Brooks patents sold to Western Union for underground telegraph

Subterranean Telegraphy

The dispatcher announces a new system of telegraph wires, the patents for which have just been purchased by the Western Union telegraph. It has long been a favorite theory with many that underground lines would ultimately take the place of aerial lines, but heretofore the actual practice has been far from satisfactory. The expense was too great; the difficulty experienced in finding faults in the buried wires and making repairs, and the obstacles in the way of perfect insulation, were serious barriers to the successful introduction of subterranean telegraphy. But of late years the German government has laid many miles of underground wires, and has so far perfected the system as to demonstrate its practibility [sic] practicality. But that which is quite practical in the densely populated countries of Europe, is not necessarily feasible in the United States, with its great area of territory and other topographical difficulties. The question of laying wires underground has attracted considerable attention in the large cities where the multiplication of telegraph and telephone wires has made it a matter of serious public consideration. The announcement, therefore, that reaches us from Philadelphia of the purchase of the Brooks patents by the Western Union company, would indicate that the system now announced has the necessary elements of utility for the country covered by the Western Union wires, else that corporation would hardly have paid, as alleged, the sum of $300,000 for the control of the patents. Mr. David Brooks is a practical electrician, the inventor of the Brooks insulator and other useful electrical material and telegraph apparatus. For years Mr. Brooks had entertained the belief that a system of underground telegraphy could be devised which would be far superior to point of economy and convenience to the "overhead" system. The object was to find something which, placed in the iron pipe containing the wires, would prove impenetrable to the dampness and moisture. Mr. Brooks began to experiment with oils. The telegraph system he had in view was simply a number of small wires - twenty, thirty, forty or fifty - a little thicker that pins, all bundled together with cotton binding, and each one a separate medium of communication. The greatest number of wires he contemplated putting together in this style was fifty, to contain which he had iron pipes made one inch and a quarter in diameter. The wires, each one bound in its own cotton and all huddled together in a tight netting, were thrust into the pipe rope-fashion. After the pipe was laid, oil was introduced into it at one end and allowed to run the entire length, the source of supply being an elevated vessel, always kept full, so as to keep a constant pressure on the oil already in the pipe. The first experiment with this plan was made in West Philadelphia about two years ago, the line being about one mile long. Few telegraph men then believed the plan practical, but the experiments demonstrate that so far from being only a temporary success, it has improved with time, so that after two years its insulation is said to have increased about eighty fold. The next experiment made was at the instance and expense of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore railroad company. A line was laid across the Schuylkill in September, 1877, in thirty-five feet of water. It has been in operation ever since, and, like the other, its insulation has increased instead of depreciating. Other tests have been made equally satisfactory, the result of which is that the system has been adopted by the Western Union company, and is to be put to practical use at once. A line of pipe inclosing fifty copper wires is to be laid between New York and Philadelphia this summer, and will doubtless be rapidly extended to other large commercial centers and the national capital. Doubtless the system will also come into use for telephonic purposes. The multiplication of wires between cities will enable business men to use the telephone for business purposes between different cities, and thus greatly enhance the value of that unique invention - Burlington Hawk-Eye.