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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 885
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ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
18 November 1896.]
Mr. LUCAS.
Mr. Gilles-continued, payment for the cable is never completed if a fault existed.
911. Then are we to assume that all cables are equally well constructed and would have an equally long life, assuming other things, as far as the bottom is concerned, being similar?-That is rather a large question, that all cables should be equally well constructed and have an equally long life.
Mr. Jones.
912. On the same specification -I take it that if you specify for a certain quality of ma- terial all through and you employ a firm of engineers to inspect and to test all your work throughout, that they woull not permit of any inferior material being passed into a cable in any way, and they would take care that it was up to standard before they allowed their employers to pay for it.
Chairman.
913. Would you kindly read out the exact clause there which ensures this question of faults? It would be put in the specification of the cable and not in the contract; the specification would be part of the contract, of course.
914. Have you handed in a specification?- I have handed in a very incomplete one, only describing the one type-not a complete speci- fication at all.
915. Might not the existence of air-bubbles, for instance, he discovered after the cable has been laid for a month or two, and might not the existence of these air-bubbles affect very seriously the effectiveness of the cable, and may not one manufacturer he more successful in the elimina- tion of air-bubbles than another?-According to his own account. I take it that each contractor will tell you I do not know, I am not giving this as a certain thing, but I think it possible that each contractor will tell you that his cable has peculiar properties of its own which makes it much better than anybody else's cable. I take it that that is what you are leading up to. You are mentioning that somebody has already been telling you that his cable is the only one that is any good.
Mr. Gillies.
Mr. Murray-continued.
[Continued.
get the article that you specify for if you put it in the hands of people who have knowledge of it, and who have experience.
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918. For instance, in Sir George Richards', letter he says:- We have therefore specified for a core of 650 lbs. copper and 400 lbs. gutta-perela, which would, when laid in a length of 3,650 miles, have a K R=94, which, estimated on the basis of the working of exist- ing cables, would allow of the transmission of You would say, 1 pre- 70 letters per minute." sume, that à core with, say, 500 lbs. copper and 300 lbs. gutta-percha over the same distance would not produce the result of 70 letters a minute-There you are coming back to the which i have already explained, of the difficulty elasticity of that term.
919. I am assuming that you are speaking of the same thing in both cases ?-He speaks of 70 letters a minute, and I think he is in the safe
side.
920. But it would not be safe, according to your evidence, to sperity for a weaker cable than That which you have mentioned there, if we wish to arrive at 70 letters a minute?—Of course, 70 letters a minute is a very slow cable after all. You want the best you can get; if it is compul- sory to go to Faming Island, you will not get as good a working cable as the majority of the cables that are in existence at the present time. It will be, under any conditions, one of the slowest cables, its length being about 1,000 miles in ex- cess of any existing cable.
Sir Donald Smith.
921. Is there any test that can be applied to a enlle before being laid which will show faults, such as an air-bubble-anything of that kind?
The cables are constantly tested. They are never let alone. The very first piece of core that is made is tested until the entire cable is finished and laid at every stage. The engineers who inspect the manufacture insiet upon there being an absolutely faultless cable.
922. Is there any method by which a relative pressure-the same pressure that a cable would be subjected to, say, in 3,000 fathoms or 4,000 fathoms, or 5,000 fathoms of water, could he applied to a cable before it is laid, to ascertain faults, if any --There have been numbers of different systems of testing adopted, but I think
916. Oh, no; we have not had any evidence nothing has been found to have any advantage
of that kind.———
Chairman.] Nobody said that.
Mr. Murray.
917. But, however, you are satisfied that if we ask for a given quantity of copper and a given insulator, that that will produce calculated results independent of manufacture?—I am quite satisfied of that, if it is carefully seen that everything is up to the specification, and that the specification is well drawn up, and
good inspection during the manufacture, and that everything is tested. You may be quite sure that you will
that there is
over the ordinary system.
