IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND LAYING OF TELEGRAPHIC CABLES."
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Macintosh, of North Bank, Regent's Park, in
the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
CONSTRUCTION AND LAYING OF TELEGRAPHIC CABLES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Macintosh at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 24th
October 1857.
I, JOHN MACINTOSH, of North Bank, Regent's Park, in the County of
Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND LAYING OF TELEGRAPHIC CABLES," to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the construction and
laying of telegraphic cables. For constructing telegraphic cables, I first coat
the conducting wire or strand with gutta percha,or a compound of gutta percha
and india-rubber, or other insulating material in the usual way, and I then
fold round the wire or strand so coated the bat or fleece from a carding engine,
or in other ways I surround the coated wire or strand with fibres laid parallel
to its length, and by means of rollers or otherwise I crush the fibres into the
coating of gutta percha or other insulating material while it is still in a soft
state. Afterwards I again coat the wire or strand with gutta percha or other
substance, with which I mix a quantity of iron filings, and in this way I obtain
a cable much stronger in comparison with its weight than the cables con-
structed in the usual way, and after it has been submerged for some time, the
[Price 8d1

page_text: salt water corrodes the iron filings into a solid mass. When the cable is
laid on a rocky bottom, and in shallow water, I protect it with iron wires
laid round it as heretofore.
In laying telegraphic cables I pass the cable when it is clear of the ship
over a pulley, which I suspend from the gaff or other spar by long springs
of vulcanized india-rubber, and the end of this gaff or other spar I stay to
the topmast by another vulcanized india-rubber spring, so that the pulley
over which the cable passes (and which may be attached to the spanker
boom or other spar) is able by the yielding of the springs to rise and fall to
compensate for the upward and downward motion of the stern of the ship.
In order to keep this pulley from heating, a stream of water may be caused
to flow over its bearings, or it may be enclosed in a case containing water.
In order to assist the compensating action of the springs before mentioned,
I suspend from the spar which carries the pulley, or I otherwise connect
with the pulley, a metal or other basket or vessel, which ordinarily hangs a
short distance under the surface of the water, and is towed behind the ship
by a rope; but when the stern to the ship is raised by a sea, this basket is
lifted out of the water, and the weight of the water it contains assists the
cable in bringing down the springs with the pulley.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Macintosh in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
24th April 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
MACINTOSH, of North Bank, Regent's Park, in the County of Middlesex, send
greeting..
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twenty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said John Macintosh, Her special licence that I, the said John Macintosh,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
John Macintosh, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IM ROVEMENTS IN

page_text: THE CONSTRUCTION AND LAYING OF TELEGRAPHIC CABLES," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said John Macintosh, my executors or admi-
nistrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their
hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the
said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and
cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Macintosh, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the fol-
lowing statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the construction and
laying of telegraphic cables. For constructing telegraphic cables, I first coat
the conducting wire or strand with gutta percha,or a compound of gutta percha
and india-rubber, or other insulating material in the usual way, and I then
fold round the wire or strand so coated the bat or fleece from a carding
engine, or in other ways I surround the coated wire or strand with fibres laid
parallel to its length, and by means of rollers or otherwise I crush the fibres
into the coating of gutta percha or other insulating material while it is still in
a soft state. Afterwards I again coat the wire or strand with gutta percha or
other substance, with which I mix a quantity of iron filings, and in this way
I obtain a cable much stronger in comparison with its weight than the cables
constructed in the usual way, and after it has been submerged for some
time, the salt water corrodes the iron filings into a solid mass. When the
cable is laid on a rocky bottom and in shallow water, I protect it with iron
wires laid round it as heretofore.
In laying telegraphic cables I pass the cable when it is clear of the ship over
a pulley, which I suspend from the gaff or other spar by long springs of
vulcanized india-rubber, and the end of this gaff or other spar I stay to the
topmast by another vulcanized india-rubber spring, so that the pulley over
which the cable passes (and which may be attached to the spanker boom or
other spar) is able by the yielding of the springs to rise and fall, and
compensate for the upward and downward motion of the stern of the ship. In
order to keep this pulley from heating, a stream of water may be caused to
flow over its bearings, or it may be enclosed in a case containing water. In
order to assist the compensating action of the springs before mentioned, I
suspend from the spar which carries the pulley, or I otherwise connect with
the pulley a metal or other basket or vessel, which ordinarily hangs a short
distance under the surface of the water, and is towed behind the ship by a

