Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

286 ENGINEERING WONDERS OF THE WORLD. Fig. 8.—CABLE COILED INTO FACTORY TANKS. retardation was regulated by a hand-wheel actuating a frame-clutch surrounding the outside of a brake-wheel. Owing to an unfortunate arrangement with the “ Newfoundland Company,” too short a time was allowed to provide satisfactorily for the work about to be undertaken, and the paying-out apparatus for the two vessels was somewhat hurriedly constructed. Preparations for the Start. By the third week in July of 1857 the great ships had absorbed all their precious cargo—the Agamemnon in the Thames and the Niagara in the Mersey. For such an undertaking a complete and sufficient engineering and electrical staff must be collected. The engineer-in-chief (Mr. Bright) had as assistants in the engineering department the following :—Mr. (afterwards Sir Samuel) Canning, who had laid the Gulf of St. Lawrence cable ; Mr. W. H. Woodhouse, who had laid some of the cables in the Mediter- ranean ; Mr. F. C. Webb, with considerable experience in early cable work ; * and, finally, Mr, Henry Clifford, a mechanical engineer, destined to be responsibly associated with a large proportion of the cables since laid. Besides Mr. Whitehouse, there were on the electrical staff Mr. C. V. de Sauty, Mr. J. C. Laws, Mr. F. Lambert, Mr. H. A. C. Saunders, Mr. Benjamin Smith, Mr. Richard Collett, and Mr. Charles Gerhardi, all of whom were afterwards prominently connected with sub- sequent submarine cable enterprises. Their respective energies were divided up between the two laying vessels. Professor Morse (who held a sort of watching brief for the United States Government) also took passage, but had to retire to his berth as soon as the ele- * Mr. Webb’s place was subsequently filled by Mr. W. E. Everett, U.S.N., who on this first expedition served as marine engineer of the Niagara.