IMPROVE-' MENTS IN SUBMARINE TELEGRAPHY
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Macintosh, of North Bank, Regent's Park,
London, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-'
MENTS IN SUBMARINE TELEGRAPHY."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Macintosh at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
15th August 1868.
I, JOHN MACINTOSH, of North Bank, Regent's Park, London, in the
County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SUBMARINE TELEGRAPHY," to be as follows:-
It is well known to electricians that in working long lines of telegraph
a relay and local battery are employed at certain intervals for the purpose
of sending a fresh current on the line. Now my Invention consists in
submerging at any point in a submarine line and connected therewith
one or more such batteries and relays contained in a water-tight vessel
which shall be sunk with the cable. By these means the continuity of
long lines of submarine telegraphic cable may be broken at any desired,

page_text: point with great advantage in regard to economy of construction and
laying and efficiency in working the line.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Macintosh in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 15th February 1869.
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 Fifteenth day of August, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
Becond 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, adminis-
trators, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN SUBMARINE
TELEGRAPHY," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
John Macintosh, my executors or administrators, 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 In-
vention, 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 my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement:-
This Invention consists in dividing. long submarine lines into sections.

page_text: (or simply by induction coils), these being enclosed within air and water-
tight vessels submerged together and in connection with the cable at
the bottom of the sea, the object being to obtain signals through long
submarine telegraph lines with greater rapidity than heretofore, or the
speed being the same with a reduction in the weight of materials in the
core of the cable. The local battery or electromotor sending forward a
fresh current by the action of the relay may consist of any voltaic battery
of suitable construction (devised to remain in constant action for a con-
siderable period of time) which together with the relay are enclosed
with the air and water-tight vessel which is furnished with earth
contacts and stuffing boxes, through which latter the two ends of the
cable pass and are hermetically sealed. When induction coils alone
are used the cable is enlarged at the point of connection sufficiently to
envelope the coil which is submerged with the cable to the bottom. In
submerging the cable with the vessel containing the relay and local
battery it is advisable to lay a few miles of cable as slack on each side in
case it is required to raise the cable and renew the relay and battery.
From the simplicity of the Invention I have thought it unnecessary to
go further into details as various modifications of relays, local batteries,
and induction coils are well known and applied by electricians.
Having now described my Invention, and the means of carrying the
same into effect, I would have it understood that I do not claim relays,
local batteries, or induction coils; nor do I confine myself to the use of
any particular for or arrangement of such relays and local batteries
and induction coils, as they are used largely for land lines and vary
according to the purpose for which they are required, but what I do
claim is the dividing of submarine lines of telegraph into sections and
uniting them by means of relays, local batteries, or induction coils, as
herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Macintosh, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of February, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.
JOHN MACINTOSH. (L.S.)