The Sun.
London, England, 1865-08-19 00:00:00

The Great Eastern.

The following extract from an article in Newton's
London Journal of Arts and Sciences may be found
of interest at the present moment :
Having had an opportunity of inspecting the Great
Eastern just before she sailed, and also the ship Caroline,
which carried the shore end of the cable, we may, per-
haps, be able to give an idea of the arrangements that
have been adopted for packing the cable, and for facili-
tating the delicate operation of paying out. This has
heretofore proved a very difficult, not to say dangerous,
operation, by reason of the tendency which the cable
possesses of running into " kinks" when uncoiling—that
is, of taking a permanent twist, which dislocates the in-
ternal arrangement of the cable, forcing the copper wire,
which forms the core, into contact with the metallic coat-
ing that is laid around the insulating material to give
strength and durability to the cable. Whenever this ac-
cident occurs the paying out has to be stopped and the
kink cut out ; the ends of the copper wire are then
carefully spliced to restore the electrical condition of the
cable, and proper precautions are taken to strengthen the
junction. To form kinks, it will be understood, is there-
fore a serious matter, and too much care cannot be
taken to avoid them. At an early period of submarine
telegraphy, Mr. R. S. Newall, of Gateshead, being prac-
tically acquainted with the risks attendant on the paying-
out of telegraph cables from the hold of a ship, hit upon a
very simple-way of facilitating their delivery,and in May,
1855, he patented his plan. It consists simply in building
'up a cylinder in the hold of the intended ship to receive
the coil of cable, and fixings. cone in the centre of the cylin-
der. This cone forms a core for the cable, which is care-
fully coiled around it in horizontal layers, beginning from
the outside next the cylinder, and coiling towards the
cone. When 'the cable reaches the cone, the " bight " of
the cable is taken back to the outside of the coil, and a fresh
layer is commenced. Tho cylinder and cone form a secure
packing for the coil of cable, which, if once displaced by
the tossing of a rough sea, would have to be taken to port,
unshipped, and recoiled, before the paying out could be
commenced. Now, in the Caroline, the cable, which was
made very strong, to resist the abrasion of the rocks was
laid in the form of a long oblong coil, supported on the out-
side by strong uprights, and secured at the eye or middle
of the coil by a strong timber framing, so contrived as to
offer no points of obstruction to the delivery of the cable as
it is drawn up out of the hold. In the Great Eastern, how-
ever, a somewhat different arrangement has been adopted.
Instead of the strong uprights which supported the exterior
of the coil in the Caroline, the great ship has been fitted with
three enormous water tight iron tanks, into which the cable
has been coiled after Mr. Newall's manner. The cable ap-
pears to have been coiled into the three tanks around a
temporary core, which was then removed to give place
to a telescopic arrangement of skeleton framework, de-
signed by Messrs. Canning and Clifford, the engineers
engaged In the important work of paying out the cable.
These telescopic frames fill the eye of the coil, and pre-
vent any portion of the cable falling into the eye of the
coil and getting entangled during the paying out. Wind-
lass barrels are placed at the bottom of the framework,
and leading down to them through guide pulleys are wire
ropes attached to the several sliding or telescopic frames,
apparently with the view of drawing down these frames
one within the other, as the depth of the coil decreases,
"thus forming," as it has been described, "a sinking corn
around which the ascending cable might run." This was
precisely the arrangement which a jury determined, in the
case of Newall v. Elliott, in February, 1864, was an in-
fringement of Mr. Newall's patent, but which, from being
applied at sea beyond the jurisdiction of his patent, was
ultimately declared to be no invasion of the inventor's
rights. Without going so far as to say that this adapta-
tion of Mr. Newall's principle will not answer as well as
the fixed cone, we may confidently affirm that it is in no
respect better, On the contrary, it involves more trouble
and expense in coiling and packing the cable, and being
but at best a skeleton core, it renders it possible for a loose
piece of timber falling within the eye to obstruct the as-
cending line of cable, and produce a "fault" of some kind
that will necessitate the stoppage of the operation of pay-
ing-out to make good the injury. In a national undertak-
ing like the laying of the Atlantic telegraph cable, it was
highly important that every precaution should have been
taken to secure success, even though the managing director
of the company had been reduced to'the mortifying posi-
tion of acknowledging merit in the invention of a rival
manufacturer. Had a reasonable propositien been uwle by
the company for the use of Mr. Nowall's apparatus, wo have
no doubt it would have been heartily received ; or if the
determination had been adopted to brave the consequences
of a lawsuit, and avowedly to invade the patent, the
public would have had nothing to say to that course ; but
to jeopardise, to ever so small an extent, a national
undertaking, by omitting to use the best known form of
apparatus for laying down the submarine telegraph cable,
for fear of consequences independent of the enterprise in
hand, is altogether indefensible. Besides the outer cylinder
and cone which Mr. Newall employs to form an annular
space for the reception of the coil, he uses suspended rings
for guiding the cable upwards out of the hold to the brake
apparatus, which delivers the cable over the stern of the
ship into the sea. No guides of this kind were fixed in
either vessel at the time of our visit, but since she sailed
the Great Eastern has evidently been provided with a con-
trivance of that kind, for the Times' correspondent, in his
communication, dated July 24th, says:—" The circular
guards, called crinolines, to be suspended over the cable
tanks, and through the centre of which the cable will be
payed out, have been fixed." If, therefore, the laying of
the cable should prove no mere evanescent success, Mr.
Newell must share in the credit which will rightly, belong
to those whose united exertions shall have resulted in "a
consummation devoutly to be wished."