page_text: rope; but when the stern to the ship is raised by a sea, the basket is lifted
out of the water, and the weight of the water it contains assists the cable
in bringing down the springs with the pulley.
In carrying out this part of my Invention I proceed in the following
manner: I. cover the conducting wire or strand with gutta percha, or a
compound of gutta percha and india-rubber, or other insulating matter by
means of machinery, such as is at present employed for the purpose,and as is
well understood. While the insulating coating is still soft I lap around it the
bat or fleece from a carding engine. The bat or fleece as it comes from the
drum of the carding engine is passed through a revolving tube, as is usual in
carding engines, and afterwards it passes between a pair of rollers, which
crush the bat or fleece together into a ribbon corresponding as near as may be
in width with the circumference of the coated wire or strand round which it is
to be lapped, and the bat or fleece thus condensed is received and wound
upon a bobbin. The fibre which I prefer to employ is cotton, or of flax or
of other material.
The bobbin containing the bat or fleece is mounted on the frame of the
covering machine, and as the conducting wire or strand covered with the
insulating material issues from the covering machine it passes through a ring
or guide slightly larger in diameter than it itself is, and this ring or guide is
placed concencentrically within, and is carried by a second ring, the two rings
being connected together at the bottom by a piece of metal passing from one
to the other; the space between the two rings is sufficient to allow the con-
solidated ribbon of bat or fleece to pass freely between them,and in so passing
between the two rings the bat or fleece is bent over the covered wire or strand.
Immediately in front of the ring guide two grooved rollers are mounted, which
are driven at the same surface speed as that with which the covered wire or
strand issues from the covering machine,and the grooves in the surfaces of the
two rollers meet where the rollers come in contact, so as to form a circular
eye,through which the covered wire together with the fibre is passed,and the
insulating covering of the wire being still in a soft state, the fibre is by passing
between the rollers crushed in amongst the gutta percha, the compound of
gutta percha and india-rubber, or the other insulating matter. Sometimes I
apply a further coating of insulating matter by means of these crushingrollers,
so as to give better surface to the covered wire; for this purpose I furnish
each of the crushing rollers with a scraper or doctor, placed at such an angle
with the surface of the roller as to form with it a trough for receiving gutta
percha or other insulating material in a plastic state. As the rollers revolve
they take with them out of these troughs a quantity of the gutta percha or

page_text: other material; the scrapers or doctors being so formed as to allow the
plastic material to escape from the troughs at the grooves, but not elsewhere,
and the portion of the insulating material so taken is crushed in along with
the fibre. Sometimes in place of the bat or fleece from a carding engine, I
employ a series of yarns to surround coated wires or strands. For this
purpose I wind the yarns on bobbins, and lead them down through a guide
placed as before described, but for the double ring guide I substitute a single
ringwith small holes in it encircling the central larger hole,and through each
of these small holes a yarn is threaded; in this way I ensure the yarns being
laid in accurately in a direction parallel to the wire or metal strand. I prefer
to employ yarns of very small size, so that by passing under the crushing
rollers they may be completely embedded in the insulating material. If
great strength is required, I make use of yarns of flax. In the last coating
of gutta percha I sometimes mix iron filings, but I make no claim thereto.
The second part of my Invention consists in passing the cable when it is
clear of the ship over a pulley or sheave, which I suspend from the gaff or
other spar or spars by long springs of vulcanized india-rubber, so that the
pulley or sheave over which the cable passes is able by the yielding of the
springs to rise and fall, and compensate for the pitching and surging of the
ship; and in order to assist the compensating action of the springs before
mentioned, I suspend from the sheave a float or spar about the specific gravity
of water, which is attached under the quarter of the ship, and bridled in such
a manner that the outer end of the spar is free to move vertically, but not
laterally, so that when the stern of the ship rises by a sea this float is lifted
nearly out of the water, so that its weight assists the cable in bringing
down the sheave; or I employ a long tube having a piston operating on the
delivering sheave, and thus use the pressure of the atmosphere for the
same purpose.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Macintosh, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of April, One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-eight.
Witness,
GEO. PITT.
JOHN MACINTOSH. (L.S.)