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cable

 
Dictionary: ca·ble   (kā'bəl) pronunciation
Home > Library > Literature & Language > Dictionary
n.
    1. A strong, large-diameter, heavy steel or fiber rope.
    2. Something that resembles such steel or fiber rope.
  2. Electricity. A bound or sheathed group of mutually insulated conductors.
  3. Nautical.
    1. A heavy rope or chain for mooring or anchoring a ship.
    2. A cable length.
  4. A cablegram.
  5. Cable television.

v., -bled, -bling, -bles.

v.tr.
    1. To send a cablegram to.
    2. To transmit (a message) by telegraph.
  2. To supply or fasten with a cable or cables.
v.intr.

To send a cablegram.

[Middle English, from Old North French, from Late Latin capulum, lasso, from Latin capere, to seize.]

cabler ca'bler n.

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Computer Desktop Encyclopedia: cable
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Home > Library > Technology > Computer Encyclopedia

A flexible metal or glass wire or group of wires. All cables used in electronics are insulated with a material such as plastic or rubber. See cable TV, cable categories, cable modem and set-top box.

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Investment Dictionary: Cable
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In the context of the forex market, the exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and the British pound sterling. Because it is the norm in forex for most major currencies to be quoted against the U.S. dollar on a regular basis, "cable" is a commonly used term.

"Cable" can also be used to refer simply to the British pound sterling.

Investopedia Says:
For example, you may hear someone dealing with the forex market saying, "The cable is up today," or, "The cable has been trending lower lately."

The origins of this term are attributed to the fact that in the 1800s, the dollar/pound sterling exchange rate was transmitted via transatlantic cable.

Forex brokers are sometimes referred to as "cable dealers".

Related Links:
Moving from equities to currencies requires you to adjust how you interpret quotes, margin, spreads and rollovers. A Primer On The Forex Market
Find out which currencies are most affected by fluctuations in gold and oil prices and improve your trading. Commodity Prices And Currency Movements
Tap into a world of possibilities by going beyond the simple pro- or anti-dollar trade. Make The Currency Cross Your Boss
Baffled by exchange rates? Wonder why some currencies fluctuate while others don't? This article has the answers. Floating And Fixed Exchange Rates
Whether you're puzzled by pips or curious about carry trades, your queries are answered here. Common Questions About Currency Trading


Banking Dictionary: Cable
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1. International bank draft transmitted by cable transfer between correspondent banks, as opposed to payment through the mail.

2. Trader's shorthand for the U.S. Dollar-pound sterling exchange rate.

US Military Dictionary: cable
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n. 1. a thick rope of wire or non-metallic fiber, typically used for construction, mooring ships, and towing vehicles.

2. the chain of a ship's anchor.

3. a length of 200 yards (182.9 m) or (in the U.S.) 240 yards (219.4 m).

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

Measures and Units: cable
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Home > Library > Science > Measures and Units

cable length, cable's length

length A nautical measure, ≈ 200 m.

Internat 1954 1/10 international nautical mile = 185.2 m (607.6115~ ft).

UK trad 100 fathoms = 600 ft m (182.88~ m), though defined by the Admiralty to equal 1/10 sea mile of 1 minute of latitude locally, hence somewhat variable about the value 608 ft (185.32~ m).

US-C trad 120 fathoms = 720 ft (219.456 m).

Architecture: cable
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1. An electric conductor consisting of a group of smaller-diameter conductor strands twisted together.
2. A group of electric conductors which are insulated from each other.
3. Any heavy rope or wire line used for support, for exerting a force, or for controlling a mechanism.
4. One of the reedings which are set into the flutes of a pilaster or column.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: cable
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cable, originally wire cordage of great strength or heavy metal chain used for hauling, towing, supporting the roadway of a suspension bridge, or securing a large ship to its anchor or mooring. Today a cable often refers to a line used for the transmission of electrical signals. One type of electric cable consists of a core protected by twisted wire strands and suitably insulated, especially when it is used to cross oceans undersea; a message transmitted by cable is known as a cablegram or cable. France and England were first successfully connected by submarine telegraphic cable in 1845. The first permanent transatlantic cable was laid in 1866 by Cyrus West Field, although demonstrations of its possibility had been made in 1858. The first telephone message was transmitted from New York to Philadelphia in 1936; the first transatlantic telephone cable was laid in 1956.

