IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR LAYING TELEGRAPHIC CABLES IN DEEP WATERS
Year: 1865

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Frederick William Gardiner at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 6th
.October 1865.
⚫I, FREDERICK WILLIAM GARDINER, of Belgrave Road, Leicester, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR
LAYING TELEGRAPHIC CABLES IN DEEP WATERS," to be as follows:-.
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for laying
telegraphic cables in deep waters. Following the ship containing the cable
at a distance of two miles, more or less, a powerful steamer having a paying
out and winding up apparatus is employed, and from this apparatus there is
let down a strong wire rope with a loop or stirrup at the bottom (called-a
sustainer) through which the telegraphic cable passes and takes a bearing.
The loop or stirrup may if required be attached by a swivel. The bottom
part of the sustainer is formed to ensure that the friction may be small, the
sides of the loop or stirrup are flexible so that they can be pressed together
so as to gradually check the cable and prevent it when broken from passing
through the stirrup; on the strong wire rope sustainer there is threaded &
heavy hollow metal weight (which I term a catch weight), it is somewhat
in the shape of a bell with the clapper out, with a hole through the top of
it, and fastened by a rope that could be instantly cut or detached, or it may

page_text: be otherwise retained. The vessel with the cable on board going first; and
at night or in foggy weather having an electric or other powerful light burning
so as to enable the steamer with the sustainer and cable passed through it
to follow at as long a distance as is possible or requisite in the wake of the
first vessel. In the event of the telegraphic cable breaking from any cause
near to where it is being paid out, the vessel with it on board would
immediately, send up rockets, or 'fire-guns, or give any other preconcerted
signal, on which those on board the second vessel having the sustainer would
cut the stay rope which holds the catch weight, also reverse the engine so as
to prevent-any more of the cable from passing through the loop or sustainer.
The catch weight by its own gravity descends rapidly, and from its being
wider, at the bottom passes over the loop or stirrup a certain distance, squeezes
the sides together, and from overhanging and binding the cable on each side
of the stirrup gradually tightens it and stops the broken end from passing
through. The sustainer is then wound on board grasping the cable, and after
the latter has been spliced, the catch weight once more attached to the ship
and the sustainer with the cable through the stirrup, let down to the requisite
distance, the paying out of the cable goes on again and everything is ready
to prevent the cable from sinking should accident cause the cable to part.
Another great advantage in the use of the sustainer is that if it be desirable
to keep a control of the cable in any part for the purpose of examination or
otherwise either during the process of submersion until it is completely laid
and satisfactorily tested or afterwards, all that is necessary is to attach a buoy
to the sustainer and throw them both overboard, and so keep the cable within
easy raising distance. There might in this way be at intervals several
'sustainers floated by buoys, so that if there occurred any loss of insulation at
any time in any part of the cable it might be cut at the nearest point, and so
prevent a much greater loss. By these means a command may be kept
over the cable long after it has left the vessel, and a great part of the strain is
taken off the cable by its being sustained about midway between the paying
out vessel and where it takes the first bearing on the bed of the ocean, being
a security against its breaking from its own suspended weight.