LAYING DEEP-SEA CABLES. 431 



surface of or even on the surface smooth iron wires, 

 presented by the more common form of submarine 

 cables. 



The speaker showed models illustrating the 

 paying-out machines used on the Atlantic expe- 

 ditions of 1858 and 1865. He stated that nothing 

 could well be imagined more perfect than the 

 action of the machine of 1865 in paying out the 

 1,200 miles of cable then laid, and that if it were 

 only to be used for paying out, no change either in 

 general plan or in detail seemed desirable, except 

 the substitution of a softer material for the "jockey 

 pulleys," by which the cable in entering the 

 machine has the small amount of resistance applied 

 to it which it requires to keep it from slipping 

 round the main drum. The rate of egress of the 

 cable was kept always under perfect control by a 

 weighted friction brake of Appold's construction 

 (which had proved its good quality in the 1858 

 Atlantic expedition) applied to a second drum 

 carried on the same shaft with the main drum. 

 When the weights were removed from the brake 

 (which could be done almost instantaneously by 



