The manufacturers of the machinery were Messrs. Easton & Amos, of Southwark, under the superintendence of Mr. Penn, Mr. Field, Mr. Lloyd, Mr. Everett, and Mr. Bright.
The important part of the apparatus consisted of Appold's self-regulating brake, so adjusted and constructed as always to exert a certain amount of resistance, regulated by the revolution of the wheels to which it was applied. More than this fixed amount of resistance, whatever it might be, it could not produce, no matter whether the machine was hot or dry, or covered with sand; neither could it be worked at less than this amount. It was made of bars of wood laid lengthwise across the edge of the wheel, over which it lapped down firmly, and to which it was held with massive weights fixed to the ends of levers, which regulated the degree of resistance to the revolutions of the wheel, and which, of course, enabled those in charge of the machine to fix the pressure of the brake. In the new apparatus the brake was attached over two drums connected with the two main grooved wheels, round which the actual Cable passed in running out. The latter were simply broad, solid, iron wheels, each cut with four very deep grooves in which the Cable rested, to prevent it flying up or "overriding." It passed over these two main wheels, not in a double figure of eight, as in the old ponderous machine of four wheels, but simply wound over one, to and round the other, and so on four times, till it was finally payed down into the water. Thus, the wire was wound up from the hold of the vessel, passed four times over the double main wheels, connected with the brake or friction drums, past the register which indicated the rate of paying out and the strain upon the Cable, and then ran at once into the deep. The strain at which the Cable would break was 62 cwt., and to guard against any chance of mishap, not more than half this strain was put upon it. The brakes, as a rule, were fixed to give a strain of about 16 cwt., and the force required to keep the machine going, or about 8 cwt. more, was the utmost that was allowed to come upon the wire.
The brake of the paying-out machine used on the occasion of the first attempt was capable, by a movement of the hand, of exerting prodigious resistance. In the new machine any one could in a moment ease it, until there was no resistance at all beyond the 8 cwt. strain on the wire.
