AN IMPROVED METHOD OF 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
26th June 1867.
I,. MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY, of No. 3, Belsize Square, London, N.W.
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED METHOD
OF 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 the supposition is to present the idea of
a submarine cable without any coating of hemp or wire for the deep sea, the
shore ends in all cases being the same. I propose now, before putting such a
cable on board, to divide it into sections consisting each of twenty 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:
care 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

page_text: case; the case with its 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 conducting 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 having the
heart end of its section spliced on to the last end of the section immediately
preceeding it, and for being paid out. When all the cable in this said pre-
ceeding 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, thus diminishing their
size, and thereby diminishing the risk of laying, all this without impairing
their insulation or detracting from the working power of the wires.