IMPROVED MEANS OR APPARATUS TO BE USED. IN LAYING TELEGRAPH CABLES IN THE SEA OR OTHER DEEP WATERS
Year: 1865

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Kirwan Joyce Perceval at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 2nd
September 1865.
I, KIRWAN JOYCE PERCEVAL, of No. 8, Belgrave Street, Argyle Square,
Euston Road, in the County of Middlesex, late Inspector in Her Majesty's
Telegraph Department, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVED MEANS OR APPARATUS TO BE USED. IN LAYING TELEGRAPH CABLES IN
THE SEA OR OTHER DEEP WATERS," to be as follows:-
The recent attempts to carry a submarine telegraph cable across the
Atlantic having failed when the steamer carrying the cable was in deep
waters, and no means having been on board at the time to keep the cable
afloat after it had parted, as well as to prevent its sinking into deep water
until such time as those on board think fit to allow it to sink. I-have-
invented, which can be used in seas or other deep waters to prevent marine
telegraph cables from sinking below the surface in case any accident should
happen, so as to break the cable, or if those on board be forced by stress of
weather to cut it. These floats can also be used for suspending marine
cables below the reach of ships' bottoms where the bottom of the sea is
rocky, or contains mud possessing qualities capable of destroying the gutta
percha and the other coverings of the cable.
My Invention will enable the engineers on board the steamer that is laying
the cable to keep four or five miles of it (astern of the vessel) afloat and
within the reach of a boat hook. During the process of paying out marine

page_text: cables it has been found that several kinks or bends will occur, especially
when the cable does not reach the bottom, and the further the steamer
proceeds from land into deep water the greater is the danger of the cable
parting. When a cable parts and the end sinks it is possible to grapple it,
but such is the pressure on the cable in deep water that the strain which must
be brought to bear to raise it to the surface is more injurious than several
years' wear and tear, and my Invention is designed to prevent its sinking into
deep water should it part or be cut by those on board. The steamer or
vesel carrying the cable is to be provided with a sufficient number of strong
buoys or floats manufactured from wood or iron, and presenting a surface to
the water that will resist the downward strain of about one ton each (or three
small ones, resisting seven hundredweight each, could be substituted for each
large buoy). The buoys or floats should be loosely covered with a network
of iron chains and rope, in order to distribute the pressure equally over their
surface, and the links of the same should be able to bear a strain of about 24
hundredweight. Small and handy vices, devil's claws, or drawing tongs, each
capable of resisting a strain of about one ton, would also be required in pro-
portion to the number of buoys to be used, and the length of cable to be laid.
For every mile of cable that is paid out one of these floats or buoys is to be
fastened to it on board by means of the vices, devil's claws, or drawing tongs,
and then lowered into the sea. When those on board think fit to make a signal
to the steam tender astern to raise up the hinder floats the order might be
obeyed, and the floats released from the cable could be forwarded to the front
by a second steam tender. As the hinder floats, especially in deep water, would
have at least a strain of 16 or 17 hundredweight upon them, there should be
on board the tender a large hauling hook worked by steam, which would
relieve the strain astern of the float from either the claw, vice, or drawing
tongs, and enable those on board the tender to release the same, and forward
the floats to the front.