248 SUBMARINE CABLE LAYING AND KEPAIKING. 



heavy work, as he placed two drums tandem, each having five 

 grooves in which the cable was wound backwards and forwards. 

 From the bows it was led over the top of the after drum, leaving 

 this at the top and going round aft drum again, and so on five 

 times. The machine was worked by a small steam engine 

 driving the pulley by a belt. Although never used for the same 

 purpose again, it was not a bad design where a large bear- 

 ing surface was required, as proved by Sir Charles Bright 

 using tandem-grooved wheels for paying-out drums in the 

 " Agamemnon " on the second Atlantic cable expedition. 



After this operation the " Monarch " was again on repairs 

 under Messrs, Edwin Clark and F. C. Webb, who jointly 

 devised the first single-drum picking-up machine (Figs. 144 and 

 145). Spur gearing was arranged, as there shown, with square 



Fig. 143.— Plan of earliest Pickiug-up Machine (1853). 



shafts at A and B for winch handles. These were prolonged 

 both ends to bearings on gunwale, so that 20 men could be put 

 on each side to turn the handles. About 25 turns of the first 

 shaft, A, made one revolution of the drum. The ratchet-wheel 

 on the drum shaft was to prevent any cable running back during 

 pitching. Men were also put on to draw cable taut off drum, 

 as there was then no hauling-off gear. Over the bows was fitted 

 a 3-foot sheave between two timber baulks 12in. square. By 

 degrees improvements were made. Manual work was super- 

 seded by steam, a 4|- h.p. engine being fitted to drive the 

 pulley on shaft A, and then the ratchet was discarded. This 

 design of gear made a very distinct advance, and was the germ 

 of that now generally in use ; in fact, with the addition of the 

 hauling-off gear in '57, Mr. Webb's overhanging drum in '63, 

 and improvements in the brake, we arrive at the principle of 

 most modern machines. 



