8 SUBMARINE CABLE LAYING AND EEPAIRING. 



Stallibrass sounding tube is such that it cannot fail to act and 

 release the shot. When used in shallow water the shot can be 

 lashed on and recovered. 



This apparatus has been used with great success by the 

 Societi^ G6n6rale des Telephones, who have found breakages of 

 sounding wire much less frequent with this form of detaching 

 gear than with that in which the sling is cut. The deep water 

 soundings in connection with the laying of the New Caledonia- 

 Australia cable, in 1893, were mostly taken with the Stallibrass 

 detacher and tubes, specimens of underlying layers of the sea 

 bed to a depth of 10 to 12 inches being obtained. This cable 

 was manufactured by the Societie G^nerale des Telephones, at 

 their Bezons and Calais factories, and laid by them from the 

 cable-ship " Frangois-Arago," for the Societie Frangaise des 

 T61egraphes Sousmarins. The cable-ship, originally the s.s. 

 " Westmeath," was used by the above Company in their earlier 

 expeditions when laying the cables connecting Brazil and 

 Guiana with the Antilles, in 1890 to 1891, for which over 300 

 soundings were taken, and the Marseilles-Oran cable in 1892. 



Other types of well-known sounding tubes and detaching 

 gear, such as the Sigsbee-Belknap, the Baillie, Hydra and 

 Brooke forms, are fully described in an able Paper read 

 before the Society of Telegraph-Engineers and Electricians in 

 November, 1887, on "Deep-Sea Sounding in Connection with 

 Telegraphy," by Edward Stallibrass, F.R.G.S. {Journal of the 

 Society, Vol. XVI., page 479). This Paper deals exhaustively 

 with the apparatus in use, giving also the results of long 

 experience in the work, and should be referred to for a further 

 Btudy of the subject. 



For running out and recovering the line a sounding machine 

 is fitted at the stern of the ship. One of the earliest machines 

 ■was that used by the Silvertown Company for many years and 

 illustrated in Figs. 6 and 7. The drum containing the sound 

 ing wire was moved into the overhanging position, as in Fig. 6 

 to lower the tubes and sinker, the wire then being unwound 

 straight from the drum and falling clear of the ship. For 

 reeling-in, the drum was put back to the position in Fig. 7, 

 and the wire led over to swivel pulley C, round the auxiliary 

 pulley B, and up to the drum. In these particulars the 

 machine did not differ from that first used by Lord Kelvin^ 



