The daily Alaskan., 1915-04-13
HEAvINC THE LEAD
How a Ship Feels Its Way Over
 the Bed of the Ocean.
TAKING SoUNDlNGS AT SEA.
For Deep Water Work Machines That Carry 800 Fathoms of Wire and a Twsnty-feur Pound Weight Are Used. Castinp by Hand In Bad Weather.

Carry 800 Fathoms of Wire and a
 Twsnty-feur Pound Weight Are Used.
 Castinp by Hand In Bad Weather.
 By the deep, nine"
 The peculiar, long drawn out cry of the leadsman In the chains echoes out as the cruiser gathers speed and be- gins to move through the water.
 By the mark, tenw
 We watch the man as he twirls the lead In the air, and reels off the sound ing with mathematical accuracy. He Is standing in the port "chaIns"-a pmall platform, perhaps four feet square, jutting out from one end of the cruisers bridge. To us his position seems rather precarious, for his perch oyerhangs the dark water thirty feet below, but the man himself-u season ed petty offiCer-feels perfectly safe TUT ne leans us Douy against q canvas apron" waist high, while his feet are firmly placed against a wooden bar SC cured to the platform itself.
 But let us watch him as he makes a cast. He first sees the end of the lead line is properly secured and then pro- ceeds to coil 1t up in his right hand. The line itself, whitened by long use, has sundry little marks at various dis tances along 1t. At two fathOms ] (twelYe feet from the lead are two strips of leather, while at three fath- oms there are three. At five fathoms, and again at fifteen, Is piece of white bunting; at seven and seventeen fath- ons, a piece of red bunting, and at ten a piece of leather with hole in ii. | At thirteen fathoms comes rag of blue bunting, while at twenty-three is 8 small bit of line, with two knots tied in 1t, spliced into the lead line itself.
 The lead line Is twenty-five fathOms long, while the lead secured to its end Is about fourteen pounds in weight The bottom of 1t Is hOllowed out to re- ceive the "arming'' of tallow or soap, and this allows the nature of the bot tom to be ascertained, for the sticky substance will come to the surface l with particles of mud or sand, etc., ad- herring 10 1t
 "Heaving the lead" looks easy enough, and anybody who is accus- toned to doing 1t will sny that It Is | GGlCe simple; out IL takes q long rTme before a man becomes a proficient lsadsman. A novice Is apt to be fright ened at the whirling fourteen pnund weight on the end of Is line, ana If he loses heart and omits to give it that peculiar little jerk which brings it fly ing round in a circle it may fall per | pendicularly In close proximity to his | head.
 Heaving the lead may be all right enough in good weather, but In the winter, when 1t is blowing hard, rain Ing or showing, 1t Is anything but pleas ant. The driving rain and snow search out every portion of the lCadSman's anatomy, even though he may be wear ing oilsklns, while his hands get numb with cold until there Is no feeling left | In them.
 The deep sea lead line, which was In. Yariably used for deep water work be- fore the introduction of patent sound Ing machines and would still be used If they broke down, consists of 100 fathoms of line and q tweuty-eight pound lead. It Is marked up to twenty fathoms in the same way as the hand lead line, and then at twenty-five, thir V-hve, forty-fve, etc, fathoms with one knot, and at thirty, forty, fifty, etc, with three, four or five knots. and so on, to the greatest depth of the line
 The ship Is usually stopped when using the deep sea line, for 1t takes a considerable time for the lead to reach the bottom.
 The patent sounding machine con sists of 300 fathoms of thin piano wire wound on a drum, and to the end of the wire is secured a twenty-four pound lead, with, just above it, Q per forated brass sheath fitted with cap. Before sounding takes place glass tube open at one end and coated on the inside with a red chemical com. | pound, Is placed in the brass sheath. The wire is then allowed to run out ! unlll tue lGttu lS Ou tue BpNlSlhy tuNi as 1t descends the pressure forces the water up the glass tube and turns the red chemical into a milky white color for a certain distance up.
 The lead is then hauled in by hand, or by a motor and the depth is as certained by comparing the line of demarcation between the two Colors in the glass tube with wooden scale marked in fathoms.
 With these simple but extremely re- liable machines soundings can be ob- tained at greater depths, and with the ship travelling at fur greater speed, than with the hand lead and line, though, as already stated, the older method Is always held in reserve London Answers.