IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR LAYING DOWN, PROTECTING, AND CONTROLLING SUBMARINE CABLES FOR TELEGRAPHING FROM VESSELS MOORED OFF A COAST TO THE SHORE
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Moore, of 27, Leadenhall Street, London,
for the Invention of "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR LAYING DOWN, PROTECTING,
AND CONTROLLING SUBMARINE CABLES FOR TELEGRAPHING FROM VESSELS
MOORED OFF A COAST TO THE SHORE."
Sealed the 23rd October 1863, and dated the 28th April 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Moore at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 28th
April 1863.
I, THOMAS MOORE, of 27, Leadenhall Street, London, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR LAYING DOWN,
PROTECTING, AND CONTROLLING SUBMARINE CABLES FOR TELEGRAPHING FROM VESSELS
MOORED OFF A COAST TO THE SHORE," to be as follows:-
This improvement consists in buoying a telegraph cable in such manner
that the end on board and for a distance from the vessel shall be buoyed on
the water and so arranged as to be in a line and swing with the mooring cable
and ship.
I effect this in the following manner:-The ship can ride by two cables to
the anchors or by brilles running out from the fore quarters and secured by a
swivelled link to a single chain. To the chain cable by which the vessel is
anchored are ropes or chains securing floating buoys on the surface of the
A rope or chain also is attached to the vessel's anchor. On the top of
cach buoy is a swivelled ring with friction rollers between or through which
the electric cable is passed. The buoys attached to the mooring chain are

page_text: The telegraphic cable is then run
swivelled rings between friction
placed at given distances from each other.
out from the vessel and rove through the
rollers on top of the buoys. When this insulated cable has been passed
through the buoy attached by a line to the anchor it is allowed to fall to the
bottom of the sea and is then run to the land, or it may be run from the land
to the buoy over the anchor and then rove through the rings on the top of the
buoys and carried to the vessel; an independent anchor with a buoy attached
may be used instead of the vessel's anchor. To keep a regulated length of
electric cable from buoy to buoy, I fix on the telegraph cable wooden clasps
with india-rubber linings or cushions protected by a scising of tarred
materials and fastened by metal or rope round exterior grooves. At a distance
outside of the periphery of a circle round which the ship swings, which is
regulated by the length of the moving cables, I anchor a buoy. To this buny
I attach a line with a gripper or clasp made of ebonite, lignum vitæ, or some
incorrodible material; this gripper is fixed on the submarine telegraph cable
with a line from the buoy, so that if the buoy rope is carried away the line to
the insulated wire will keep the buoy from drifting, and vice versa. Should
it be found necessary to sustain the ship's mooring cable, and to prevent it
from falling on that part of the electric cable from the ship's anchor to the
shore, the buoys designed to lead the telegraphic cable from the ship to the
anchor may be enlarged sufficiently or increased in number to bear up the
chain cable. To haul in the slack of the electric cable, whenever desired, 1
use the ordinary windlass of the ship or the capstan, or both. To gain en-
Jarged diameter to a capstan or windlass, I apply skeleton framing to be
taken on and off at pleasure. To over run or draw in a cable I apply endless
screw power as secured to me by Her Majesty's Letters Patent of 25th
October 1861, No. 2675. Where a windlass only is used as a drum, I
rotate the same by a whelped boss from a capstan carrying a chain to another
whelped boss at the foot of the endless screw shaft. To pay out the electric
cable the capstans or windlasses which are fitted with skeleton framing for
enlarging the circumference of the drum may be worked or controlled by
mechanical or steam power when the vessel swings so that the mooring chain
is directly above the electric insulated wire; the chain cable may fall on the
wire if the mooring chain is not sufficiently buoyed. To protect the submarine
electric cable from damage, I apply to those parts at the bottom of the sea
near which the chain cable may work sheaths or casing in two horizontal
parts made of ebonite or other material in lengths of two, three, or four feet
each, or of greater length where necessary, which sheaths clasp the electric
cable and are secured to it by tarred line or metal rings and screws round

page_text: shoulders or grooves. The inner parts of these sheaths I line with india-
rubber to form a cushion, and I make the mouths bell-shaped to lessen the
friction at their ends.
The last part of my Invention consists in having a second end of electric
cable from the main line anchored and buoyed outside a circle described by
the ship's swinging in the opposite direction of the line to the shore to be
taken inboard whenever required.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
Sen!
by the said Thomas Moore in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
28th October 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
MOORE, of 27, Leadenhall Street, London, send grecting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-sixth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Thomas Moore, Her special licence, that I, the said Thomas
Moore, executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Thomas Moore, my executors, 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 "IMPROVED APPARATUS
FOR LAYING DOWN, PROTECTING, AND CONTROLLING SUBMARINE CABLES FOR TELE-
GRAPHING FROM VESSELS MOORED OFF A COAST TO THE SHORE," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Thomas Moore, my executors or adminis-
trators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their
bands 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 immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas Moore, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-

