The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1891-05-10
How The Broken Submarine Wires
Are Raised and SpiCGd.
REPAIR VESSELS ALWAYS BUSY.
Very Difficult and Costly WOTE-H0W The
Breaks Are Located Securing a Cable
Two MILES DGeD-SsTel or Eight Gables
TO Be WaChed-Damage Done by IGHnGTgS.
4 Famous Lost Wire.

stantial, and you would not think wrong.
If you visit any Of the cable offices in
town you may see small sections Of these
cables. They are used as paper weights
and the like. Their diameter varies from
that of a silver half dollar to that of a good
sized tea cup
If YOU see the manner in which the wires
that go to make them up are twisted and
interviewed you will come to the conclusion
that any of these cables, big or little, are
enormously strong and capable of standing
tremendous strain. And again, you would
be right in your conclusion.
And yet these ocean cables break, strong
as they are. and what is more. the breaks
are at times very serious, says the New York
News Mending cable wires lying near the
shore and in water that is comparatively
shallow is not such a difficult matter, but
when it comes to patching up deep-sea
wire that lies on the bed of the ocean hun
dreds of fathoms deep that is altogether an
other matter.
1t must not be supposed that ocean cables
break often. Stll they break often enough
to keep the vessels used by the companies
for the purpose pretty busy repairing them.
There are seven or eight of these ocean
cables now owned by the Western Union,
the Anglo-American and the Commercial
Cable companies.
These are more than the cable business
needs at present. Two of them are kept
ready TO use in case of breaks in the others,
and so, even when one of the great wires
does part, business is not interrupted while
the break is being repaired.
The cables may become broken from a
variety Of causes. 1t is during the winter
that the companies are most anxious for the
repairing Of an ocean cable. From the pres
ent time forward until the autumn the re-
pair ships can work without much diff
Guilty, even on deep-sea wires.
Of the banks Of Newfoundland cables are
often broken by coming into contact with
the dragging anchors Of fShing-bOats. These
breaks are very awkward ones. Then the
icebeTgS thar float down from the north at
certain seasons extend deep under the
water and damage the wires badly. Then
the
WEAR AND TEAR OF TINE
Is another cause of breakages. The bottom
of the ocean is not fiat like tile top Of a
table, but has mountains as wild and val
leys as deep as any that you can find be-
tween New York and San Francisco. So
the cable that stretches from Nova Scotia TO
the coast Of Ireland has TO span some pretty
rough country.
The rOmancers used to tell how whales
and swOTdhsh and other frOlicsOme mon
sters of the deep once in a while bit OF cut
the cable in two when it got in their way.
But the practical cable men say that this is
ali nonsense, and that no such thing ever
happens.
The cable companies have now reduced
the mendIng Of cables down to a system.
Il is REGARDED as a part of their regular bust
ness, just as it is TO keep linemen at work
on land. The companies each year set
aside SO much money 10 the account Of re-
pairs, and men and all things needed are
kept constantly at hand. The Commercial
cable has Its own repair steamer, and so
has the Anglo American.
The Western Union uses a hired vessel,
usually the Faraday, which is owned by an
English tTm who are cable manufacturers.
In the case where more than one of the i'm
pOTtant cables break The companies usually
pool their issues and combine 10 fix the mat
ter up as soon as possible.
1t costs a pretty penny to fix an ocean
cable when it breaks. The companies have
In such case to maintain fully equipped
ocean steamer. with expert navgators and
electricians on board, whose business it is
TO devote their trained knowledge to this
single matter for, say, two weeks or q
month. If, as the Western Union does, they
hire the Faradav, they must pay for her a
daily rental Of $500
So for, say, three weeks, the rental would
Der Of pennies, too. Then in addition to
this there is the actual cost of the repairs
and the twenty-five or thirty miles of new
cable usually used in big breaks Cable sold
by the yard, mark you, too, Is as costly as
the finest lace. There have been breaks in
the cables that have cost as much as $780,
O0O, but, Of course, these were exceptional.
The first thing the experts have to do
when It is found that there is a break some
where In the wire is Co locate that break,
and this is not altogether an easy matter.
Still the electricians have brought it down
70 a
PRETTY FINE SCIENCE
And can figure with very great accuracy as
10 where any break may be. They have
now an instrument by which they can de-
termine with much nicely how far an cleo
trie current started on a given line travels
before it is interrupted. A calculation is
made on this side Of the Atlantic by means
Of this instrument and similar one on the
other, and between the two the true lOca-
ton is pretty nearly determined.
Having determined the location Of the
break the way is clear. The captain OF nav
igator is informed as to the distance from
land the trouble is, and is shown by the
chart Of the route of the wires that the
company has on hand just where he has to
60. So fine is the system that he can some
times steam to the very spot where the cable
has parted.
Then comes the graphing for the broken
ends. This is quite long job at times. 1t
Is sure to be if the weather is stormy.
Graphing fer a cable in several hundred
tathOms Of water, with the waves running
mountain high, is, to say the least, not an
easy task. However. in ordinarily fair
weather, two or three days, or even less, is
sufficient time to bring the parted strands to
the surface.
The grappling-irons are long and heavy,
with great hooks on the end that make
them look the giants fshing-tackle that
they are They are attached 70 huge cables
and are manipulated from tie deck by
means Of machinery, and thus TIE cables
are bshed for. The reDairers usually aim to
grapple with the cable about ten miles from
where the break took place. 1t would not
do TO PTapple it too near the end, for l.
would then slip off the hook before it could
be brought to the steamers deck.
When the cable IS grapDled the men on
the steamer, by the strain where the cable
that holds the graphing has gone over
board know that they have caught their
fish. The next thing is to get it on board.
The strain on the cable is gagged by dyna-
mometer, and thus 1t can be told when the
big wire is coming up all right.
In some cases when the cable comes to
the surface it is found that it has not been
broken at all, but that the electric current
has been interrupted by some defects in the
insulation or something of that kind. In
this case the matter is easily remedied.
When the cable is found to be broken. the
next thing to do after picking up the ends
Is to splice them together again. First,
however, communication is established
with
BOTH THE LAND STATIONS
To make sure that, aside from this single
break, communication is uninterrupted.
Then the work of splicing goes on, and this
is something that must be done very care
fully. Sometimes when the cable is broken
it becomes twisted and torn for a con-
siderable distance. The repairers set to
work to cut away every part that is at all
damaged, and a piece Of new cable is
spliced in.
Ordinarily the repairing of the cable may
be carried on on the deck of the steamer
without much interruption. But not so in
stormy weather Work then is freauentlv