The coaxial cable, which is virtually immune to external interference, consists of two concentric conductors separated by an insulator; the current in the inner conductor draws the current in the outer conductor toward the center rather than letting it dissipate outwards. Because they can carry a large number of signals simultaneously, coaxial cables are also used in cable television systems. The newest form of cable is the fiber-optic cable, developed in the 1970s. Instead of a copper conductor, a silica glass fiber carries digitized signals as pulses of light.

The insulated wire that conducts electricity from generator to consumer is also called a cable; it often contains multiple conductors and must be of sufficient gauge to carry large currents. Its insulation must withstand high voltages.

Word Tutor: cable
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Home > Library > Literature & Language > Spelling & Usage
pronunciation

IN BRIEF: A thick rope, often made of wire strands.

pronunciation They had to hold onto the cable in order to make it up the steep grade of Half Dome.

Tutor's tip: A "cabal" is a secret political plot or a group of secret plotters, "cabala" or "cabbala" is a system of mysticism in Judaism, while "cable" is a strong wire or metal rope.

Wikipedia: Cable
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Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
For other uses, see Cable (disambiguation).
6" or 15cm outside diameter, oil-cooled cables, traversing the Grand Coulee Dam throughout. An example of a heavy cable for power transmission.
Fire test in Sweden, showing rapid fire spread through burning of cable jackets. Of great importance for cables used in installations.
500MCM 1C Power Cable Marking

A cable is two or more wires or ropes running side by side and bonded, twisted or braided together to form a single assembly. In mechanics, cables are used for lifting and hauling; in electricity they are used to carry electrical currents. An optical cable contains one or more optical fibers in a protective jacket that supports the fibers. Mechanical cable is more specifically called wire rope.

Electric cables discussed here are mainly meant for installation in buildings and industrial sites. For power transmission at distances from some km's to 600 km see high voltage cable, power cables and HVDC.

Contents

History

Ropes made of multiple strands of natural fibers such as hemp, sisal, manila, and cotton have been used for millennia for hoisting and hauling. By the 19th century, deepening of mines and construction of large ships increased demand for stronger cables. Invention of improved steelmaking techniques made high quality steel available at lower cost, and so wire ropes became common in mining and other industrial applications. By the middle of the 19th century, manufacture of large submarine telegraph cables was done using machiners similar to that used for manufacture of mechanical cables.

In the 19th century and early 20th century, electrical cable was often insulated using cloth, rubber and paper. Plastic materials are generally used today, except for high reliability power cables.

Electrical cables

Electrical cables may be made more flexible by stranding the wires. In this process, smaller individual wires are twisted or braided together to produce larger wires that are more flexible than solid wires of similar size. Bunching small wires before concentric stranding adds the most flexibility. Copper wires in a cable may be bare, or they may be coated with a thin layer of another material: most often tin but sometimes gold, silver or some other material. Tin, gold, and silver are much less prone to oxidisation than copper, which may lengthen wire life, and makes soldering easier. Tight lays during stranding makes the cable extensible (CBA - as in telephone handset cords).

Cables can be securely fastened and organized, such as by using cable trees with the aid of cable ties or cable lacing. Continuous-flex or flexible cables used in moving applications within cable carriers can be secured using strain relief devices or cable ties. Copper corrodes easily and so should be layered with Lacquer.

At high frequencies, current tends to run along the surface of the conductor and avoid the core. This is known as the skin effect. It may change the relative desirability of solid versus stranded wires.

