MR. J. M. BATCHELDER, PLACERVILLE, CAL., February 24, 1854. DEAR SIR,-I am perfectly satisfied with the insulators; they fully answer my expectations, and are in fact the best I ever saw. If any country in the world will test the qualities of an iusulator, it is this, where we have incessant rain for a week at a time, and often the wind blowing a perfect hurricane. During the worst rains that we have had this winter, the line has worked as perfectly as in the dryest weather; in fact, we can perceive no difference between wet weather and dry in the working of the line. We use fourteen cups Grove's battery, seven at each end-distance one hundred and fifteen miles. Your obedient servant, J. E. STRONG, Supt. Alta California Telegraph Co. MR. J. M. BATCHELDER, BOSTON, March 15, 1854. DEAR SIR,-I believe protean rubber to be the very best substance known for insulating either air or subterranean telegraph lines. Yours, very truly, MOSES G. FARMER, Supt. Telegrayhic Fire Alarms. TO OUR PATRONS. IN consequence of a sudden attack of fever, we have no opportunity of presenting, in the present number, the many editorials which we had expected. We leave by the first steamer for Europe, and will return some time during the summer. SHAFFNER'S TELEGRAPH COMPANION, DEVOTED TO THE SCIENCE AND ART OF THE MORSE AMERICAN TELEGRAPH. VOL. II. OCTOBER, 1855. No. 4. Art. I.-SUBMARINE TELEGRAPHS OF THE WORLD. We do not propose to decide who were the first to successfully accomplish the practical operation of submarine telegraphs. The originality is claimed both in America and Europe. In America, the submarine wires have been No. 10 iron, covered with three coatings of gutta-percha, and calculated to resist a force equal to at least 1300 pounds. These gutta-percha insulated wires have nearly entirely superseded masts in the crossing of rivers, notwithstanding the difficulties encountered in sustaining them. The inland rivers of America are so powerful in currents, that the strongest cable capable of being laid, will, sooner or later, yield, and become lost forever in the sand at the bottom of the restless stream. For several years we served as President of a telegraph line, having the most extensive river crossings in America, and we well studied the scientific and mechanical difficulties. Owing to the navigation of the rivers by vessels, the wires had to be elevated very high, or submerged in the water. The annexed cuts represent the mode of crossing with masts. The spars were made of cypress, and the guys were of inch, three quarter, and half inch iron rods. The elevation of the wire, on the highest, was 307 feet, being, we suppose, the highest "pole ever erected. They were constructed with much skill and These masts were erected on the Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee, and Cumberland rivers. A few weeks after their construction, those on the Mississippi were carried away by a tornado, and parts of them were found seven miles distant. Houses, trees, (four and five feet in diameter at base,) were also levelled to the earth. Soon after, those on the Ohio yielded to similar disasters. Had the masts been of wrought |