_Further Cables._--About this time a number of other cable enterprises were set afoot, some in shallow water and others in comparatively great depths. Though few of them were able to benefit by the information obtained in the inquiry, they were, in the main, more or less successful. These projects included cables between Malta and Alexandria, besides others in the Mediterranean and elsewhere. Sir Charles Bright, Mr. (afterward Sir C. W.) Siemens, Mr. Lionel Gisborne, and Mr. H. C. Forde were mainly associated with them as engineers and electricians. The line which met, however, with the most complete and lasting success was the first cable to India, laid (by Sir Charles Bright) in several sections along the Persian Gulf in 1863-'64. In this undertaking Messrs. Bright & Clark (engineers to the Government) introduced a complete system of electrical and mechanical testing. Every joint was, for the first time, efficiently tested, and the insulated core submitted to a hydraulic pressure representative of that which it would experience when laid.[55] A formula was also arrived at by an elaborate series of experiments for the effect of temperature on the insulation, which showed how enormously the resistance of gutta-percha increased by consolidation when submitted to the low temperatures of the bottom of the ocean. Chatterton's compound had been already introduced for adhering the gutta-percha envelope to the wires, as well as for cementing together the different insulating coats; but Bright & Clark's preservative composition for the iron armor was first used in this enterprise. This mixture not only evades the oxidation that iron wires, even when galvanized, are subject to, but resists the attacks of the teredo and other objectionable animal life. Moreover, besides the type of cable being eminently suitable, the manufacture was carried out with extreme care and with all the advantage of experience and improved methods.[56] _Completion of Pioneer Stage._--With the successful termination of the above enterprise, forming the first telegraphic connection between the United Kingdom, Europe, and India, the science of constructing and laying submarine telegraphs was pretty definitely worked out, and no very striking departure has since been introduced. The pioneer stage may, indeed, at this juncture, be said to have reached completion. For this reason the rest of our narrative on the Atlantic cable will be told more briefly--though at greater length than the contents of this chapter, recounting only the stepping-stones to what was to follow. PART IV COMMERCIAL SUCCESS CHAPTER XIV THE 1865 CABLE AND EXPEDITION Fresh Efforts and Funds--The Contractors' Share--Design and Construction--Provisions for Laying--S.S. Great Eastern--Sailing Staff--Landing the Irish End--Another Bad Start. _Fresh Efforts and Funds._--Though their cable had ceased to work, the Atlantic Telegraph Company was kept alive by the promoters.