IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH CABLES, AND IN THE MODE OF OBTAINING SIGNALS
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Shepherd Rosser, of No. 17, Upper Philimore
Gardens, Kensington, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH CABLES, AND IN THE MODE OF
OBTAINING SIGNALS,"
Sealed the 24th April 1860, and dated the 25th October 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Shepherd Rosser
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 25th October 1859.
I, HENRY SHEPHERD ROSSER, of 17, Upper Philimore Gardens, Kensington,
in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH CABLES, AND IN THE MODE OF
OBTAINING SIGNALS," to be as follows:-
First, in the construction of a cable consisting of 2 or more wires partly
insulated & partly uninsulated; or it may be constructed with the wires
warked into an ordinary hemp or other cable, so that the wires shall not come
in metallic contact with each other. The wires may be of any metal or of
opposite metals, cr such metals as may be good conducters, & I
propose to
coat such wire when partly insulated only with platinum, to preserve it from
the corrosive action of the sea. In making the cable, the centre core should
be either a small hempen cord, or it may be a gutta percha covered wire. In
the first place, if hempen cord, two or more wires should be wound in a long
Price 8d1

page_text: spiral, so that they shall not come in metallic contact with each other. To.
prevent this, I either cover these wires with cotton or hemp, or any material
that will prevent metallic contact.
In the second case, I use a centre core of wire covered with gutta percha,
using an outer wire uninsulated, or several outer wires wound in a long spiral,
so that they do not come into metallic contact, as before discribed. By the
mode of warking this cable, I shall be able to transmit signals through any
of the existing cables, by using the outer & inner wires that are not capable
of being worked by intense batteries. Thus, if the ends of the two wires
in the one case, & the outer & inner wires in the other be brought in con-
tact with each side of a telegraph recording instrument, & one of the distant
ends be brought in contact with an opposite metal of that of which the line
wire is composed, the metal being in contact with the earth or water will
give deflections in alternate directions as the two ends are caused to make
& break contact alternately at the sending station. In the second place,
the wire core being covered with gutta percha, the signals will be in one
direction only.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Henry Shepherd Rosser in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 24th April 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
SHEPHERD ROSSER, of 17, Upper Philimore Gardens, Kensington, in the
County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-third year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Henry Shepherd Rosser, Her special licence that I, the said
Henry Shepherd Rosser, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Henry Shepherd Rosser, 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 King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man,
an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH CABLES, AND IN THE
MODE OF OBTAINING SIGNALS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the

page_text: said Henry Shepherd Rosser, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment in writing der 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 Henry Shepherd Rosser, 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 and accompanying Drawings, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object improvement in electric telegraph cables,
and in the mode of obtaining signals by the means of making a portion of the
wire of the cable from one of the elements in the voltaic arrangement, and
thereby enabling me to generate and develope my current at the extreme end
of the cable without the use of ordinary batteries.
The first part of my Invention consists in the construction of a cable
composed of two or more wires partially insulated, each wire to be twisted in
a very long spiral around a small cord, thus allowing for any strain that
may be made on the cable without danger of breaking the wire; the cordand
wire so worked together shall be afterwards laid or worked into a strand of
hemp or other fibrous substance (or the wire may be simply laid without
twisting) which I propose shall be saturated with tar or any substance which
will tend to preserve it from the corrosive action of the sea water. In case I
require a larger amount of communication through the same cable without
increasing the number of strands in the same, I use two or more wires pre-
viously covered with cotton or other fibrous substance and worked in the
same manner as before described. In this arrangement the wire or wires thus
worked into the cable will be slightly acted upon by the sea or other water,
a portion of which wire or wires will form one. of the elements in my arrange-
ment, and to preserve such wire or wires and render them a more perfect
negative, I propose to give such wire or,wires, where necessary, a coating of
platinum. By this arrangement the ends of two of the wires being attached
to a recording or relay instrument at the distant station, it is evident that this
forms one wire extending to the place to which the signals are to be trans-
mitted, and back to the station from whence they were sent; by such an
arrangement if either end of the wire of this circuit at the sending station be
by means of a commutator or key brought into contact, with a certain quantity
of zinc in the earth or water, then the current so formed will affect the
recording instrument oppositely at the distant station. By a combination of

