Improvements in Rail Bonds for Electric Railways.
Year: 1899

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Rail Bonds for Electric Railways.
I, FRED HARRIS DANIELS, of Worcester, in the County of Worcester and State
of Massachusetts, United States of America, Gentleman, 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:-
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My invention has reference to a rail-bond designed more particularly for use
as a connection between the terminals of the two adjoining rails of an electric
railway, and consisting of strands of copper wire twisted together in the flattened
copper-wire rope or cable, as shown, for example, in the drawings of my Patent
No. 4824 of 1897. In making such bonds it has been found when the rope or
cable is flattened that the wires of which it is composed are bruised and indented
one into the other and in some instances nearly or quite cut through by the pres-
sure requisite to flatten the rope, while the conducting power of the bond as a
whole is materially impaired. I have discovered that this defect can be obviated
entirely by omitting from the interior of the cable several of the strands, depend-
ing in number upon the cross-section of the cable and the number of strands
of wire composing it; the cable in effect being tubular or pipe-like instead of
solid throughout, as heretofore has been the case. When this tubular or pipe-
like cable is flattened, the wire strands under the pressure to which they are
subjected have the opportunity, owing to the space afforded for this purpose by
the tubular structure of the unflattened cable, to adjust themselves to their new
position and in their new relations without any injury to themselves or without cut-
ting or bruising one another, the resulting product being in this respect notice-
ably different from the flattened bond made from ordinary copper-wire cable,
and, moreover, being much more flexible and satisfactory in every way than the
latter.
In the accompanying drawings,
Figure 1, is a view of a section of the tubular or pipe-like copper-wire cable
or rope from which the connector or bond is to be made.
Figure 2 is a cross-section of the same.
Figure 3 is a view of the bond after it has been flattened out between its
ends.

page_text: Figure 4 is a cross-section of the same through the flattened part.
The copper-wire rope or cable is shown at A, Fig. 1. The difference between
it and the ordinary copper-wire rope is that several of the central or core wires--
in this instance seven-are omitted, thus giving to the rope a tubular or pipe-
like structure. This tubular rope is shown in Fig. 2 as flattened, with the
exception of its ends. These ends themselves can be secured or welded by pres-
sure to suitable terminals, in the manner set forth in my aforesaid Patent
No. 4824 of 1897.
Having described my improvement, what I claim, and desire to secure by
Letters Patent is:.
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1. The improvement in the manufacture of rail-bonds or connectors for elec-
tric railways, which consists in forming from strands of copper wire a tubular
rope or cable, and then flattening said rope or cable by pressure, substantially
as and for the purposes herein before set forth.
2. As an improved article of manufacture, a rail-bond or connector made from
tubular flattened copper-wire rope or cable, as herein before set forth.
Dated this 24th day of July 1899.
BOULT & WADE,
Agents for the Applicant.
BOULT & WADE,
Agents for the Applicant.