Cable Payout System

In cssence, a cable payout system consists of stowage for the cable, machinery for exerting a braking action 011 the cable to regulate the payout rate and instrumentation for determining the correct payout rate. In the first attempt to lay a telegraph cable across the English Channel, the stowage and braking functions of a payout system were provided by a reel mounted 011 the after tleck of a tug and fitted with a brake. For cable systems more than a very few miles in length, the size of the reel soon became unreasonable and less obvious approaches had to be taken. Stowage of cable in cylindrical holds or tanks was employed early in the development of the ocean cable laying art, and seems to have been a natural evolution from the common nautical practice of tiering chain in chain lockers or of coiling whale line in tubs. Similarly, the drum-type cable engines employed for many years as braking devices in handling telegraph cables appear to have been an early adaptation of the anchor windlass. While a combination of tank stowage with drum machinery was adequate for telegraph systems, it leads to problems when systems with 1395