid down, and while in various stages of preparation, it will furnish opportunity to test step by step its fitness for the office it is to perform.

In view of the final deposite of the cable in its place, there are certain other points of importance to be determined. Such for example as the protection necessary for it near the shores in anchorage ground from the anchors of vessels and in deeper but still shallow water, from the icebergs in their spring visits from the Arctic Ocean. I have had my thoughts upon this part of the subject, but will wait a future opportunity to give the result of these thoughts, on the mode of avoiding the evils which might result from these and other disturbing causes.

In the month of July I took the liberty of sending to your address by my son in law Mr. Lind⁵ and family who are now in Europe, two pamphlets containing some information respecting the Telegraph, which I hope you have received[.]

Accept Sir the assurance of | my sincere & profound respect | Your Obedient Servant | Sam. F.B. Morse

To Sir Michael Faraday, | F.R.S. &c &c | London.