292 SUBMARINE CABLE LAYING AND EEPAIRING. 



is shaped hollow on the inside and round on the outside, so as 

 to bear properly on the cable and shoe respectively, and when 

 driven home it grips the cable. The links L L are capable of 

 movement about their points of attachment to the shoe, thus 

 being free to take alignment in the direction of pull. 



These links really form part of the ordinary stoppering chain. 

 Cable can be eased out just the same as with the usual 

 stoppering. The advantage is that the cable is secured in a 

 few seconds whereas in the ordinary stoppering it takes Eome 

 time to put on the seizings, and meanwhile cable may part or 

 render through the stoppers. Bright taut cable in shallow 

 water has been known to slip through the ordinary chain 

 stoppers, due in some cases to the stoppering not having been 

 put on properly, the man entrusted to do it having hurried 

 over it owing to some movement of ship or tightness of cable. 



Fig. 176. — Kingsford's Mechanical Cable Stopper. 



This form of wedge grip has proved very useful, not only for 

 securing the cable over the bows but in other cases, notably 

 when a cable suddenly becomes mechanically weakened in 

 paying out. For such an emergency one of these grips, attached 

 to 100 fathoms or more of Manilla rope made fast inboard, is 

 kept handy, so that in the event of damage occurring while 

 paying out the grip can instantly be set on the cable near the 

 paying-out sheave and the rope run out, the engines being put 

 full speed astern. 



In Fig. 176 the jaws A A, which are hollowed out on the in- 

 side, and burred here and there to grip the cable, slide longi- 

 tudinally along the bed C between taper guides. The jaws are 

 kept apart by the curved spring D, and if moved towards the 

 shackle, open to receive the cable. When tightened up from 

 the shackle, the jaws close, gripping the cable. 



