Telegraph Cables or Trench Lines, which we designate Fault Searcher.
Year: 1886

page_text: Telegraph Cables or Trench Lines, which we designate Fault
Searcher.
We JOHN GOTT of Mildmay Cottage The Grove Weston Super Mare in the
County of Somersetshire Telegraph Engineer and HERBERT KINGSFORD of Priory
Hill Dover in the County of Kent Telegraph Engineer do hereby declare the
nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:—
In picking up a Cable for the purpose of discovering and removing a Fault it is
usual to cut the cable every now and then when the fault is believed to be near
the ship in order to ascertain whether the defect is already in board or not. Now
to obviate the expenditure of Time and Cable-we use an instrument which we
term "a fault searcher" by the aid of which in conjunction with a Telephone or
other sensitive current detector it is easy to determine the moment when the fault
comes in board without cutting the cable.
The instrument consists of a large number of turns of insulated wire wound
round a Frame preferably of semi circular form. This may be made of Gutta
Percha vulcanite wood or metal as desired and may conveniently be fitted
permanently on the ship in such a position that the cable shall in passing from
the bows in board be made to pass over and very close to that part of the frame
which may be appropriately termed the Diameter. The ends of the wire wound
round the frame are connected by two wires to a telephone or other sensitive
current detector which may conveniently be placed in the testing room or any
other cabin in which comparative stillness may be obtained.
It will be seen that if we set up in the cable a current rapidly changing in
direction or intensity the detector in connection with the Fault Searcher will
indicate such change. According to the circumstances of the case the passage of
current through the cable may be regulated at either the shore or the ship end. In
either case the other end of the cable should be left perfectly dry and free.
The fault searcher can be inade in multitudinous forms and might if required be
fitted to a Drum or to the Bow sheave in which case rubbing contacts would have
to be established for connection with the current detector.
The Fault searcher will be found extremely useful in nearly all cases of fault
localization and also for discovering the whereabouts of buried wires particularly
shore ends of cables.

page_text: In order to ensure the perfect dryness and insulation of the end of the cable we
place on the latter a cap composed preferably of india rubber. This cap resembles
in form a cork but the axis is hollow to within say half inch from one end. The
hole has a series of deep threads throughout its length. Between each thread
therefore there is a projecting ring which offers a new obstacle to the penetration
of moisture. Such a terminal insulator will be found of great use also in all cases
where the end which it is desired to leave free and dry is liable to contact with
extraneous substances or to become moist through the humidity of the atmosphere
or other causes. It is easy to make a cork which would form a perfect seal for the
cable end even should the latter be plunged under water.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
Invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what
we claim is
1. The use of insulated wire arranged in a Frame in circuit with a sensitive
current detector in the form and for the purposes herein set forth.
2. The terminal insulator herein mentioned.