AN IMPROVED MODE FOR PROTECTING SUBMARINE CABLES WHEN PLACED ON BOARD SHIP FROM INJURY BY DESIGN OR FROM DAMAGE BY ACCIDENT AND FOR FACILITATING THE PAYING OF THEM OUT
Year: 1867

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Matthew Fontaine Maury at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 29th
November 1867.
I, MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY, of No. 3, Belsize Square, London, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED MODE FOR
PROTECTING SUBMARINE CABLES WHEN PLACED ON BOARD SHIP FROM INJURY BY
DESIGN OR FROM DAMAGE BY ACCIDENT AND FOR FACILITATING THE PAYING OF THEM
OUT," to be as follows:-
Suppose a submarine cable of the ordinary kind to be insulated in the
ordinary manner, and that so much of it as is required for the deep sea has
not received the reinforce of wire or other addition such as submarine cables
are usually served with, the point of supposition is to present the idea of a
submarine cable without any coating of hemp or wire for the deep sea, the
shore end in all cases being the same.
I propose now before putting such a cable on board to divide it into
sections consisting each of 20 miles or any other convenient length. Each
section is to be wound or coiled into a ball as ropes are coiled for commerce,
as whalemen coil their lines, or as lines are generally coiled by seamen for
running out quickly without danger of fouling; with each section thus coiled
it is to be packed into a tank, hogshead, or other water-tight casing, the
casing to be filled with water and sealed, taking case to leave the two ends of
the section on the outside of its case, so that they may be got at at any time
on board ship for testing the cable within the case. The casing with its

page_text: section marked and labelled is now ready for stowing on board ship. The
object in filling with water is the better to preserve the cable to enable the
electrician to prove it at any time and to give him the power of setting an
electrical watch upon any or all of the sections so as to give instant notice
in case the connecting wire be cut or its insulation injured. The object of
having the cable packed in a number of sections is, that the vessels containing
them may not be too unwieldy for handling on board ship, so that in the
process of paying out the vessel with the next section in order may be
brought into the proper position for being opened for baving the heart end of
its section spliced on the last end of the section immediately preceding it, and
for being paid out. When all the cable in this said preceding section has
been paid out the empty vessel, tank, or hogshead may be removed, broken
up, or filled with water and stowed away to preserve the trim of the ship.
My investigations at the National Observatory, Washington, into the physics
of the sea established the fact that there is no running water at the bottom of
the deep sea, and that any cable that is heavy enough to get to the bottom
of the deep sea is strong enough to lie there, and that consequently my plan
tends greatly to encourage submarine telegraphy by lessening the cost of
cables, by dispensing with their non-insulating coating, and thus diminishing
their size, and thereby diminishing the risk of laying, and all this without
impairing their insulation or detracting from the working power of the wires.