IMPROVEMENTS IN THE SUBMERGING OF TELEGRAPH CABLES
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Peter Arkell, of North Woolwich, in the County of
Kent, Engineer, and Alfred Melhado, of Queen's Gardens, Bayswater, in
the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
Sealed the 11th January 1859, and dated the 16th July 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Peter Arkell and Alfred
Melhado, at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 16th July 1858.
We, PETER ARKELL, of North Woolwich, in the County of Kent, Engineer,
and ALFRED MELHADO, of Queen's Gardens, Bayswater, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE SUBMERGING OF TELEGRAPH CABLES," to be as
follows:-
We
The object of this Invention is to facilitate the submerging of electric cables
by preventing the possibility of their breaking by the action of torsion.
have found by experiment that the act of uncoiling a length of cable will put
an amount of twist into the cable proportionate to the length uncoiled, and
consequently when great lengths are required to be submerged, the torsion

page_text: increases to such a degree as eventually to sever the cable, no matter what its
constructive strength.
In order to neutralize this effect, we propose to attach to the cable at given
distances apart, and while it is being submerged, floats of such a construction
that they will, when they enter the water, offer considerable resistance to the
torsile strain of the cable. These floats we prefer to make of wood, like wings
in plan view, and wedge-shaped in cross section, and provided with a suitable
clamp or spring clip at their upper surface for gripping the cable and holding
it firmly. When these floats are applied to the cable and submerged with it,
their tendency will be to assume a horizontal position, and being properly
fixed on the cable, they will effectually resist and neutralize the tendency of
the unrolled coil to turn in the water, and twist the fibres of the wire of which
it is composed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Peter Arkell and Alfred Melhado in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 15th January 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, PETER
ARKELL, of North Woolwich, in the County of Kent, Engineer, and ALFRED
MELHADO, of Queen's Gardens, Bayswater, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-second year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said Peter Arkell and Alfred Melhado, Her special license that we, the said
Peter Arkell and Alfred Melhado, our executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as we, the said Peter Arkell and Alfred Melhado, our execu-
tors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands and
Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS-IN-THE SUBMERGING OF TELEGRAPH
CABLES," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Peter-Arkell
and Alfred Melhado, by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals,
or under the band and seal of one of us, should particularly describe and

page_text: ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent
Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the
said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Peter Arkell, on behalf of myself and of
the said Alfred Melhado, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement, reference being had to the
Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon
(that is to say) :-
The chief object of this Invention is to facilitate the submerging of electric
telegraph cables by preventing the possibility of their breaking by the action
of torsion. We have found by experiment that the act of uncoiling and
paying out a length of cable will put an amount of twist into the cable pro-
portionate to the length uncoiled, and consequently when great lengths are
required to be submerged, the torsion increases to such a degree as eventually
to rupture the cable and destroy its conductive power, no matter what its
constructive strength.
In order to neutralize this effect, we propose to attach to the cable at given
distances apart, and while it is being submerged, floats of such a construction
that they will when they enter the water, offer considerable resistance to the
tensile strain of the cable, and at the same time serve to buoy it up, and relieve
the paying-out machinery from a portion of the direct strain of the cable.
"
In the accompanying Drawings, Fig. 1 shews, in side elevation, our novel
construction of float; Fig. 2 is a plan view of the same; and Fig. 3 is a cross
section, taken in the line 1, 2, of Fig. 1. It consists mainly of a wedge-
shaped block of wood a, a, rounded and tapered off at its ends, and hollowed
out at its sides, as shewn best in the plan view, which form will enable it to
ride easily in the water, and offer a sufficient resistance to any force that may
be imparted to it, having the tendency to cause one end of the float to dip,
and the other to rise in the water. Mounted upon the upper face of the float
is a metal clip for gripping the cable, and thus ensuring a firm connection
between the cable and the float. The clip may be of any convenient construc-
tion, but we prefer that shewn in the Drawing, from its simplicity and the
facility which it offers for instantaneous attachment to the cable as it is passing
out from the ship. b, b, is a plate formed with a semispherical recess for the
reception of the cable. This plate is screwed down to the block a, a, and it is
provided with horns or guide pieces c, c, (shewn detached at Fig. 3) and a

page_text: bracket d. Hinged to this bracket is a hand lever e, furnished with a semi-
circular recess corresponding to that of the plate b. The inner faces of these
recesses are grooved or ribbed, to ensure a firm grip of the cable that is to be
held between them. A spring catch fis driven into the block a in such a
position, that when the hand lever e is pressed down, so as to grip the cable
(it. being guided in its course by the horns c); this spring catch will hold the
lever fast, and the teeth or ribs of the gripping surface pressing into the gutta
percha or other soft covering of the cable, will take a firm hold of the cable.
In applying our Invention, we provide a given number of these floats,
according to the length of electric telegraph cable to be laid, and the depth
it is to be submerged, it being expedient to use more floats per mile in deep
seas than in shallow waters. These floats being ready at hand at the end of
the vessel from which the cable is being payed out, two men will then take up
a float and hold it (with the lever hand thrown back) immediately under the
passing cable. When the signal is given that a certain predetermined length
of cable has been run out, one of the workmen will at that moment strike
down the lever handle, and by thus putting a grip upon the cable, will firmly
secure the float thereto. At the same time the float being let go, it will enter
the water with the cable, and be submerged with it, but being of a buoyant
character, it will serve for a time to keep the cable suspended in the water,
and thus relieve the paying out apparatus (as before observed) of considerable
strain. When a series of floats have been thus applied and submerged with
the cable, their tendency will be to assume a horizontal position in the water,
and being firmly secured to the cable, they will effectually resist and neutralize
the tendency of the unrolled coil of cable to turn in the water and twist the
fibres of the wire of which it is composed. An incidental advantage of this
Invention is, that should the cable break during the act of "paying out," the
floats will shew the position of the cable, and enable the workmen to fish up
the broken end and renew the paying out operation without loss of the sub-
merged portion of the cable. A further and most important advantage arising
from the use of these floats is, that when sunk, they will, in the case of
dragging to ascertain where a breakage has taken place in the cable, present
a-holdfast to the drag iron, and by their buoyancy, assist to raise the cable to
the surface by decreasing the dead-weight strain of the upheaved cable.
.
Having now set forth the nature of our Invention, we wish-it-to be under-
stood that we claim employing in the submerging of telegraph cables, floats or
buoys, so constructed that they will admit of being attached to such cables
while in the act of being run out, and when so attached resist or neutralize.

page_text: the tendency which the cables possess of twisting or breaking under strain by
torsion, and likewise relieve the tensile strain put upon such cables both when
being submerged and upheaved for repair.
In witness whereof, I, the said Peter Arkell, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Fourteenth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
PETER ARKELL. (L.S.)