IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR LAYING OR SUBMERGING TELE- GRAPH CABLES IN WATER
Year: 1858

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Maclean at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 14th July.
1858.
I, JOHN MACLEAN, of Edinburgh, in the County of Mid Lothian, North
Britain, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR LAYING OR SUBMERGING TELE-
GRAPH CABLES IN WATER," to be as follows, that is to say :-
This Invention relates to mechanical arrangements to be used for effecting
the safe submerging of telegraph cables in deep water, and has for its special
qualification the delivery of the cable from the vessel to the water in such a
manner that injury or fracture of the cable can seldom or never occur. Under
one form or arrangement by which this Invention is carried out, the cable to
be submerged is passed direct from the ordinary or any other paying-out
apparatus. From this apparatus it is passed beneath a grooved wheel running
free in bearings carried by the deck of the vessel, and thence it ascends and
passes over a grooved wheel set in bearings on the top of a long vertical
traversing shaft or pillar, the lower end of which is set in a vertical tube or
guide carried by the vessel. This shaft or pillar and wheel is retained at its
highest elevation by the action of counterweights, suspended from chains
attached to the shaft or pillar at the top, which chains are passed over guide
pulleys overhead. The bottom guide tube of the shaft or pillar also contains
springs, on which the lower end of the shaft or pillar bears when it is traversed

page_text: downwards by any strain. After leaving this portion of the apparatus, the
cable descends and passes beneath a second grooved wheel, running loose upon
the vessel's deck, whence it again rises, and is passed over the upper grooved
wheel of another compensating weight and spring arrangement, like that
herein-before described. The cable is then passed beneath another grooved
wheel, carried at or near the level of the vessel's deck, or in such a position
that the cable may reach the water at an angle of about 45 degrees. Any
convenient or necessary number of these compensating weight and spring
arrangements may be used in a series, the one nearest the vessel's stern or
delivering part being fitted up with superior reactive strength. In this way
a sufficient length of cable is always retained within the limits of the paying-
out apparatus to allow for the occurrence of any sudden straius, as when a
strain arises, the increased tension upon the cable in its zig-zag condition in
the apparatus causes the elevated wheels and their shafts to descend, com-
pressing the bottom springs, and also elevating the counterweights; and when
the strain is relieved, these parts ascend again, so as to take up the slack of
the cable. Various agents may be employed for causing the depressed wheels
to regain their elevation as the strain passes off, as, for instance, the pressure
of steam, air, or other matter suitably applied, may be used. The same
general arrangement may also be employed to act in a horizontal position upon
the vessel's deck. In this case the guido shafts or pillars are alternated
horizontally upon the deck in reverse directions, the cable being passed zig-zag
from one to the other, compensation or counterweights may be used in
conjunction with springs acting vertically by means of chains passed over
suitable pulleys.