Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1858-05-20

From ths Londcn Hm1-]
New Payfne-Out Machinery of the
Atlantic Telegraph.
4 Our readers viii recollect that few weeks
1 since we mentioned that the plan of the new
| paying-out machine to be used in the next
attempt to submerge this gigantic cable was
| in. course of construction at the works of
Messrs Easton Amos, Southwark, and likely
| soon to be brought to a successful completion
We are glad TO say that it has now been per-
fectly finished, and during the last day or
two has been in full operation, and fitted
with short length of coil to illustrate prac
tcally Its mode of working, the facilities
which it affords for paying out the rope and
| the simple but efficient manner in which the
| jerk on the wire, caused by the sudden rise of
| the vessel on heavy sea, is almost entirely
| obyiated.
| Ordinarily in matters of this kind it is
useless attempting to convey to the general
| reader by mere verbal description an accu-
rate impression of the principle of machine
by describing in teehnicalities its many and
complex fittings. In this instance, however
the main feature. and upon which all else in
a paying-out machine entirely dependable
"break"-is pretty generally known, and
the other portions of the apparatus are of
simple character scarcely to need more
that mentioning. The whole of the impor-
tant part of the machine, then, may be said
to consist OF Appold's selfregulating brake,
which is so adjusted and so constructed as
always to exert certain amount of resist
ance (Which can be regulated) by the revolu-
ton of the wheels 10 which it is applied.
More than this fixed amount of resistance,
whatever it may be, it cannot produce, no
matter whether the machine is hot or dry, or
covered with sand, and neither can it be
worked at less than this amount no matter
to what extent all the friction surface of the
wooden brake itself may be oiled. This we'll
known brake was first exhibited in the Great
Exhibition of 1851 in the new labor machine
constructed for prisons, in order to insure a
certain amount of work from each convict.
For this hard labor purpose the brake is still
extensively employed. 1t is made of bars of
wood laid lengthways across the edge of the
wheel, over which it LAYS down firmly, and
to which it is held with massive weights fixed
to the ends of levers. 1t is the number and
size of these weights which regulate Re ;iseiy
the degree of resistance to the revolutions of
the wheel, and which, of course, enable those
in charge of the machine to fix the pressure
of the brake at what they please, and when
once so fixed nothing can alter ii. In the
present payiDg-out machine this brake is at
tached over two drums connected with the
two main groved wheels round which the
actual cable passes i'll running out. These
latter are simply broad, solid, iron wheels,
each cut with four deep grooves, in which the
cable rests, to prevent it flying up or cover
riding 1t passes over these two main
wheels, not in double figure of eight, as in
the old ponderous machine of four wheels,
but simply round over one, on to and round
the other, and so on four times, till it is
finally paid dawn into the water. Thus,
then, the wire will be wound up from the
hold of the vessel, pass four times over the
double main wheels, which, as we have said,
oal tod 4bsaI 10 or fria
drums pass the register which indicates its
rate of paying out and strain upon the cable,
and then at once into the deep. The strain
at which the cable breaks is 62 cwt., and to
guard against any chance of mishap not more
than half this strain will ever be put upon 1t.
The brakes, as rule, will be fixed to give
a strain of about 16 cwt., and the force re-
quired to keep the machine going, or about
cwt more is the utmost that will be allowed
to come upon the wire Thus, therefore, the
force required to sever the cable can never be
exerted even by accident or mishap, no matter
who may be in charge of the machine nor
how much the vessel may pitch and roll. The
brake of the paying-out machine used on the
occasion of the last attempt was capable, by
a movement of the hand, of exerting the most
prodgious resistance to the turning OF the
wheels, and this formidable invention was
used with so little care, that not until the in
Jury was irreparable was the danger seen.
The chief beauty, however, of the new ma
chine is that, while nothing can add to the
fixed strain of the brakes, any one, no matter
who can, in a moment, ease them as much as
he thinks necessary, and until, in fact, there
is no resistance at all beyond the Scwt. strain
on the wire, which. as we have said, IS re-
quired to keep the machine turning. so sim
pie is the operation, too, by which this lmpor-
tant relief can be effected, that child even
brake and put it on again as often as twenty
or thirty times in the course of single min
ute. For this purpose, at few feet from the
machine, the cable passes over a
wheel which registers precisely the strain in
pounds at which the coil is running out
Facing this register is steering wheel, pre-
cisely similar to that of an ordinary vessel,
and connected in the same way with com
pound levers, which act upon the brake. Thus
the officer in charge of the apparatus stands
by this Wheel and, watching the register of
strain or pitch of the vessel, opens the brakes
by the slightest movement of his hand, and
let's the cable run freely as the stern rises
The same officer, however, cannot by any
possible method increase the actual strain on
the cable, which must remain always accord |
ing to the friction at which the brake is first |
adjusted by the engineer During the last |
two or three days that this machine has been |
at work the value and simplicity of the whole /
apparatus have been SO manifest that 1t Is evil |
dent, as far as the paying-out machine is con- |
cerned, all that mechanical skill can effect in |
aid of the great undertaking has been accom- |
plished Both the Niagara and the Agamem- |
non will each be fitted with one of these pay |
ing-out machines, which, of coursa, when |
with and turned by steam, can be |
used for the purpose of under running or |
drawing back the cable in case of any hitch /
such rather dangerous operation |;
necessary.
AS we intimated some time since, prelim-
mary expedition-if we may so termit-wiil |
start from this country about the middle OF
next month. when both the Agamemnon and |
Niagara will steam away into deep water, and |
then try variety of experiments connected |
with submerging the cable, with view of |
practically the value of this new |
apparatus, and also how far some suggestions |
which have been made with regard to buoying |
i ut intervals can be carried out. During |
this brief experimental cruise, every known |
test which can be attempted to prove the eff
siency of the paying-out machines. and those
or undermining, &c, will be resorted to,
and the result of the experience thus obtained
applied to improving any little defect which
nay exist in the apparatus before the final
starting of the expedition in June next.
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