Cables and electromagnetic fields

Any current-carrying conductor, including a cable, radiates an electromagnetic field. Likewise, any conductor or cable will pick up energy from any existing electromagnetic field around it. These effects are often undesirable, in the first case amounting to unwanted transmission of energy which may adversely affect nearby equipment or other parts of the same piece of equipment; and in the second case, unwanted pickup of noise which may mask the desired signal being carried by the cable, or, if the cable is carrying power-supply or control voltages, pollute them to such an extent as to cause equipment malfunction.

Coaxial cable.
Twisted pair.

The first solution to these problems is to keep cable lengths in buildings short, since pick up and transmission are essentially proportional to the length of the cable. The second solution is to route cables away from trouble. Beyond this, there are particular cable designs that minimise electromagnetic pickup and transmission. Three of the principal design techniques are shielding, coaxial geometry, and twisted-pair geometry.


Shielding makes use of the electrical principle of the Faraday cage. The cable is encased for its entire length in foil or wire mesh. All wires running inside this shielding layer will be to a large extent decoupled from external electric fields, particularly if the shield is connected to a point of constant voltage, such as ground. Simple shielding of this type is not greatly effective against low-frequency magnetic fields, however – such as magnetic "hum" from a nearby power transformer.

Coaxial design helps to further reduce low-frequency magnetic transmission and pickup. In this design the foil or mesh shield is perfectly tubular – ie., with a circular cross section – and the inner conductor (there can only be one) is situated exactly at its centre. This causes the voltages induced by a magnetic field between the shield and the core conductor to consist of two nearly equal magnitudes which cancel each other.

The twisted pair is a simple expedient where two wires of a cable, rather than running parallel to each other, are twisted around each other, forming a pair of intertwined helices. This can be achieved by putting one end of the pair in a hand drill and turning while maintaining moderate tension on the line. Field cancellation between successive twists of the pair considerably reduces electromagnetic pickup and transmission.

Power-supply cables feeding sensitive electronic devices are sometimes fitted with a series-wired inductor called a choke which blocks high frequencies that may have been picked up by the cable, preventing them from passing into the device.

Fire protection

In building construction, electrical cable jacket material is a potential source of fuel for fires. To limit the spread of fire along cable jacketing, one may use cable coating materials or one may use cables with jacketing that is inherently fire retardant. The plastic covering on some metal clad cables may be stripped off at installation to reduce the fuel source for accidental fires. In Europe in particular, it is often customary to place inorganic wraps and boxes around cables in order to safeguard the adjacent areas from the potential fire threat associated with unprotected cable jacketing.

To provide fire protection to a cable, there are two methods:

a) Insulation material is deliberately added up with fire retardant materials

b) The copper conductor itself is covered with mineral insulation (MICC cables)

Electrical cable types

Basic cable types are as follows:

Shape

Construction

Based on construction and cable properties it can be sorted into the following:

Special

Market Information

  • Integer Research Ltd
  • International Cable Makers Federation
  • Wire Association International

Application

  • Wire rope (wire cable)
  • Audiovisual cable
  • Bicycle cable
  • Communications cable
  • Computer cable
  • Mechanical cable
  • Sensing cable [1]
  • Submersible cable

Cable manufacturers

Some global producers of electrical wire and cable include (in alphabetical order): Belden, Cables RCT, Cords Cable Industries, Draka, Fujikura, Furukawa Electric, Hitachi Cable, Igus, Leoni, LS Cable, Marmon Group, Nexans, Pirelli, Prysmian, Southwire, Sumitomo Electric Industries, Tyco, Wonderful Hi-Tech

Further reading

  • R. M. Black, The History of Electric Wires and Cables, Peter Pergrinus, London 1983 ISBN 0 86341 001 4

See also

Search Wiktionary Look up cable in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
A 250V-16A electrical wire on a reel

References

  1. ^ http://www.sensornet.co.uk/files/article/Pipeline%20leak%20detection%20-%20What's%20new%20in%20Process%20Technology%20April%2008.pdf Using fibre optic distributed temperature sensing