923. Would you consider with such a cable as is proposed to lay on the Pacific that it would be safe to depend on a single cable in the working? -Of course, a duplicate line is a very important thing indeed, and if there are to be repairs it is absolutely essential for the purpose of keeping up the communication. I have seen estimates made for this particular cable in which two mainten- ance ships were included, and it was estimated that they would be employed two months in the year each, but in the same calculation the traffic was estimated to go on all the time. Now either one or the other must be wrong; it two ships were going to be employed on repaire for that period, there must be a considerable interruption,
18 Vorember 1896.]
Mr. LUCAS.
Sir Donald Smith-continued. unless there was a duplicate line; or, on the ather hand, if the cable was going to carry its traffic continuously those two ships would not be wanted
Mr. Jones.
924. They would not be wanted at all; naturally there would be some interruption?—If there are interruptions, and if there are repairs to be done by a repairing ship, then traffic will stop unless you have a duplicate cable. That is obvious.
925. In reply to the Chairman you gave as your reasons for not handing in your specifica- tion there that it provided for rather a different type of cable. Do I understand you from that that it was a different type so far as regards the weight of the copper or the gutta-percha, or in the material do you manufacture more than one class of cables?—No, we did hand in a specifi- cation; it was a specification of the main type of cable; it was not a complete specification be- cause it did not go into all the details of the intermediates and the shore ends, and of all the different sections, and the sizes of core; it was which nerely a specification of the deep-sea type, we should recommend for this long section.
926. Then you only manufacture, as a matter ut fact, one class of cable; that is, in quality?— We only manufacture the best; you have made 1 was not wishing to make that me say that. boast.
Mr. Gillies. 927. Talking of speeds, which is the last phrase. have you any idea of the speeds of the various prin- cipal cables I have, but in my case it would only be outside and more or less hearsay, and if you wish to get information on that point it would be much better to get it direct from the companies who own these cables than from myself, who, as a cable engineer, have to do with the laying of the cables and not the working of them.
928. It is very important if we are to be told that our cable, at least the proposed cable, he- cause it is a great length from Vancouver to Faoning Island, is bound to be a slow cable, pro- bably the slowest cable that ever was fair, That is a very serious thing. It will certainly be the longest cable.
929. How can we expect to compete with any other company that will probably be sending two words to our one if we can never improve on it? -It will undoubtedly be the longest cable, and
Mr. Gillies-continued.
[Continued.
I think there is no blinking the fact that it will be the slowest,
930. I think we have evidence that there is a longer stretch than that in existence now ?-No.
Sir Donald Smith.] Two thousand seven hundred miles is the longest.
Mr. Gillies.
931. Is that all ?-It goes a long step beyond any cable that has ever been laid.
Sir Saul Samuel,
932. Its great length and depth, I presume, would make it slow-Its great length is the difficulty, the speed being inversely as the square of the length. That I have tried to bring be- fore you on that diagram.
933. Is it not a fact that all cables before going into the ship are tested, both on behalf of the maker and on behalf of the purchaser, and that they are also tested when being paid out? -Entirely throughout the whole thing, and of course the maker of the cable is very deeply interested in the cable being perleet and with- out fault. He knows quite well that if it is laid with a fault, he has to get that fault out, and make the cable perfect before he can hand it over, therefore nobody can be more interested in the cable being perfect than the contractor.
934. Docs not sometimes happen that when a cable was being paid out after it had gone
aboard ship that a fault has been discovered? – Oh, yes.
935. But that fault has, of course, been made good?-If such a
thing happens, the cable has to be picked up, and the fault cut out.
Mr. Jones.
936. May I ask what is the rate of speed of laying a cable?-In deep water we usually pay out a cable between seven and eight knots per
hour.
937. Well, in 3,000 fathoms, how long would it take a cable to adjust itself to the inequa lities that it passes along how long would it take it to reach the hottom?-I estimated about 20 miles astern before the cable would reach the bottom.
938. Twenty miles?-Fully that. The plan which I showed you I did not propose to put in for publication, but if it is of any interest to the Committee I should be glad to leave it with you.
The Witness withdrew.
Adjourned till Monday next, at Half-past Eleven.
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