EXPERIENCE, INVESTIGATION, AND PROGRESS The Red Sea Line--Government Inquiry--Electrical Standards and Units--Further Cables--Improvements in Manufacture, Testing, and Working--Completion of Pioneer Stage. _The Red Sea Line._--Mr. Lionel Gisborne had obtained powers from the Turkish Government to carry a telegraph-line across Egypt and lay a cable down the Red Sea. The importance of this line to Great Britain led the Government to give definite assistance. The first portion of the proposed cable--from Suez to Aden, with intermediate landings--was laid in 1859. The different sections broke down one by one. They were all laid very taut, the slack in some cases being less than one per cent, though the bottom was in certain parts very uneven. The second portion of the line, from Aden to Kurrachee, with intermediate stations, was laid during 1860, the slack working out at 0.1 per cent only. Faults developed very quickly in all the sections of both portions of the line. Apart from the small allowance for slack, the type of cable adopted was of far too fragile a nature for some of its rough, reef-like resting-spots; indeed, the undertaking was spoken of as "like running a donkey for the Leger"! The promoters of this enterprise, having neither specially qualified men nor the necessary materials for carrying out repairs, were obliged to abandon it before any commercial work had been effected. This was a most unfortunate line in every way, for a complete message was never got through the entire length, but only through each section separately. Nevertheless, until quite recently, it cost Great Britain £36,000 per annum.