AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 37 



vessels, the engineers of the company, and Chief Engineer, Wm. E. Eve- 

 rett, U. S. N., were invited to meet the Directors of the Company in Lon- 

 don, to advise regarding some course to be adopted, by which the causes of 

 the late failure might be obviated. 



That at this meeting Mr. Everett, counselled the Directors of the Com- 

 pany to seek the advice of two or three Engineers, and to be guided by 

 them in regard to the design and construction of the paying out machinery, 

 which course being adopted, he was asked to select such persons as he 

 thought proper; that he called upon Mr. John Penn, and by him was intro- 

 duced to Mr. Joshua Field and Mr. John Lloyd, Engineers-in-Chief, R. N.; 

 that these gentlemen having been requested by the Directors to act as a 

 Committee and to report their views regarding a paying out instrument, con- 

 sented to act, and accompanied him to Plymouth, to inspect the parang out 

 instrument then on board of the Niagara, and to obtain an explanation of 

 the cause of the failure ; and returned to London and agreed that after con- 

 sideration they would prepare a report embodying their views ; that during 

 the interval between their return to London and the completion of the 

 report, Mr. Everett designed a paying out instrument having but two 

 sheaves, a tracing of the design of which is annexed and lettered A. 



That these gentlemen completed their report, which being submitted to 

 Mr. Everett, he dissented from it in consequence of its recommending the 

 paying out instrument of four sheaves instead of two, that he was asked to 

 make a minority report, to which he objected, and assigned the following 

 reasons : 



" I did not feel authorized to do so : first, because it would have appeared 

 absurd to recommend counsellors to the Directors, and when their advice 

 was rendered, to pronounce it erroneous ; second, I appreciated their supe- 

 rior experience and knowledge, and for these reasons, finding I could not 

 persuade them to my opinion, I signed their report, as in duty bound, for 

 the interest of the Company." 



The joint report was then delivered, and is as follows: 



B. 



London, September, 1857. 



Gentlemen ; — Having examined, agreeable to your request, the appara- 

 tus and arrangements on board of the Niagara, for pajing out the Atlantic 

 Telegraph Cable, and given the whole subject our careful consideration, we 

 beg to lay before you the conclusions at which we have arrived. 



We consider the paying out sheaves require no alterations except those 

 suggested by Mr. Bright, in a memorandum, which he was good enough to 

 place in our hands, a copy of which we append, namely, "To have one 

 groove only in each of the sheaves, to make the groove deeper and wider 

 at the periphery, and fit them with guards to prevent the cable coming off, 

 to apply scrapers for removing the tar from the grooves ; and to make the 

 circumference of each successive sheave which the cable passes over as much 

 larger than the preceding, as the cable is found to stretch by the application 



