THE TELEGRAPH CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE COMPANY'S DISCLAIMER AND MEMORANDUM OF ALTERATION.
Year: 1858

page_text: THE TELEGRAPH CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE
COMPANY'S DISCLAIMER AND MEMORANDUM OF
ALTERATION.
In the Matter of Letters Patent granted to JOHN CHATTERTON; of
Devonshire Street, Islington, in the County of Middlesex;
for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH WIRES, AND IN
INSULATING TELEGRAPH WIRES," bearing date at Westminster,
the Tenth day of February, One thousand eight hundred and
fifty-eight, to which a Specification was duly filed.
DISCLAIMER AND MEMORANDUM OF ALTERATION entered and filed
in the Great Seal Patent Office, pursuant to the Statutes in that
case made and provided, by THE TELEGRAPH CONSTRUCTION AND
MAINTENANCE COMPANY, LIMITED, whose registered office is at
No. 54, Old Broad Street, in the City of London, to whom the
said Letters Patent have been assigned.
WHEREAS after the grant to the said John Chatterton of the said
Letters Patent dated the "Tenth day of February, One thousand eight

page_text: hundred and fifty-eight, and after the filing of the Specification pursuant
to the proviso in the said Letters Patent contained, and describing the
nature of the said Invention, the said John Chatterton did by indenture
dated the Ninth day of December, One thousand eight hundred and
fifty-eight, and made between the said John Chatterton of the one
part and the said Henry Ford Barclay of the other part, assign to
the said Henry Ford Barclay, his executors, administrators, and assigns,
the said Letters Patent, and the exclusive right and enjoyment of the
said Invention thereby granted for all the residue of the said term of
fourteen years, which assignment was duly registered in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the Eighth day of January, One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-nine: And whereas by indenture dated the Thirty-
first day of December One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven,
made between Henry Bewley and the said Henry Ford Barclay of the
first part, Sir Richard Atwood Glass, Knight, George Elliott, Charles
Edwards, and Ralph Elliott of the second part, and us the said Company
of the third part, the said Henry Bewley and Henry Ford Barclay did
assign unto us all the share, right, title, interest, term, and terms of
years, benefit, property, advantage, claim, and demand whatsoever of
him the said Henry Ford Barclay in (among other things) the said
Letters Patent, which assignment was duly registered in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the Third day of March, One thousand eight hundred
and sixty-eight: And whereas we, the said Company, have since ascer-
tained that the description of the materials proposed to be employed
by the said John Chatterton in carrying 'his said Invention into effect are
not described with sufficient precision, and in consequence thereof we
wish to disclaim and alter a part of the said Specification by a Disclaimer
and Memorandum of Alteration. Now we do hereby disclaim and
alter the same by striking out the words occuring in page 2, line 35,
in the Queen's Printers' copy of the said Specification, and which in
the said Specification immediately follow the words "compound of
gutta percha," and immediately precede the words "rendered more or
less fluid," that is to say, the following words, "or suitable " material,"
and the words occurring at page 3, line 9, in the said Queen's Printers'
copy, which in the said Specification immediately follow the words
gutta percha," and precede the words "rendered more or less fluid,"
that is to say, the following words, "or suitable material." And the
said Specification when amended by Disclaimer and Memorandum of
Alteration by leave of Her Majesty's Solicitor-General reads as follows:-―

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
JOHN CHATTERTON, of Devonshire Street, Islington, in the County
of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by
Her Letters Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of February, in
the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight,
in the twenty-first year of Her reign, did; for Herself, Her heirs
and successors, give and grant unto me, the said John Chatter-
ton, Her special license, that I, the said John Chatterton, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said John Chatterton, 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 Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN
ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH WIRES, AND IN INSULATING TELEGRAPHIC WIRES,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John
Chatterton, 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
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 John Chatterton, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that is
to say:
My Invention consists in causing the wires or strands of wires
to pass through a vessel fitted with suitable guages, and con-
taining an insulating compound of gutta percha rendered more
or less fluid by the addition of a solvent or solvents and the
application of heat immediately before; they enter the machine
which puts on the ordinary covering of gutta percha. By this
process I secure complete adhesion between the conducting wires

page_text: and the gutta percha, and also more perfect insulation than can
be obtained by a single covering of gutta percha. I apply the
same process when two or more wires are used twisted or laid
together. For this purpose the wires or strands before they
enter the covering machine are caused to pass through a vessel
which is heated externally by steam, or by other convenient
means. This vessel is supplied with an insulating compound
of gutta percha, rendered more or less fluid by the addition of
solvents and the application of heat. The compound which I
prefer to employ is such as is described in the Provisional Speci-
fication of Willoughby Smith, dated the 9th August 1858, and
consists of about three-fifths by weight of gutta percha to one-
fifth by weight of Stockholm tar, and one-fifth by weight of
rosin, which when rendered fluid by heat act as solvents of the
gutta percha. The wires to be coated are conducted through
suitable guages at the lower part of each end of the vessel, so
as to pass through and receive a uniform coating of the com-
pound immediately before they enter the machine which puts
on the ordinary covering of gutta percha. When two or more
coverings of gutta percha are used I cause the previously covered
wire to pass through a vessel of insulating compound before it
receives its additional covering of gutta percha.
When two or more conducting wires are required in one cable,
each wire being separately insulated and twisted or laid together,
I cause them to pass through a vessel of insulated compound
(as in the case of a single wire) before they. go through the
machine which puts on the final covering of gutta percha. The
insulating compound fills up the interstices of the lay and unites
the whole into a solid body. I also electroplate the copper
wires which I employ for electric conductors in order to render
them more suitable to be used for this purpose. I electroplate
the copper wire by causing it, after it has first been cleaned by
pickling in the usual manner, to pass continuously through a
silvering bath, the wire being at the same time in metallic con-
nection with one pole of a battery, the other pole of which is
connected with a plate of silver which is immersed in the bath,
as is well understood. The object of electroplating the wires is
to prevent the oxydation of the copper wire.

page_text: In long lengths of insulating telegraphic wires I gradually
diminish the size of the conducting wires, so that as the electric
currents become weaker they will have suitably sized conductors.
This part of my Invention is applicable to telegraphic wires
through which signals are transmitted in one direction only.
The extent to which the conductor may be decreased between
the transmitting station and the receiving station may be greatly
varied, but as a general rule the area of section at the receiving
stations may be reduced to one-fourth of that at the transmitting
station, and this reduction of section is spread as uniformly as
possible over the distance between the two stations,, avoiding
as much as possible any large reduction at any one place.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Chatterton, have here-
In witness whereof, we, the said Company, have caused our common
seal to be hereunto affixed, and the hands of one of our Directors
and Secretary to be hereunto set, the Twenty-eighth day of April,
in the year of our Lord, One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
night

page_text: Office, with the Specification to which the same relates, the above-
written Disclaimer and Memorandum of Alteration, subject to the
conditions contained in an undertaking deposited in the Solicitor-
General's Office on the 28th day of August, 1868.
W. B. BRETT,
Temple,
Solicitor-General,
29th August, 1868.