External links


This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Translations: Cable
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Dansk (Danish)
n. - kabel, tov, telegram
v. tr. - fastgøre med tov
v. intr. - telegrafere

idioms:

  • cable car    gondol i svævebane
  • cable railway    tovbane
  • cable television    kabel-tv

Nederlands (Dutch)
telegraferen, kabel, koord, kabeltelegram

Français (French)
n. - câble (électrique), câble (une corde), câble (de télévision), câble (télégraphique)
v. tr. - câbler que, câbler qch à qn, câbler (une région), télégraphier, attacher (une corde), équiper (d'un câble)
v. intr. - télégraphier, câbler

idioms:

  • cable car    téléphérique
  • cable railway    funiculaire
  • cable television    télévision par câble

Deutsch (German)
n. - Kabel, (mar.) Ankertau, Überseetelegramm
v. - telegrafieren, kabeln

idioms:

  • cable car    Seilbahn
  • cable railway    Drahtseilbahn
  • cable television    Kabelfernsehen

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - συρματόσχοινο, (ηλεκτρ.) (χονδρο)καλώδιο, (ναυτ.) κάλως, παλαμάρι, τηλεγράφημα, διάπλοκη βελονιά, καλωδιακή τηλεόραση
v. - τηλεγραφώ, στέλνω τηλεγραφικά, τοποθετώ καλώδιο

idioms:

  • cable car    θαλαμίσκος του εναέριου σιδηρόδρομου (τελεφερίκ)
  • cable railway    εναέριος σιδηρόδρομος, τελεφερίκ
  • cable television    καλωδιακή τηλεόραση

Italiano (Italian)
cablare, telegrafare, fornire di cavo, fune, cavo, cablogramma

idioms:

  • cable car    funivia
  • cable television    televisione via cavo

Português (Portuguese)
n. - cabo (m), calabre (m) (Náut.), mensagem (f)
v. - enviar cabograma para, ligar com cabos

idioms:

  • cable car    bonde (m)
  • cable railway    funicular (m)
  • cable television    televisão (f) a cabo

Русский (Russian)
телеграфировать, кабель, канат, телеграмма

idioms:

  • cable car    фуникулер
  • cable railway    фуникулер
  • cable television    кабельное телевидение

Español (Spanish)
n. - cable, amarra, alambre, telex
v. tr. - cablegrafiar
v. intr. - enviar un cable

idioms:

  • cable car    teleférico, funicular
  • cable railway    trasbordador, especie de guinche
  • cable television    televisión por cable

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - kabel, telegram
v. - förse med kabel, telegrafera

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
电缆, 缆, 海底电报, 给...拍越洋电报, 缚住, 发越洋电报

idioms:

  • cable car    缆车, 钢索吊车
  • cable railway    缆索铁道, 缆车道
  • cable television    有线电视

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 電纜, 纜, 海底電報
v. tr. - 給...拍越洋電報, 縛住
v. intr. - 發越洋電報

idioms:

  • cable car    纜車, 鋼索吊車
  • cable railway    纜索鐵道, 纜車道
  • cable television    有線電視

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 케이블, 해외 전보, 굵은 밧줄
v. tr. - ~에 외전을 치다, 케이블을 달다
v. intr. - 해외 전보를 치다, 밧줄무늬로 뜨다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 太綱, ケーブル, 海底ケーブル, 外国電報
v. - 外国電報を打つ, 外国電報で送る, 海外電報を打つ

idioms:

  • cable car    ケーブルカー
  • cable railway    ケーブル鉄道
  • cable television    ケーブルテレビ, 有線テレビ

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) برقيه, قابلو أي حزمه أسلاك (فعل) يرسل برقيه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮כבל, כבל תת-ימי, מברק, 002 ירד (כ-081 מטר), תפר הדומה לחבל מקופל, קישוט בצורת חבל‬
v. tr. - ‮הודיע במברק‬
v. intr. - ‮שלח מברק, הבריק‬

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