Morning journal and courier., 1884-05-13

| the operation is as if an un6uSpect1ng travel CT, upon making his appearance upon the borderland of a strange country, was sudden | ly seized and securely bound after the fash ion deposed to by Gulliver. All the inter stices are afterwards filled up with 8 solution of gutta percha. There are ten of these stranding machines at work upon this cable, l Rnd these can together turn out 50 miles of l copper center in a day of 24 hours. Break ages of wire are rare. The copper used, of course, is of the best quality. It comes princi- pally from Lake Superior; where this is not so, it is @ copper purified by 8 solution pro- cess. Messrs. Siemens generally buy the copper in wire form. They are now using it more weight of copper in the cable now be- ing manufactured than in any other cable
 previously turned out
 Glancing upward as we leave the sheathing department, we observe the cable travelling away over our heads towards a series of large tanks in which it is stored antil the time ar- rives for its shipment. In these tanks is coiled some 2,OO0 miles of cable, the 1,2O0 miles which the Faraday had on board hav- ing been all coiled back into the tanks when she returned into the river after the accident
 which caused the delay in the laying of the
 cable, and nearly 1000 miles of 'core'' is
 ready, in addition to this amount of com.
 pleted cable There are altogether twenty
 tanks at the present time. When necessary
 for testing purposes these tanks are filled with water from the water company's main. You have to ascend ladders to reach the plat form which overlooks them, and Rs you
 glance down upon them you fancy yourself
 looking into 8 series of gas-meters. The
 lime which a man scatters over each layer of
 cable as it is laid down is the simple expedi-
 ent employed to prevent it from sticking to-
 gether. As the cable passes away into the
 tank you are apt to be much struck by its in-
 flexible bar like character; but Mr. Schramm
 will tell you that 'when lifted when in long
 piece the cable is like thread of silk" The
 coiling, which is marked by great regularity,
 is done by men stationed within the tanks.
 While stored in these large tanks, the cable Is
 still kept continually under the electric test.
 A division of one of the firms offices is given
 up to the testing apparatus. The principal
 instrument here, as might be expected, is the
 wonderful galvanometer, with its small mir
 TOT illuminated by lamp, instantly report
 ing any failure in the degree of current ex-
 pected, which, of course, indicates some fault
 in the construction of the cable. The cable
 will be worked by the duplex system Of tele-
 graphy. Butinto this department we cannot
 trespass further at present; perhaps we may
 be enabled to inspect the working of the
 cables on board the Faraday.
 A few additional words may not be out of
 place as to the character of the cables thus
 being turned out for Messrs. Mackay and
 Bennett. Messrs. Siemens made four of the
 six Atlantic cables last laid down, so that
 when it is stated that the cables now in course
 of manufacture show improvements upon
 these, it will be inferred that they are the
 best and dearest cables that so far have been produced. "The more the weight of copper put into cable,' it is commonplace in cable-making, ''the better the cable In these Mackay-Bennett cables the conductor is particularly heavy; while copper wire, it RhOnl6 he an6Dnbarnd ia fypioo Qs Oon6 ar if was twenty thirty years ago. A cable conductor" may be compared to water pipe-the greater the bore of your pipe the more freely will the water pass through; the greater the conductor" the more freely are the signals exchanged, and so, it is hoped, it will prove in this case. The average weight of the conductor per nautical mile in these cables is 450 pounds, and the average weight of the gutta percha insulator is 300 pounds, giving 8 weight of 75O pounds per nautical mile for conductors and 'insulators together As we have before mentioned, considerable attention has been devoted to the wire shield, with view to obtain greater strength and durability. The breaking strain of the steel wire is about 90 tons to the square inch, which, we believe, is the highest point yet reached by cable manufacturers. The break ing strain is tested by means of specially con- structed machines, the increasing power be- I ing applied uziformIy without jerks or jumps The average weight of the cable-conductor, insulator, cushion composition steel shield ! is five tons per nautical mile; shore ends by l themselves will sometimes run to 20 tons per mile. The total lengths of cable made will 1 be over (, 900 miles, the cable distance from | Dover Bay to Valentine and vice versa being | ?, 600 miles; the remaining 800 miles will be l employed in the making of submarine con- l nections, one of which will run from Dover l Bay to Cape Ann. To the already recorded l fact that Messrs. Siemens have completed l some 2,OOO miles of cable, it may be added ] that they are going on with the work at the | rate of 30 miles per day. The Faraday will | probably have to make five or six expeditions | into the Atlantic over this business of the | Mackay Bennett cables.