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378
The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph
·
Henry M. Field
266
These
experiments
were
fast
using
up
the
wire
rope,
and
every
expedient
had
to
be
resorted
to,
to
piece
it
out
and
to
give
it
strength.
Each
shackle
and
swivel
was
replaced
by
new
bolts,
and
the
capstan
was
increased
four
feet
in
diameter,
by
being
belted
with
enormous
plates
of
iron,
to
wind
the
rope
around
it,
if
the
picking-up
machinery
should
fail.
This
gave
full
work
to
all
the
mechanics
on
board.
The
ship
was
turned
into
a
very
cave
of
Vulcan,
presenting
at
night
a
scene
which
might
well
take
the
eye
of
an
artist,
and
which
Russell
thus
describes:
"The
forge
fires
glared
on
her
decks,
and
there,
out
in
the
midst
of
the
Atlantic,
anvils
rang
and
sparks
flew;
and
the
spectator
thought
of
some
village
far
away,
where
the
blacksmith
worked,
unvexed
by
cable
anxieties
and
greed
of
speedy
news.
As
the
blaze
shot
up,
ruddy,
mellow
and
strong,
and
flung
arms
of
light
aloft
and
along
the
glistening
decks,
and
then
died
into
a
red
centre,
masts,
spars,
and
ropes
were
for
the
instant
touched
with
a
golden
gleaming,
and
strange
figures
and
faces
were
called
out
from
the
darkness--vanished,
glinted
out
again--rushed
suddenly
into
foreground
of
bright
pictures,
which
faded
soon
away--flickered--went
out--as
they
were
called
to
life
by
its
warm
breath,
or
were
buried
in
the
outer
darkness!
Outside
all
was
obscurity,
but
now
and
then
vast
shadows,
which
moved
across
the
arc
of
the
lighted
fog-bank,
were
projected
far
away
by
the
flare;
and
one
might
well
pardon
the
passing
mariner,
whose
bark
drifted
him
in
the
night
across
the
track
of
the
great
ship,
if,
crossing
himself,
and
praying
with
shuddering
lips,
he
fancied
he
beheld
a
phantom
ship
freighted
with
an
evil
crew,
and
ever
after
told
how
he
had
seen
the
workshops
of
the
Inferno
floating
on
the
bosom
of
the
ocean."
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