CABLE is either a large rope or a chain of iron links. Rope cables are made of the best hemp or of wire, twisted into a mass of great compact ness and strength. The circumference of hemp rope varies from about 3 inches to 26. Wire rope has largely taken the place of hemp for tow-Iine and hawsers on board ship. These usually consist of six strands, laid or spun around a hempen core, each strand consisting of six wires laid the contrary way around a smaller hempen core. The wires are II—Cyc galvanized or coated with a preservative composition. Wire ropes are usually housed on board ship by winding them round a special reel or drum. Hemp cables, moreover, have for long been al most wholly superseded by chain cables; the introduction of steam on board ship having brought in its train the powerful steam windlass wherewith to manipulate the heaviest chains and anchors re quired. Hempen and wire ropes are in variably used as tow-lines and for moor ing vessels.
Chain cables are made in links. There are two distinct kinds of chain cables—the stud-link chain, which has a tie or stud welded from side to side, and the short-link or unstudded chain.
The sizes of chain cables are denoted by the thickness of rod iron selected for the links.
In mechanical engineering, a cable is the wire rope used for the purpose of moving the kind of street cars com monly called cable cars or grip cars. A very serious phase of the cable system is in the fact that by far the greater per cent. of the initial power is required to simply haul the cable without cars at tached, or when the cable is a little worn it is easily overloaded. The wire rope used for submarine telegraphy is also called a cable. The term is also applied to wires used underground in telephone and electric lighting work, as well as to certain aerial wires used for power transmission. See TELEPHONE; TELE GRAPH. In navigation the cable is a nautical measure of distance=120 fath oms, or 720 feet, by which the distances of ships in a fleet are frequently esti mated.