Thus in 1869 France was put into direct telegraphic communication with America by means of a cable from Brest to the island of St. Pierre, and another from St. Pierre to Sydney, U.S.A.[70] The former length was manufactured by the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company, and the latter by Mr. W. T. Henley. The Telegraph Construction Company were the contractors for laying the whole cable on behalf of the French Atlantic Cable Company (Société du Câble Trans-Atlantique Français).[71] This work was successfully accomplished from the Great Eastern (Captain Robert Halpin) by the same staff as had laid the 1866 cable. Owing to the route, this line was materially longer than the previous Atlantic cables, its length (from Brest to St. Pierre) being as much as 2,685 nautical miles. The working-speed attained on the French Atlantic cable was ten and a half words per minute. The conductor of the Brest-St. Pierre section was composed of seven copper wires stranded together, weighing 400 pounds per nautical mile, covered with a gutta-percha insulator of the same weight. The core of the St. Pierre-Sydney section was made up as follows: Copper = 107 pounds per nautical mile; gutta-percha = 150 pounds per nautical mile. Like the previous lines, this cable has been "down," electrically speaking, for some years. It proved a very costly one in repairs, one expedition alone having run into as much as £95,000. In 1873 the Direct United States Cable Company was formed, being the first competitor--from this country--with the "Anglo-American" Company.[72] Messrs. Siemens Brothers, who had taken an active part in the promotion of the scheme, were the contractors, both for manufacture and for submersion. It was, indeed, the first really important length with which this firm had been concerned as manufacturers. The laying was attended with complete success, and the line opened to the public in 1875. Later on, in 1877, the "Direct United States" Company was reconstructed, their system entering into the "pool" or "joint purse." The latter was established shortly after the 1869 Atlantic cable had been laid, constituting one great financial combination. In 1879 another French company was formed to establish independent communication between France and the rest of the European Continent on the one hand, and the United States of America on the other. The, to English ears and lips, somewhat cumbersome title of this concern was La Compagnie Française du Télégraphe de Paris à New York, but it soon became styled in England the "P. Q. Company," after M. Pouyer-Quertier, its presiding genius. The cable was made and laid in the same year by Messrs. Siemens Brothers, though the scheme had taken three years to reach contract point. The "P. Q." Company in 1894 amalgamated with La Société Française des Télégraphes Sous-marins, under the title of La Compagnie Française des Câbles Télégraphiques.