The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1880-03-11
A MARINE TELEPHONE.
BELL BEAroN AND EDISON ECLIPsRD-GooD
NEWS FOR THOSE WHO GO DOWN
TO THE SEA IN SHIPS.


reel out as she departs and take in as
she returns, thus keeping up constant,
communication with port during voy-
age. The Lockport Union thus describes
the invention:
NJ. Valcour took the writer to large
shed, which he said contained the prin-
cipaI apparatus for keeping up telephon-
ic and Geographic communication with
vessel going at the highest rate of speed,
in any weather, with the main Shore
The entire machinery was incased in
cigar shaped, metallic float, thirty feet
long. A longitudinal section through the
middle of this shell presents a perfect
eclipse, the greatest diameter being SIX
feet, or one-ffth of its length. This IS
one one-eighth of an inch in thickness,
made of the finest gun barrel metal, pre-
senting, when water tight, perfectly
smooth, glazed surface. Within this
shell are a series of reels mounted on
axles, which are seated in sockets per-
petually oiled by powdered lubricator
of the nature of tale steatite or soapstone.
On these reels were coiled over 3, 500
miles of perfectly insulated composition
wire, the fine wire being made under the
highest possible tests, of the best mater
ial known to electricians. But the wire
does not appear to be the important fea-
ture at all.
"You know" said NJ. Valcour, ''that
one of the chief problems in laying the
Atlantic cable was perfect insulation, land
You are aware what many Stranded
cable it is, covered with adhesive sub
stances, variously compounded. OF course
then, l sought to fabricate single wire
| so insulated that the electric fluid, and
sound itself could not be impaired by
dimensions and L have succeeded, and
this part of the invention l shall disclose
to no one. Nor shall patent it, for the
reason that in making any specification /
shall be obliged to name the process and
| the materials-and this could be made
public, for you have only to inclose 20
cents to the Patent Office, and they will
forward you any patent" M. Valcour
| then said if the writer would like to see
the apparatus working, he would have
his portable boiler fired up, and we could
see the wire reeled off at twenty miles an
hour.
When the engine was in readiness a
large reel was placed on a horizontal shaft
and turned rapidly, the bearings being
carefully oiled. M. Valcour then placed
the insulated wire leading from the men,
tai shell over the engine reel, fastening
the end to it, SO that as the reel IN the
shelf fed out it might wind up. The en-
CINE was started, the engine began to
wind up while we noted the revolutions.
Almost instantly the wire was being
taken up at the rate of twenty miles an
hour, and, to crafty the writer, it was
run up to thirty miles an hour, or twice
the speed of ocean going vessels.
"Now," said the inventor, ''you will
note that when this wire is being paid
ont by the shell at sea, which is towed
by the vessel. it will be put to no such
violent strain or tension as here when it
is being literally wound up by machinery.
Here everything is violence, there every
thing is mild.
As the operation continued there was
no break or flaw. NJ. Valcour then eX-
planned the practical adoption of this
shell to navigation which, as will be seen
| below, has already been demonstrated.
| The float shell is 50 weighted in the dis
tribution of the'metal that it will always
sit on the water, with its slight keel
| down, and float like boat. 1t is towed
to the stern, say of an outward bound
steamer, and to a large ringbolt in the
bow of the shell a chain cable is made
fast, and likewise the other end to the
stern of the vessel. This chain cable is
100 feet long, to enable the float to keep
out of the eddies formed in the wake of
the vessel. These ale also side chain
braces secured to side bolts in the shell
and leading to the vessel. From the
telegraph and telephone station on board
ship the wires are led through metallic
pipe to the stern; it then enters small
perforation, carefully prepared at the
bow of the shell, and enters the foremost
reel in the shell. This wire going over
the combination of curiosly placed reels
by varying sizes, is uninterrupted
throughout its entire length hundreds of
miles more than enough to traverse the
usual pathway of ocean going steamers
to Europe. The shore end of the wire is
connected with companies offices in New
York; and when the vessel drops down
to Sandy Hook the wire from the stern
most reel in the shell is connected there.
The vessel starts out to sea; the wire be-
gins to release itself. When about 200
miles have been accomplished, an
automatic connection releases a leaden
sinker, weighing five pounds, and this,
as the vessel goes on, finds its way to the
bed of the ocean. at the point where
the sinker is attached the wire is much
heavier, for distance of 300 feet Thus
at every 200 miles, this shell, which is
full of automatic and clock work mach
inery, releases a sinker. thus fixing a
| .-1 IL r. -
The object of the shell is simply this,
that the wire shall not be at the mercy
of the rolling and pitching of ship, SO
that no great strain shall fall either on
the apparatus or the wire; and as the
shell is kept in its place by braces and
the tow chains, ample slack of wire is
had between the reels in the shell and
the operating instrument on borad ship.
Il L Il.