THE TELEGRAPH. 
190 
or discs, c, c, on bearings between the drums. There were 
four above and four below, and each part of the line was 
thus pushed on after having left one drum and before reaching 
the other. In this way, each part of the line was kept out of 
the way of those following. This winding required more care 
than with an ordinary windlass. 
As the strain this machine would have to bear was very 
great, it was thought advisable to give motion directly to the 
axles b b ; these drums therefore had toothed wdieels fixed on 
each side of them engaging the pinions E, e. By this 
expedient a twisting strain on the axles of the drums w r as 
avoided. 
The strain on the line was thus divided between four 
toothed wheels with teeth four inches thick. 
Each drum had a brake F, attached to its side. These 
brakes w T ere acted on by an axle a a, bearing two screw 
motions from front to back of the machine above the brakes. 
The strain of these brakes was borne by the supports H H, fixed 
to the deck, and not by the axle G G, and this v r as a new 
application of the hoop brake. 
The machine was driven by a pair of engines, which, like 
the machine itself, were supplied by Penn & Co. A special 
mechanism allowed the speed and power to be changed as 
required. The smallest speed, of eighty turns per minute, 
brought on board in one hour three-fourths of a nautical mile, 
and the greatest brought about double that length. 
The machine w*as provided with a tension wheel 1 , and a 
jockey-wheel J, having an adjustable w T eight k, for the purpose 
of keeping the cable tight on the drums. A counter, or tell¬ 
tale, showed the number of turns made by the machine, and 
thus the length of cable raised could be known. Durina* the 
raising, the cable brought on board w T as gradually wound up in 
one of the empty tanks. 
The dragging for the cable w'as thus carried outThe 
exact position of the cable having been marked by two buoys 
placed according to the nautical observations, the ship w T as 
brought into a position two or three miles to the north or 
south of the line of the buoys, according to the state of wind 
or current, so as to allow 7 the vessel to drift slowly across the 
line of the cable. 