page_text: The first part of my Invention consists in buoying a telegraph cable so
that it will swing with the vessel and not foul. I accomplish this as follows:-
The submarine cable is run out from the vessel and carried through swivelled
friction rollers on top of buoys or the buoy ropes underneath, which ropes are
fastened to the mooring cables as shewn in Fig. 1.
A, A, A, A, shows the telegraph cable; B the chain cable or mooring chain.
The telegraph cable can be run out and passed through the swivelled rollers on
top of the buoys, or through rollers underneath the buoys or on the buoy
ropes, or direct from the vessel to a buoy connected with the anchor, or to a
buoy secured near the anchor by an independent anchor. Any number of buoys
may be attached to the chain cable. Instead of reeving the subinarine wire
through friction rollers, and securing ropes from the mooring cables to the buoys
on the surface, the telegraphic cable may be suspended from buoys between the
ship and the ship's anchor. The grippers or claspers to hold the submarine
wire in suspension should be hung by swivelled links or rings.
Fig. 2 represents the swivelled blocks with double friction rollers between
which the submarine cable passes. At a distance beyond the circumference
measured from the anchor, the mooring chains being taken as the radius, I'
attach to the submarine cable a gripper with a line to a buoy on the surface of
the water. This buoy is moored with an anchor and the buoy rope must be
shorter and have less slack than the rope to the gripper on the submarine
cable. I form the gripper in the shape of a hollow tube cut in two, the
inside being lined with india-rubber or any yielding substance with lips at
each lower part of the mouth.
Fig. 3 represents the bisected tube or gripper. Fig 3* being an end view of
said tube, C is the ring to which the rope to the buoy is secured, the rope must
be attached to a swivel; D, D, are the apertures through which the sub-
marine cable passes and is held. The gripper clasper or holdfast may be
scized in the way known to seafaring men, or by hinged hooks or other common
methods. This allows of the submarine wire being lifted without disturbing
the buoy anchor. These tubes may be affixed in lengths also to protect the
submarine cable. The next part of my Invention exhibits a mode of making
the capstan serve as a drum for winding the subinarine wire. The capstan is
made with a double head to allow of being worked by hand or steam power.
The capstan bars are shipped and a framework or skeleton drum is fixed by
mortises, keyed rings, and screw bolts to the bars and to a tram round the
capstan on the deck, or to a framing at the foot of and on the capstan.
Fig. 4 shews the capstan and a mode of driving the capstan and windlass
or both by hand or steam power, the endless screw being the subject of a

page_text: former Patent granted to me on 25th October 1861, No. 2675, Fig. 4*
being a plan view thereof; E is a windlass on the same deck as the capstan.
The windlass may be fitted with a framework to run in the submarine wire;
F is an exterior skeleton framing to capstan; G is the upper head of the
capstan connected with the shaft carried to the under deck, shewing a mode
of connecting and disconnecting with the lower or great drum capstan, so that
the capstan may be worked independently of the steam power underneath the
deck; H is a spur wheel with bars to take the links of a chain, and is con-
nected with a pinion J to the endless screw shaft of the windlass; by turning
the capstan the chain is actuated through the spindle which carries the spur
hes, and this gives motion to the pinion on the heel of the endless screw
shaft for driving the windlass; K is the upper head of the capstan, which is
connected to the capstan proper, when desired, by iron stops, cotters, or plugs
taking the two heads; M is a screw shaft driving a screw pinion to turn the
capstan or windlass separately or both together. When the capstan is driven
separately the chain on the spur and windlass pinion is disconnected. The
screw pinion also lowers and is thrown out of gear. As the same motive power
drives the capstan and windlass, the windlass can be made applicable as a
roller in assisting to pay out the subinarine wire, and brakes or other apparatus
may be fitted thereto. To check or control the submarine cable I apply a hinged
longitudinal arm over the ship's stern or bow. This arm is let on to the
bulwark or bull and regulated to ease the strain on the submarine wire. My
method of accomplishing this is as follows:-To the end of the long iron rod
or arm is a swivelled double friction roller as already described in Fig. 2. To
the underneath part and end further from the vessel I attach a spiral spring,
so that any sudden jerk will depress the arm, see Fig 5; N is the arm, O the
spring, P the submarine cable.
To stop the cable the following plan may be adopted. The wire may be run
over a large sheave or pulley as in Fig. 6, which shews a sido and end view of
a pulley with ratchet teeth round the periphery with a pawl to take the same.
Fig. 7 shews similar views of a pulley with waved bosses with a ratchet on
the pin of the sheave and a pawl on the iron skeleton or frame, or a friction
band may be applied; Fig. 8 shews an end view of a pin sheave. When the
pawl is let down the telegraph cable is held securely and prevented from
running out. I also employ a double pawl to self act by being weighted at
one side and to act on the other by lifting this weighted side, allowing the other
pawl to take.
Having now described the nature of my Invention and the manner in which
the same is to be marfuri Lalaim

page_text: 1st. The swinging of submarine cables with the ship's moorings as herein
described and shewn.
2nd. The double chafing or friction sheaves or rollers, swivelled to turn
with the wind, tide, or action of the sea, above or below the surface, as herein
described and shown.
3rd. The claspers or grippers to suspend or secure submarine wires in the
manner herein set forth.
4th. The adaptation of the capstan skeleton framing to pay out telegraph
cables, and a similar framing round the windlass to run them in or vico
versâ.
5th. A spring or spiral arm to lessen the strain or jerks as described and
shewn.
6th. The ratchet on the periphery of sheaves or pulleys with a pawl above;
or a ratchet on the pin of the sheaves or pulleys with pawl on the framing to
stop the pins of the sheaves or pulleys, which revolve, from rotating, when a
waved or pinned sheave or pulley is used.
I further claim the application of the single and double pawls and ratchets
to blocks, sheaves, or pulleys where a whelped boss is used to take the upright
or the flat lying links of a chain. As the sheave rotates with and not round
the pin the links of the chains are held fast, so that the pawl being down
allows the chain to work one way and stops it the other, thus constituting a
safety block or pulley.
The principle of waved bosses to grip ropes or whelps to take the links of
chains is not new although the pins on the sheave are new.
I therefore only claim the addition of the pawl and ratchet and the general
combination of parts herein set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Moore, bave hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
Witness,
ALEX. PRINCE,
Office for Patents,
4, Trafalgar Square,
Charing Cross.
THOMAS MOORE. (L.S.)