316 Captain Hall’s Remarks on the Utility of Chain- Cables, 
distinctly enough, but I could not satisfy myself respecting the 1 
filaments which probably exist. In the present state, the black 
substance consists of a quantity of broken-down matter, which 
may have been filaments. From the nature of the whole tribe 
of these plants, I do not think the present one would have been 
produced, except the canvas had been •previously in a damp state.” 
A tit. XIV .—- Some Remarks respecting the Utility of Chain 
Cables. In a Letter from Captain Basil Hall, F. R. S. to 
Professor Jameson. 
Although i cannot give you by any means so complete 
an account, as you require, of the admirable invention of chain 
cables, I shall be happy to extract from notes which I have 
made, from time to time, a few particulars calculated to give 
you the information you want. 
In the first place, there is no doubt that Capt. Samuel Brown 
is the inventor of the chain-cable, and that he is the person who 
has the merit of proposing its introduction in the Ha y. In 
January 1808, Captain Brown suggested the advantage which 
would arise from employing iron-cables as well as iron-rigging. 
In February of the same year, he took out a patent for this in- 
vention. About the same time he went to the West Indies in a 
ship in great part rigged with iron, and fitted with cables of the 
description he had proposed for general adoption. The result 
of this experiment was considered so satisfactory, by a commit- 
tee of naval officers directed to inquire into the subject, that 
two line-of-battle ships, a frigate, and a sloop of w r ar, were order- 
ed to be supplied with chains of 100 fathoms length. In 1811, 
several frigates and sloops were fitted in like manner, and the 
success which attended these early experiments, though, from 
prejudice and ignorance, attended with occasional difficulty, 
gave reason to believe, that, in process of time, the substitution 
of iron for hempen cables would become, if not universal, at 
least nearly so. In 1812, Captain Brown devised a new me- 
thod of closing the links at the side, by means of a long scarf* 
which rendered the welding more secure ; and it has been found, 
since that time, that when these cables are exposed to a strain* 
