218 APPLIED SCIENCE 



actually sticking out in this manner after attention had been 

 drawn to the possibility by the faults which occurred. Pro- 

 bably, however, the great success of the Atlantic Cables will 

 cause their form to be the type for deep-sea lines for some time 

 to come. 



Cables on board ship are now almost invariably stowed in 

 water-tight tanks ; from these they pass up to a sheave or quad- 

 rant over the centre of the coil, and thence to the brake-drum, 

 and over the stern. A turn or twist is put into the rope by 

 every turn which it makes round the tank ; that is to say, it is 

 twisted tighter by the mere action of coiling away ; but this 

 twist is again taken out when the cable is uncoiled ; so that if 

 this operation proceeds with regularity, the cable goes into the 

 sea in the same condition as it left the sheathing machine ; but 

 if the cable is stiff and springy, or if it is drawn from the hold 

 by jerks, or if one or two coils stick together and are drawn up 

 at once, the turn in the cable tends to throw it over into a loop, 

 which may easily be squeezed or drawn into an ugly-looking 

 thing called a ' kink.' With circular coils, and experienced men 

 in the hold, this hardly ever occurs, and it is rendered next to 

 impossible if the eye of the coil is filled up by a smooth cone, to 

 which the rope clings in ascending, and which prevents any coil 

 from being drawn into a loop. This cone, together with certain 

 guiding-rings which prevent the cable from flying out under the 

 action of centrifugal force, forms the subject of a patent taken out 

 by Mr. Newall, and first used in 1855 for the Varna-Balaclava 

 Cable. The excellence of the contrivance hardly admits of a 

 doubt ; but the action of the Patent Laws receives some curious 

 illustrations from the incidents which this patent has given rise 

 to. The validity of the patent has been greatly contested ; sub- 

 stitutes more or less like the thing patented have been devised, 

 but rival manufacturers have seldom consented to use the thing 

 patented and pay the royalty. Although the holds were arranged 

 with contrivances having the same object as Newall's cone and 

 rings, foul flakes, as they are called, twice caine up from the 

 hold, once on each expedition. These foul flakes are simply 

 two or more turns of the cable which come up entangled to- 

 gether, and then get jammed into more or less of a tangle on 

 /leek, for round the brake-drums they cannot go. The cable 



