At Sea, 1944. The Taut Wire Machine on the Quarter Deck of the hydrographic survey vessel HMAS ...

At Sea, 1944. The Taut Wire Machine on the Quarter Deck of the hydrographic survey vessel HMAS Moresby. Taut-wire measuring gear was designed in 1903 by Mr C.A.O. Berner of the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Co. and was first used by this company during the laying of the Pacific Ocean cables. This equipment became a valuable piece of distance measuring equipment for hydrographic survey work until replaced by electronic position fixing equipment. The Taut Wire Machine had a drum on which was wound 140 miles of piano wire. During distance measuring operations one end of the wire was attached to an anchor, if measuring from the shore, or from a buoy if measuring off shore. The wire was then fed out from the drum over a dynamometer which measured the length of wire paid out. The wire was not recovered but cut free and abandoned. On the left is Petty Officer Recorder E.W. Foster and Petty Officer Recorder N.R. (Norm) Laxton is standing behind the piano wire drum, the large wheel in the centre of the photograph. The rotating flyer arm, which can be seen as a blurr inside the drum, is spinning as wire is paid out.