IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE ARRANGEMENTS OF APPARATUS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF HEMPEN OR OTHER FIBROUS COVERED INSULATED WIRES FOR SUBMARINE TELEGRAPH CABLES
Year: 1860

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Sinnock at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on tho 12th January
1860.
I, WILLIAM SINNOCK, of Brompton, in the County of Kent, Ropery
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE ARRANGEMENTS OF APPARATUS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF HEMPEN OR
OTHER FIBROUS COVERED INSULATED WIRES FOR SUBMARINE TELEGRAPH CABLES," to
be as follows :-
This Invention is designed more particularly for preventing the occurrence
of defects in the "make" arising from stoppages incidental to the process of
manufacture of any description or form of hempen or other fibrous covered
telegraph cables, especially those descriptions wherein the yarns, threads, or
cords are laid longitudinally along and upon the core or insulated conductor.
In the ordinary form of making up rope, when the yarns, threads, or cords
have been passed through the register plate, so as to determine their position,
they are subjected to suitable tubular compression, and afterwards, at the point
of lay or make, a further compression is applied, which separate and distinctive
processes are especially necessary in order to obtain and maintain uniformity
tension on the whole in the progress of combination. As, however, the
principles of making rope cannot be adopted in detail in making telegraph
cables, the former being made in short lengths of a few fathoms only, whilst the
latter must be made in continuous lengths of many miles, involving therefore
the necessity of the "form" and the "make" being in one operation, and con-

page_text: sequently making, stoppages in the process of manufacturing must occur, every
one of which, unless especially provided for, imparts serious injury to the
strength of the cable, as creating positive and permanent defects in the core
or insulated conductor. It is therefore proposed to effect the desired object of
obtaining and maintaining complete uniformity of tention of the whole of the
threads, yarns, or cords in the form as well as the make, by arranging and setting
up the first, or forming tube, and the second or "make" tube (which should be
a spiral tube) at a distance of some ten to twenty feet apart, in which space
the the assimulation and uniformity of tension may be secured previous to the
yarns, threads, or cords entering the "lay," and then to set up the said second
tube, whether it be an adjustable spiral spring tube, a lever nipper tube, or the
ordinary permanent ropeing tube (either of which may be used; but I prefer
the adjustable spiral spring tube), so that whenever and immediately upon a
stoppage taking place the compressional arrangement may be motioned slowly
in a sliding grooved frame by suitable mechanical means backward from the
point of "lay" or "make" of whatever form the cable may be, or if necessary
entirely removed therefrom. By this means the points of tension imposed by the
draw off and the heated surface of the tubular compression are continuously
being changed by ts passing over the exterior surface of the cable, thus
effectually securing and preserving the necessary uniformity of tension
throughout the "make," as well as preventing the possibility of the core being
injured by the continuous application at any one point of the frictional heat of
the of the tube during stoppages in process of manufacture.