54 REPORT OP COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [52] 



The two bed plates a and b are firmly bolted together, the outboard 

 end resting on a broad friction plate of brass (not shown in the sketch), 

 one end of which is secured to the forecastle rail and the other sup- 

 ported by the strut t, which, by means of right and left hand screws on 

 its ends, not only holds the friction plate in position, but regulates the 

 height of the inboard end, so that the bed plate rests fairly on it at all 

 times. 



The friction plate has a groove along its center line through which 

 passes a compressor bolt (not shown in the sketch), the upper end of 

 which is secured to the bed plate, the lower end carrying a thread and 

 nut. The inboard end of the machine is supported by a pair of brass 

 castors, u u, arranged to conform to any direction in which it may be 

 moved, and by simply tightening the compressor it is held in any 

 desired position. For additional security when rigged out for use, a 

 Lewis bolt, v, is set in the deck, through which a lashing may be passed 

 to an eye-bolt on the bed plate. 



The reel d is of steel strongly bolted ; the sides are of boiler plate ; 

 the barrel is forged and welded ; the hub is of cast iron, and the shaft 

 of steel. The diameter of the reel is 22.89 inches, a turn of the wire 

 equaling exactly one fathom, and it will hold about 6,000 fathoms of 

 No. 11 music, 0.028 inch in diameter, the wire used in deep-sea sound- 

 ing. 



The friction ring, with the V-groove common to all sounding reels, is 

 bolted to the right flange. The shaft carries a ratchet wheel on the left 

 of the reel and a worm wheel on the right, into which the register e is 

 geared. 



The guide frames //are hollow steel tubes, their bases screwed into 

 the cast-steel hinged frame fc, and their tops tied together by a steel 

 casting which carries two pulleys, over which runs the accumulator-rope 

 i. A neat copper cap g covers the apertures in the guide frames and 

 protects the spiral accumulator springs inclosed within them. 



The accumulator-pulley h is of brass, with brass guards over the up- 

 per half to prevent the wire from flying out of the score. 



The frame is cast steel, having cross-heads working on guides bolted 

 to the inner sides of the frames, with small grooved rollers at either 

 end, the upper one for the accumulator-rope i and the other for the 

 friction line J, the whole being very light in order to reduce its inertia 

 to the minimum. 



The spiral accumulator springs referred to above are 28J inches long 

 and 2^ inches outside diameter. They are made of No. 4 (American 

 gauge) steel wire, and have an elastic limit of about 4 feet,, with a 

 weight of 150 pounds applied to the end of the wire, which will give 

 the latter a cushioning of about 8 feet before it can be subjected to a 

 violent jerking strain. 



Graduated scales are so placed on the guide frames that the accumu- 