page_text: four wires or two circuits in the same cable, the signals can be sent either
way at the same time, and I can use as much of the earth for the return
current as I think advisable.
Secondly, the cable may be constructed with a centre core of wire insulated
with gutta percha or india-rubber or other insulating substance. Around or
along such insulated core of gutta percha, covered wire or wires, I propose to
place, either twisted or laid, one, two, or more wires, according to the amount
of communication required, covered with cotton or other fibrous material
sufficient to prevent such wires coming into metallic contact with each other,
the whole worked into a hempeu cable, or the wires can be worked into the
strands of a hempen cable around such core. By this construction of cable
each end of one of the partially insulated wires being connected with one-side
of a recording instrument at each end, and the insulated wire being in contact
with the other side of the instrument at the receiving station, and the
other end of the insulated wire being brought in contact with the zinc
in the earth or water at the sending station; a current in one direction and
capable of working such instruments as require such a current, will be at once
produced. By this mode of working a cable I shall be able to transmit
signals through the existing cables by means of the outer and inner wires that
are found difficult to work by intense currents; for ifthe outer wire or wires of
the cable be brought in contact with one side of the recording instrument at
each end, and the inner wire be brought in contact with the other side of the
instrument at the receiving end, and the other end of the insulated wire be
brought in contact with an element in the earth or water opposite in its
electrical properties to that of which the external wire ofthe cable is composed
will on each contact with such element at the sending end give signals at the
receiving station. All such cables constructed as before described may be
protected by outer covering of wire at the ends. In using this mode of
transmitting the electric current in subterraneous or land lines, the wire being
first covered with cotton or other fibrous substance is afterwards twisted,
plaited, or laid together to form a cable that may be passed through tubes in
the earth or carried upon poles, not requiring other insulation than a hook
or nail fixed in such posts, and varnished with a composition of gutta percha
or india-rubber.
The conditions necessary for transmitting signals by this arrangement are,
that a portion of the line will be buried in the earth or water, the two ends
of such wire or circuit brought in contact with the recording instrument at the
receiving station and at the sending station, either end brought in contact
with the zinc placed in the earth or water signals will be transmitted in either

page_text: direction. Where it is inconvenient to bring my line wire or cable in contact
with earth or water, and a current in one direction only is required, I would
attach one end of my circuit to a graphite plate in the earth or water, making
and breaking contact with the other end of a wire to a positive metal, and
vice versa.
EXPLANATION OF DRAWINGS.
The Drawings are represented with the wire circuits only, as not as
worked into a cable. Fig. No. 1 represents a cable of two wires only partially
insulated with cotton or any other fibrous substance to prevent actual
metallic contact. A and B are the two wires; C, a recording instrument at
distant station; D, a portion of zinc in the earth or water. If a cable, con-
taining the wires A, B, be connected with each side of a recording instrument
at the receiving station C, and the ends of the wires A or B be made to make
contact with the zinc at the sending end, it will deflect the recording instru-
ment at C' to the right or left according as one end or the other is used by a
proper arrangement of keys or commutators, and the zinc in the earth or
water, as shewn by the dotted lines at the other end, signals can be sent the
reverse way.
Fig. No. 2 is the same arrangement as No. 1, only that it shews a double
circuit, and by which means signals can be sent both ways at the same time,
or more wires may be introduced and conveyed to several distant stations, so
that one cable will carry signals to several terminals at the same time.
Figs. No. 3, A is a gutta percha covered wire, and connected with one side
of a recording instrument at the receiving station; the wire B, which, if used
singly, needs no insulation, and is shewn laid parallel to it, and connected with
the other side of the instrument, and may be connected at each end. If the
end A of the insulated wire be brought in contact with the zinc in the earth
or water at the sending station, the recording instrument at the receiving
station will give the required signal, and vice versa.
What I claim as new is the mode of transmitting signals by electricity in
the manner aforesaid, the electricity being formed by an element placed in the
earth or water at the sending end, and a wire or a series of wires formed of an
opposite element to the other, and passing through the earth or water so as to
form the negative element, and also a conductor of a voltaic circle. And of
using the outer wire or wires of a cable as one element, the centre or insulated
wire being brought in contact with an opposite metal or element to that of
which the outer wires of a cable (or that portion of it which is acted upon in
the earth or water) are composed, and by means of which, with the usual

page_text: instruments, the required signals will be procured in the manner and con-
ditions herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Shepherd Rosser, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of April, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
HENRY SHEPHERD ROSSER. (L.S.)