Trade, and one or two other high officials, but the tendency at present is to limit the number to the principal officers of State above enumerated. All of these officers of the Government are appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister, who makes up his Cabinet from among them, and who may or may not hold one or more of those offices himself. He presides at meetings of the Cabinet, but his preëminence gives him no legal control over that body or over its individual members. Its deliberations are secret, and it always acts as a unit, the defection of a member involving his retirement from the Cabinet and from the office held by him. All of its members are also members of one or the other of the Houses of Parliament and take part in the proceedings of that House.
The term ‘Cabinet’ is sometimes applied, by courtesy, in the United States, to the principal officials of a State Government, who may be called together by the Governor to advise him on questions of policy, and sometimes, in the same sense, the chief executive officers of a municipal government are called a ‘Mayor's Cabinet.’
The literature of the subject is very extensive and will be found more fully referred to under the general heads of Government and Parliament. The historical evolution of the British Cabinet and its relation to Parliament and the Crown are fully set forth in Anson, The Law and Custom of the Constitution (Oxford, 1892); and in Todd, On Parliamentary Government in England (2d ed., London, 1887). Interesting comparisons of the British and American systems of cabinet government are to be found in Bagehot, The English Constitution (London and Boston, 1873), and Bryce, The American Commonwealth (3d ed., London and New York, 1900).
CABI′RI. See Cabeiri.
CABLE (OF., Low Lat. capulum, caplum, a strong [holding] rope, from Lat. capere, to take, hold). A strong chain or rope used to hold a ship to her anchor. Practically all cables are now made of chain, only very small craft using rope. See Anchor, and Chain.
CABLE, Atlantic. See Atlantic Telegraph, and Telegraphy, Submarine.
CABLE, Electric. Strictly speaking, a combination of two or more separately insulated electric conductors with a protective covering or armor. Popular usage sanctions the extension of the term electric cable to simple insulated and armored wires and to ropes of twisted wires without either insulation or armor. Retaining for the present the limited definition first given, an electric cable may be described as consisting structurally of, first, the conducting wires or core; second, the insulating material separating the several wires; and third, the protective covering or armor. Cables may be aërial, submarine, or underground, depending on their position; classed according to their uses they are telegraph, telephone, electric-light, and power cables, and as to the arrangement of their conductors they are straightway or twisted. Cables for different purposes differ somewhat in the details of their construction, but their general construction is substantially similar, and the following description of underground cables for electric lighting will answer for cables for other purposes, with such exceptions as will be noted farther on. Electric-light cables for use underground are of two classes, according as the insulation is or is not moisture-proof. In the first class the insulation is rubber or bitumen and the lead covering is for protection from mechanical injuries only. The second class is insulated with jute, hemp, or paper impregnated with oil, wax, or resinous compound, and the lead covering for this cable is absolutely necessary on account of the hygroscopic nature of the insulation. The manufacture of a cable of the first class may be described briefly as follows: To insulate the conductor it is first wrapped around with one or more layers of pure rubber tape put on spirally, the direction of the spiral being reversed for each successive layer. On top of this rubber compound is applied in two or more separate coatings, each coat being put on by pressing the partially formed cable with two strips of rubber compound, one above and one below it, between a pair of rollers which fold each strip half around the cable and press the edges of the two strips together so as to make a good joint along each side. When a sufficient number of layers of rubber compound have been put on to give the requisite thickness, the core is tightly bound in a spiral wrapping of prepared rubber tape and then vulcanized. After this the cable is tested to determine the efficiency of its insulation. If this test is satisfactory the cable is taken to the taping and braiding machine, where the external covering of tapes and braiding is put on. The next step is to armor the cable with lead. This may be done by drawing the cable into a lead tube, which is then drawn through a die and made to fit the core tightly; or the last cover may be put on in a hydraulic press, the hot lead being forced out through an annular die around the cable. The accompanying sketch shows the make-up of an electric-light underground cable before it is armored. Of cables of the second class the Siemens cable and the paper cable are representative examples. In the Siemens cable the conductor is wrapped with jute and impregnated with a special bituminous compound mixed with heavy oil, and is then covered with lead. Paper cable consists of paper wound on in strips spirally over the conductor, and as each strip is applied the whole is passed through a die which presses it into a compact mass. The core is then dried at a temperature of 250° F., to expel the moisture from the paper, and immersed in a bath of specially prepared compound, from which it passes directly to the lead-covering press.
AN UNDERGROUND CABLE FOR ELECTRIC LIGHTING.
The standard type of cable for telephone work consists of 400 insulated wires twisted in pairs with about three-inch lay; and the pairs are cabled in reverse layers, forming a cable about two inches in diameter. The 200-pair cable is used for main routes, but 100-pair, 50-pair, and smaller cables are used for distribution. The insulation consists of dry paper wound loosely on the wire, and the whole is armored with lead
