BEAUDOUIN, Physicist—An interesting letter, A.S., 2 pp., in- - Lot 631

BEAUDOUIN, Physicist—An interesting letter, A.S., 2 pp., in-8°, regarding transatlantic undersea cables—Paris, July 13, 1858: “... I am convinced that we are on the wrong track regarding submarine cables; and that there is no need to expend so much ingenuity and expense in devising machines that can only imperfectly overcome difficulties that would be better prevented than remedied. I believe that by laying, as I propose, a tube of hemp rope alongside the cable—which would lighten and strengthen it—we could submerge what remains of the transatlantic cable at only a slight additional cost. But go ahead, especially as a Frenchman, and try to prove to the English that they were wrong...”