The Battery and the Boiler: Adventures in Laying of Submarine Electric Cables

by R. M. Ballantyne

  CHAPTER FOUR.

  EXTRAORDINARY RESULT OF AN ATTEMPT AT AMATEUR CABLE-LAYING.

  Time continued to roll additional years off his reel, and rolled outRobin and Madge in length and breadth, though we cannot say much forthickness. Time also developed their minds, and Robin gradually beganto understand a little more of the nature of that subtle fluid--if wemay venture so to call it--under the influence of which he had beenborn.

  "Come, Madge," he said one day, throwing on his cap, "let us go and playat cables."

  Madge, ever ready to play at anything, put on her sun-bonnet andfollowed her ambitious leader.

  "Is it to be land-telegraphs to-day, or submarine cables?" inquiredMadge, with as much gravity and earnestness as if the world's welfaredepended on the decision.

  "Cables, of course," answered Robin, "why, Madge, I have done withland-telegraphs now. There's nothing more to learn about them. CousinSam has put me up to everything, you know. Besides, there's no mysteryabout land-lines. Why, you've only got to stick up a lot o' posts withinsulators screwed to 'em, fix wires to the insulators, clap on anelectric battery and a telegraph instrument, and fire away."

  "Robin, what _are_ insulators?" asked Madge, with a puzzled look.

  "Madge," replied Robin, with a self-satisfied expression on his pertface, "this is the three-hundred-thousandth time I have explained thatto you."

  "Explain it the three-hundred-thousand-and-first time, then, dear Robin,and perhaps I'll take it in."

  "Well," began Robin, with a hypocritical sigh of despair, "you must knowthat everything in nature is more or less a conductor of electricity,but some things conduct it so well--such as copper and iron--that theyare called _conductors_, and some things--such as glass andearthenware--conduct it so _very_ badly that they scarcely conduct it atall, and are called _non-conductors_. D'ee see?"

  "Oh yes, I see, Robin; so does a bat, but he doesn't see well. However,go on."

  "Well, if I were to run my wire through the posts that support it, myelectricity would escape down these posts into the earth, especially ifthe posts were wet with rain, for water is a good conductor, and MisterElectricity has an irresistible desire to bolt into the earth, like amole."

  "Naughty fellow!" murmured Madge.

  "But," continued Robin impressively, "if I fix little lumps of glasswith a hole in them to the posts, and fix my wires to these, Electricitycannot bolt, because the glass lumps are non-conductors, and won't lethim pass."

  "How good of them!" said Madge.

  "Yes, isn't it? So, you see," continued Robin, "the glass lumps areinsulators, for they cut the electricity off from the earth as an islandis, or, at all events, appears to be, cut off from it by water; andMister Electricity _must_ go along the wires and do what I tell him. Ofcourse, you know, I must make my electricity first in a battery, which,as I have often and often told you, is a trough containing a mixture ofacid and water, with plates or slices of zinc and copper in it, placedone after the other, but not touching each other. Now, if I fix a pieceof wire to my first copper slice or plate, and the other end of it to mylast zinc slice or plate, immediately electricity will begin to be made,and will fly from the copper to the zinc, and so round and round untilthe plates are worn out or the wire broken. D'ee see?"

  "No, Robin, I don't see; I'm blinder than the blindest mole."

  "Oh, Madge, what a wonderful mind you must have!" said Robin, laughing."It is _so_ simple."

  "Of course," said Madge, "I understand what you mean by troughs andplates and all that, but what I want to know is _why_ that arrangementis necessary. Why would it not do just as well to tempt electricity outof its hiding-hole with plates or slices of cheese and bread, placed oneafter the other in a trough filled with a mixture of glue and meltedbutter?"

  "What stuff you do talk, Madge! As well might you ask why it would notdo to make a plum-pudding out of nutmegs and coal-tar. There are somethings that no fellow can understand, and of course I don't know_everything_!"

  The astounding modesty of this latter remark seemed to have furnishedMadge with food for reflection, for she did not reply to it. After afew minutes' walk the amateur electricians reached the scene of theirintended game--a sequestered dell in a plantation, through which brawleda rather turbulent stream. At one part, where a willow overhung thewater, there was a deep broad pool. The stream entered the pool with aheadlong plunge, and issued from it with a riotous upheaval of waveletsand foam among jagged rocks, as if rejoicing in, and rather boastfulabout, the previous leap.

  The game was extremely simple. The pool was to be the German Ocean, anda piece of stout cord was to serve as a submarine cable.

  The boy and girl were well-matched playmates, for Madge was ignorant andreceptive--in reference to science,--Robin learned and communicative,while both were intensely earnest.

  "Now, this is the battery," said Robin, when he had dug a deep holeclose to the pool with a spade brought for the purpose.

  "Yes, and the muddy water in it will do for the mixture of acid andwater," said Madge.

