_Alterations in the Paying-Out Gear._--New paying-out machinery was devised with a view to obviating the possibility of a recurrence of the accident on the first expedition. In the new apparatus the brake (Fig. 16) was so arranged that a lever exercised a uniform holding power in exact proportion to the weights attached to it (Fig. 17); and while capable of being _released_ by a hand-wheel, it could not be tightened. The general idea of this clever appliance had been originally introduced by Mr. J. G. Appold in connection with the crank apparatus in jails; and it was now especially adapted to the exigencies of cable work by the engineer (Mr. Bright) and Mr. C. E. Amos, a member of the famous engineering firm, Easton & Amos, who constructed the entire machinery. The great future of the apparatus was that it provided for automatic brake-release, upon the strain exceeding that intended. Thus, only a maximum agreed strain could be applied, this being regulated from time to time by weights, according to the depth of water and consequent weight of cable being paid out. In passing from the hold to the stern of the laying vessel, the cable is taken round a drum, or drums. Fig. 18 gives a general view of the apparatus. Attached to the axle of the drum is a wheel fitted with an iron friction-strap (to which are fixed blocks of hard wood) capable of exerting a given retarding power, varying with the weights hung on to the lever which tightens the strap. When the friction becomes great, the wheels have an increased tendency to carry the wooden blocks round with them; thus the lever-bars are deflected from the vertical line and the iron band opened sufficiently to lessen the brake-power. [Illustration: FIG. 16.--The Self-Releasing Brake.] [Illustration: FIG. 17.--The Principle of the Brake.] Bright also introduced a dynamometer apparatus for indicating and controlling the strain during paying out--a vast improvement on that embodied in the previous machines. The working of the entire machine was as follows: