[Illustration: FIG. 5.--APPARATUS FOR MEASURING THE LENGTH OF THE WIRE
PAID OUT.]

Near the winding pulley, there is a small auxiliary engine, M, which
is then geared with the axle of the said pulley, and which raises the
sounding apparatus that has been freed from its weight by a method that
will be described further along.

We have endeavored in Fig. 4 to show the aspect of the bridge at the
moment when a sounding was about being made. From this engraving (made
from a photograph) our readers may obtain a clear idea of the Thibaudier
sounding apparatus, and understand how the wheel over which the wire
runs is set in motion by the Brothergood engine.--_La Nature_.

* * * * *




CABLE GRAPNEL.


Some improvements have recently been made by Mr. Alexander Glegg and the
inventor in the well-known Jamieson grapnel used for raising submerged
submarine cables. The chief feature of the grapnel is that the flukes,
being jointed at the socket, bend back against a spring when they catch
a rock, until the grapnel clears the obstruction, but allow the cable
to run home to the crutch between the fluke and base, as shown in the
figures. In the older form the cable was liable to get jammed, and cut