  As she spoke, Robin's toe caught on a root, and he went headlong intothe battery, out of which he emerged scarcely recognisable. It was asevere, though not an electric, shock, and at first Robin seemedinclined to whimper, but his manhood triumphed, and he burst into acompound laugh and yell, to the intense relief of Madge, who thought atfirst that he had been seriously injured.

  "Never mind, Madge," said Robin, as he cleansed his muddy head; "cousinSam has often told me that nothing great was ever done except in theface of difficulties and dangers. I wonder whether this should becounted a difficulty or a danger?"

  "At first I thought it a danger," said Madge, with a laugh, "but thetrouble you now have with the mud in your hair looks like a difficulty,doesn't it?"

  "Why, then, it's both," cried Robin. "Come, that's a good beginning.Now, Madge, you get away round to the opposite side of the pool, andmind you don't slip in, it's rather steep there."

  "This is England," cried Robin, preparing to throw the line over to hisassistant, who stood eager to aid on the other side, "and you arestanding on--on--what's on the other side of the German Ocean?"

  "I'm not sure, Robin. Holland, I think, or Denmark."

  "Well, we'll say Denmark. Look-out now, and be ready to catch. I'mgoing to connect England and Denmark with a submarine cable."

  "Stay!" cried Madge, "is that the way submarine cables are laid, bythrowing them over the sea?"

  "N-no, not exactly. They had a steamboat, you know, to carry over thetelegraph from England to France; but we haven't got a steamer--not evena plank to make-believe one. Cousin Sam says that a good workman can dohis work with almost any tools that come to hand. As we have no toolsat all, we will improve on that and go to work without them. Now,catch!"

  Robin made a splendid heave--so splendid indeed that it caused him tostagger backward, and again he stumbled into his own _battery_! Thistime, however, only one leg was immersed.

  "Another danger!" shouted Madge in great glee, "but I've caught thecable."

  "All right. Now make fast the shore-end to a bush, and we'll commencetelegraphing. The first must be a message from the Queen to the King ofDenmark--Or is it the President?"

  "King, I think, Robin, but I'm not sure."

  "Well, it won't matter. But--I say--"

  "What's wrong now?"

  "Why, the cable won't sink. It is floating about on the top of thepool, and it can't be a submarine cable, you know, unless it sinks."

  "Another difficulty, Robin."

  "We will face and overcome it, Madge. Cast off the shore-end and I'llsoon settle that."

  Having fastened a number of small stones to the cable, this perseveringelectrician would certainly have overcome the difficulty if the line hadnot, when thrown, unfortunately caught on a branch of the willow, whereit hung suspended just out of Madge's reach.

  "How provoking!" she said, stretching out her hand to the utmost.

  "Ta
ke care--you'll--ha!"

  The warning came too late. The edge of the bank gave way, and Madgewent headlong into the pool with a wild shriek and a fearful plunge.

  Robin stood rooted to the spot--heart, breath, blood, brain, paralysedfor the moment--gazing at the spot where his playmate had disappeared.

  Another moment and her head and hands appeared. She struggled bravelyfor life, while the circling current carried her quickly to the lowerend of the pool.

  Robin's energies returned, as he afterwards said, like an electricshock, but accompanied with a terrible sinking of the heart, for he knewthat he could not swim! His education in this important particular hadbeen neglected. He sprang round to the lower end of the pool just intime to hold out his hand to the drowning girl. He almost touched heroutstretched hand as she swept towards the turbulent waters below, butfailed to grasp it.

  For the first time in his life our little hero was called on to facedeath voluntarily. Another moment and Madge would have been caught inthe boiling stream that rushed towards the fall below. He was equal tothe occasion. He sprang right upon Madge and caught her in his arms.There was no need to hold on to her. In the agony of fear the poorchild clasped the boy in a deadly embrace. They were whirled violentlyround and hurled against a rock. Robin caught it with one hand, but itwas instantly torn from his grasp. The waters overwhelmed them, andagain sent them violently towards the bank. This time Robin caught arock with both hands and held on. Slowly, while almost choked with thewater that splashed up into his face, he worked his right knee into acrevice, then made a wild grasp with the left hand at a higherprojection of the rock. At the same moment his left foot struck thebottom. Another effort and he was out of danger, but it was severalminutes ere he succeeded in dragging Madge from the hissing water of theshallows to the green sward above, and after this was accomplished hefound it almost impossible to tear himself from the grasp of the nowunconscious girl.

  At first poor Robin thought that his companion was dead, but by degreesconsciousness returned, and at last she was able to rise and walk.

  Drenched, dishevelled, and depressed, these unfortunate electriciansreturned home.

  Of course they were received with mingled joy and reproof. Of course,also, they were forbidden to go near the pool again--though thisprohibition was afterwards removed, and our hero ultimately became afirst-rate swimmer and diver.

  Thus was frustrated the laying of the first submarine cable betweenEngland and Denmark!