Moreover, as the ship could steam
forwards or backwards with equal ease, it became unnecessary to pass the
cable forward before hauling it in, if a fault were discovered in the
part submerged: the motion of the ship had only to be reversed, the
stern rudder fixed, and the bow rudder turned, while a small engine was
employed to haul the cable back over the stern drum, which had been used
a few minutes before to pay it out.
The first expedition of the Faraday was the laying of the Direct
United States cable in the winter of 1874 a work which, though
interrupted by stormy weather, was resumed and completed in the summer
of 1875. She has been engaged in laying several Atlantic cables since,
and has been fitted with the electric light, a resource which has proved
of the utmost service, not only in facilitating the night operations of
paying-out, but in guarding the ship from collision with icebergs in
foggy weather off the North American coast.
Mention of the electric light brings us to an important act of the
inventor, which, though done on behalf of his brother Werner, was
pregnant with great consequences. This was his announcement before a
meeting of the Royal Society, held on February 14, 1867, of the
discovery of the principle of reinforcing the field magnetism of
magneto-electric generators by part or the whole of the current
generated in the revolving armature--a principle which has been applied
in the dynamo-electric machines, now so much used for producing electric
light and effecting the transmission of power to a distance by means of
the electric current.
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