AxN IMPROVED METHOD OF LAYING OR SUBMERGING OCEAN. TELEGRAPH CABLES
Year: 1865

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Joseph Sproul at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 2nd September
1865.
I, JOSEPH SPROUL, of New Barnet, Herts, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "AxN IMPROVED METHOD OF LAYING OR SUBMERGING OCEAN.
TELEGRAPH CABLES," to be as follows:-
I will in the first place suppose that it is the Atlantic Ocean the first
telegraph line is to be laid under to connect the Irish and American coasts.
The cable to be used would be manufactured only with the view of durability,
and the transmission of telegrams, no extra expense being incurred to give it
great strength-with-the-view-of-carrying it safe over as in former attempts. I
would have the paying-out ship provided with a number of buoys manufactured
for the special purpose, and beginning operations from the Irish coast I would
continue paying out the cable till the nearest deep sea soundings would be,
reached; here the vessel would stop and test the cable, and if found free from
faults from that to the shore, one of the buoys on board would be fastened to
the cable and thrown overboard, and it would thus be held up by the buoy from.
sinking for such a time as would be necessary for its safety. The first buoy
being now afloat holding up the cable in suspense, the ship would continue,
paying out as before, and after running a distance of about 7 miles (any other
small number as well as 7 would meet the requirements,) she would again test
the cable, and if found faultless another buoy would be thrown over, and
thus support the cable at a new point from sinking. Thus, buoy after

page_text: buoy in succession on this principle would be thrown out, till the American
shore would be reached, in the case of every separate buoy, the insulation
being tested and found perfect before 'thrown out. If 7 miles would be
adopted as the interval betwixt the respective buoys abount 200 buoys would
have to be used for the whole distance. It follows that on the foregoing plan
of temporarily supporting the cable with buoys, if at any time a fault would
be discovered it could at once be recovered, as the fault must exist betwixt
the ship and the last or nearest buoy thrown over. In other words the buoy is
only thrown over after the cable for the whole distance to the Irish coast is
found perfect, consequently if a fault be discovered it must exist betwixt the
ship and the last buoy, and as the cable is suspended or floated temporarily
near the surface by the buoy for that distance, the fault must be within that
limit, and could therefore be recovered and taken out with the greatest facility
and unerring safety, not only in that instance, but likewise in every other
case where faults would be discovered in crossing the ocean.
The assistance that the buoys would afford in the recovery of faults, would
be equally applicable for the safety of the cable, no matter how often it would
snap or have to be cut. Every one is aware that when the cable snaps, at the
point snapped it must inevitably sink out of reach, but on this principle of
telegraph laying, whenever a mishap of the kind would occur, if the weather
be moderate, the ship has only to steam back to the last buoy, pick up the
cable, seeing that it is held up near the surface by the buoy, splice it to the
broken end of the cable on board, and go on paying out as before. Again, if
the cable snaps in stormy weather, which is the most likely time for such
occurences, it would be held up in safety by the buoy or buoys till the storm
would subside, when the cable could again be picked up, and the work resumed.
Thus, by the friendly assistance of the buoys, no matter what would happen, the
cable would always be in perfect safety, no matter how often snapped or cut,
whether in storms or calms in crossing the ocean. Hence it follows, that if
no fatal error lurks unperceived in this proposed system of laying ocean tele-
graph wires they could be continued with unerring safety under the widest
oceans in the world, and at about the same expense according to mileage as
in narrow seas.
To dispose of the buoys as the cable would continue to cross the Atlantic, a
steamer, which I may for want of a more appropriate name, I will term the
picking-up ship, would be employed; her duty would be to follow exactly about
20 miles direct astern of the paying-out ship, and pick up the buoys in succession
as she would go along, and thus allow the cable to sink in safety to its home
in the bottom. It would not be essential that she would be a large ship, but

page_text: she would have to be one of the fastest sailors afloat, so that she could always
"keep under her command her position in relation to the paying-out ship, her
superior. In fine and clear weather, when the ships would always be visible
to each other, she would pick up the buoys so that two would always remain
untouched betwixt the two vessels, but when the atmosphere would be close
and hazy so that the ships would be invisible to each other, three buoys ought
to intervene; one buoy only being up at a time would be sufficient for the
safety of the cable, but two would make doubly sure, and in close weather when
the vessels could not signalise three buoys intervening would be a safe margin
for errors in calculation. The buoys being numbered from 1 upwards, and
thrown out according to their numbers, the picking-up ship could tell the'
number of buoys that would be afloat at any one time even in the closest
weather; but as an additional security the buoys as they would be thrown
out would have plates attached, telling the number of knots at which the
vessel was paying out, and the particular hours and minutes they were
respectively thrown out, which would always indicate pretty correctly the
distance she was ahead. Each buoy would likewise have to be provided with
a light, visible at least for two miles distant, and a flag so that there would
be no difficulty in finding them either by day or night.
During storms and thick fogs operations would always have to be suspended,
because in storms the picking-up vessel might find means of cutting the buoys
adrift, but she would be unable to undo and recover them, and in thick fogs
they would be invisible. However, on such occasions, by preconcerted plans,
both vessels when invisible to each other could mutually act, or if one
vessel continued operations longer than the other, the error could always be
discovered before it would become irremediable. The real danger on such
occasions would not consist in the picking-up ship continuing after the other
bad gave over, because the last buoy could not be lifted till they would be
mutually visible, and while one buoy remains the cable is safe, but in the
paying-out ship continuing after the other had given over picking up the
buoys, and thus run the risk, a very great danger, of a long line of buoys
being up at the same time, an eventuality that with prudent precaution would
very unlikely happen.
In ordinary fine weather the fastenings of the buoys to the cable need
only be of a light description, seeing that no one buoy would be up more than
two or three hours at most before it would be picked up; but the storm buoys,
a number of which would be manufactured for the purpose, that would have to
be thrown out during storms for the protection of the cable, would have to be

page_text: fastened to it by powerful tackle that would stand with perfect safety the
tossing of the tempest during.its continuance.
I have observed above that in stormy weather operations would have to be
suspended, and in every instance, to save the ship and cable from being drifted
out of the proper course, the cable would have to be cut. As soon as the
cable would be cut, which would be done after a storm buoy had been thrown
out to support it near the end, the next duty of the ship would be to get hold
of the buoy (the storm buoys would be constructed so that they during storms
could be caught), secure it to the stern, and thus by the force of steam the
cable would be preserved from being tossed at haphazard out of its direction
during the storm. Indeed, without this precaution any storm, except it blew
from an easterly direction, would drift that part of the cable not lying on the
bottom, at least 25 miles in length in the direction of the wind, and so twist
it in any direction as very likely to upset the whole undertaking. In a word
in stormy weather the cable would always have to be, cut, so that the ship
could hold it in its proper position during the storm, either by laying hold of
the last buoy, or if that would be impracticable, by a grapnel thrown over
the cable, which would answer the same purpose.
The buoys in all cases would be fastened to the cable with tackling that
would allow it to sink deep enough to reach still waters, (perhaps about 20
fathoms,) but not so far as to render its recovery difficult in case of a fault
being detected, or when snapped or cut. This precaution of allowing it to
sink to a safe depth during the short time it has to be kept in suspense, would
in a great degree prevent it from drifting, and save it from the agitation of
the surface in storms, and the danger of vessels inadvertently crossing over it
and cutting it in the dark.