AN IMPROVED METHOD OF LAYING SUBMARINE TELEGRAPH CABLES
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Wilkins, of Wapping, in the County of
Middlesex, Wire Rope Maker, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED
METHOD OF LAYING SUBMARINE TELEGRAPH CABLES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Wilkins at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 5th
May 1857.
I, WILLIAM WILKINS, of Wapping, in the County of Middlesex, Wire
Rope Maker, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN
IMPROVED METHOD OF LAYING SUBMARINE TELEGRAPH CABLES," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in laying submarine cables through a "trail" tube
or carrier attached to the ship, and extending to the bottom of the ocean or
sea, or only to such depth as to deliver the cable into still water.
The trail or carrier may be made in various ways, but I prefer it in the
form of a wire rope with a metallic vertebrated tube in the centre; the rope
may be tapered towards the outer end to diminish weight, but the tube should
be of the same size throughout, perfectly smooth, and well greased in the
inside. It may be bell-mouthed at the inner end.
The uso of the trail or carrier is to protect the cable from too much strain,

page_text: whether occasioned by depth of occan, pitching of the vessel in a heavy sea,
checking the egress of the cable, or from any other cause.
If submersion of a cable is made from the centre of an occan towards
shore, the "trail" may be disconnected from the ship on her arrival in
shallow water, and allowed to sink with the cable, to which it will afford that
protection which the cable lying in shallow water may require.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Wilkins in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
5th November 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
WILKINS, of Wapping, in the County of Middlesex, Wire Rope Maker,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of May, in the year of our Lord Onc
thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Wilkins, Her special licence that I, the said William Wilkins,
my exccutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
William Wilkins, my exccutors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN IMPROVED
METHOD OF LAYING SUBMARINE TELEGRAPH CABLES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said William Wilkins, my exccutors or administrators, by
an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed
in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Wilkins, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed,
that is to say :-
My Invention consists in laying submarine cables through a trail tube or

page_text: carrier attached to the ship, and extending to the bottom of the ocean or sea,
or only to such depth as to deliver the cable into still water. The trail or
carrier may be made in various ways, but I prefer it in the form of a wire
rope with a metallic vertebrated tube in the centre. The rope may be tapered
toward the outer end to diminish the weight, but the tube. should. be of the
same size throughout, and perfectly smooth, and well greased in the inside.
It may be bell-mouthed at the ends. The use of the trail or carrier is to
protect the cable from too much strain, whether occasioned by "depth of
occan," "pitching of the vessel in a heavy sea," "checking the egress of the
cable," or any other cause.
The Drawings hereunto annexed illustrate the methods by which my Inven-
tion is carried into effect.
Figure 1 is an external view of the metallic vertebrated tubo which I prefer
to employ. It is made of caschardened steel, smooth on the inside, and is
composed of a number of short lengths A, A, cut away at the ends, as shewn
at B, B, and provided with lugs C, C, through which pins a, a, which connect
them pass. This tube will possess the requisite flexibility, and is to be covered
with two flat iron wire ropes, as shewn enlarged in Figure 2, or in Figure 2º.
These ropes are each to be lapped half round the tube, Figure 1, and sewn
together with strands of wire, a space being left between the two ropes on
each side of the tube, in order that water may enter, or the waste lubricating
grease escape from the tube freely. In some cases I propose to apply to
the trail along a portion of its length an atmospheric or buoyant tube, in
order to float or to assist in supporting the trail in the water. This buoyant
tube will not be required at that part of the trail which is near the ship, but
may commence at a distance of about forty fathoms, say, from the ship,
and continue to the end, tapering considerably towards the extremity. This
tube may be made of copper, zinc, or other metal, or of gutta percha, but
I greatly prefer the latter, on account of its flexibility. It may be made in
separate pieces of any convenient lengths, and connected together in any
suitable manner. This buoyant tube may be connected to the "trail"
tube by copper bands, as shewn in Figures 3 and 4, in which A is the
"trail" tube; B, the buoyant tube; and C, C, are the connecting copper
bands. The application of this tube will assist the "trail" to assume and
maintain the position required to be given to it, and will also prevent that
tube from twisting.
In fitting such a trail as I have described, each piece of the vertebrated
tube must be passed over a piece of the cable to be submerged, or over a
piece of wire strand, by which the cable may be drawn through it before the

page_text: vertebrated tube is enclosed in the ropes. The end pieces of the vertebrated
tube should be bell-mouthed at their extremities, and somewhat stouter than
the other pieces.
In some cases I propose to form my trail of a buoyant tubo supporting a
series of rollers in frames, the tube and the frames being connected by means
of wire ropes, to which they are riveted. This arrangement is represented in
side elevation at Figure 5, and in cross section (on an enlarged scale) at
Figure 6. A, A, is the buoyant tube, which is formed like the similar tube
already described; B, B, are the frames, in which are mounted the rollers
or pulleys C, C, on the axles D, D. The rollors or pulleys C, C, are grooved
with semicircular grooves, in order that the adjacent ones may have a circular
space between them, through which space the cable to be laid passes, being
guided in its course by the pulleys C, C. The frames B, B, are riveted both
above and below to two wire ropes E, E', by means of the rivets b, b, and the
rivet plates c, c.
The tube A, A, is bound to the rope E by a wire strand 1
F, F, which passes round the tube A and through the middle of the rope E
at intervals of about six or eight inches. Between the ends of the pulleys
C, C, and the sides of the frames B, B, the washers d, d, are placed. The
frames B, B, and ropes E, E', are enclosed in a case of stout double canvas
coated on both sides with gutta percha.
As the friction of the cable and the pulleys C, C, of the trail just described
would bo insufficient in some cases to prevent the too rapid delivery of the
cable, I propose in such cases to attach at the extreme end of the said trail a
break, by which any required amount of resistance may be applied to the
cable. For this purpose I employ a series of grooved pulleys G, G, mounted
between two iron plates I, I, as shown at Figure 7. The cable passes
alternately over and under the successive pulleys. The grooves of the pulleys
aro of a V form in section, but not sharp. The pulleys are furnished with flat
arms; which present themselves transversely to the water, in order to retard
the velocity with which the pulleys tend to revolve, the width of these arms
being proportioned to the amount of resistance required. The pulleys are
varied in sizo and number, according to the description of cable to be paid out,
a sufficient number being used to produce upon the whole a resistanco not
greater than about one-third of the breaking strain of the cable. The two
plates are strongly connected at top and bottom, and the end of the trail being
brought in between the two plates, is attached thereto with rivets e, c, which
pass through the plates I, I, and the ropes E, E'. The outer end of the break
is sometimes provided with a pair of rollers K, K, similar to the rollers C, C,
in the trail, and through these the cable passes finally into the sea. A flattened

page_text: buoyant tube L is sometimes attached to the upper side of the break apparatus
in order to buoy up or partially buoy up that apparatus. A trail of the
description last described is fixed to the paying-out ship as near to the water's
edgo as possible.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim,-
First, the method of laying submarine cables through a "trail" tube or
carrier attached directly or otherwise to the ship, as herein-beforo described.
Secondly, the construction and employment of all or either of the several
"trails" herein-before described, and represented in the Drawings hereunto
annexed.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Wilkins, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifth day of November, One thousand cight
hundred and fifty-seven.
WILLIAM WILKINS. (L.S.)
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WILLIAM WILKINS. (L.s.)