The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-05-17
CABLE LAYING IN WAR TIME.
A New Device for Putting the Wires Down
at Twenty-Knot Speed.

An invention has lately been submitted
if accepted. will undoubtedly prove an
important factor in future naval warfare.
The designers are Lieut.. Crutchley of
the Royal navy reserve, and Mr.. Smell.
an engineer, who have devised ali i'm
proved method of laying submarine
cables at much increased rate of speed.
By means of this invention warship or
Transatlantic liner can be used to lay q
cable of special design at rate of twenty
knots an hour. 1t requires very little al
iteration to adapt these vessels to the pur,
pose.
Many experiments have been made
with view to telegraphy without wires,
but so far unsuccessfully at any but the
shortest distances, and highlands only
present comfort in such difficulties ha
been that she is In possession of nearly all
the special cable-laying end repairing
vessels. Now Messrs. Smell and Crutch-
ley step in with scheme, which would
seem to lay at rest the vexed question of
the transmission of orders. even if the
enemy has succeeded in cutting existing
cables.
The differences between the present and
the new system of laying submarine ca
bles are many and varied. To start with,
the new cable is much ligh ter and less
expensive than the ponderous affair used
for spanning the Atlantic. Three hun
dred knots weigh only $50 tons, while the
W 2S0l la1
on q large drum, these 300 knots, ready
for use, can be slowed away in tank OF
hold about the size of a large double boil
er, so that a good-sized ship, such as
cruiser or liner. could easily find room
for two such drums, one in the aft and
the other in the fore hold. Here would
be 700 miles of cable, weighing only 800
tons, slowed away ready for immediate
use Another plan is to carry the cable
on small drums holding but 40 knots,
each, and joined together these drums
possess the merit Of being light and port
able and also easily put away.
The paying out of the cable is accom-
plished very simply, engines of leo horse
power being utilized to revolve the large
carrying drum and giving q delivery
speed OF over twenty knots an hour. Now
it is necessary, in laying a cable, that
certain amount of slack should be avail
able, so that the cable can accommodate
itself to the frequent inequalities of the
ocean bed and not become tightly
stretched from one prominence to anoth-
er, thus thowing an excessive strain on
the payiug-out machinery. Accordingly,
for length of 800 knots, blight or slack
of 2,000 feet 10 allowed, and carried on
"a pair of drums, which are stationed
midway between the stern and the main
drum. The cable passes from these bob
bins to a revolving pulley at the ships
stern. which literally elects the wire at a.
speed which can, il necessary, be made
greater than the rate of delivery at the
tank A controlling apparatus is attached
to the slack-carrying drums to prevent
the using up of the blight too suddenly
until the strain becomes sufficient to over
come this resistance. Before the 2. 600
feet have been absorbed in this way it is
evident that the ships speed can be dim
inished little, SO that the excess rate of
delivery will soon again accumulate
slack.
The results attained by this system in
actual work are saio to be marvellous; of
course there is nothing out of the way
IN the entire design, but usually these
simple ideas, though brilliant in theory.
seem to COLLAPSE when put to thorough
TEST In practice. The Smell -Crutchley in
vention, however, does not appear to be-
long to this class and the inventors have
demonstrated satisfactorily that ship
aple TO make twenty knots can easily pay
ouC twenty -one knots of cable, the extra
a aho1 uelng compensation for the uneven
floor OF the sea,
"A simple calculation shows that COM
Ihuhlcatlon can be established by these
Lneans between points 700 miles distant
Wlt WIT space of thirty hours, and tina
oanle' once laid, would be permanent,
at least as cables go. Nothing unusual
IS sh visible TO passing ship save perhaps
a Mtau "oula LOOK like taut rope trailing
without difficulty. The work can be- as
well done at night as in the DAYTIME.
erqulrlng little supervise on.