IMPROVEMENTS IN INSULATING TELE- GRAPHIC CONDUCTORS
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frederick Walton, of Haughton Dale, Denton, near
Manchester, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN INSULATING TELE-
GRAPHIC CONDUCTORS."
Sealed the 7th May 1861, and dated the 12th November 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Frederick Walton at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 12th
November 1860.
I, FREDERICK WALTON, of Haughton Dale, Denton, near Manchester, do
hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN INSULATING
TELEGRAPHIC CONDUCTORS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in insulating telegraphic
conductors. For this purpose I employ a material obtained from linseed and
other drying oils by oxidizing the same as is described in the Specification of
a former Patent granted to me, and dated 27th January, 1860, No. 209.
The material obtained from the drying oil either alone, or by preference mixed
with shellac or other resin or gum, is applied as a coating to the conductor.
which may be done by pressure when the material is in a sufficiently plastic
state, or the material may be otherwise applied.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Frederick Walton in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 11th
May 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FREDERICK
WALTON, of Haughton Dale, Denton, near Manchester, send greeting.
"
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-fourth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Frederick Walton, Her special licence that 1, the said Frederick Walton, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Frederick
Walton, 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
xpressed, should and lawfully might make, usc, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN INSULATING
TELEGRAPHIC CONDUCTORS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Frederick Walton, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and scals, 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 Frederick Walton, 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 state-
ment thereof, that is to say:
This Invention has for its object improvements in insulating telegraphic
conductors. For this purpose I employ a material obtained from linseed and
other drying oils by oxidizing the same as is described in the Specification
of a former Patent granted to me, and dated 27th January, 1860, No. 209.
The material obtained from the drying oil, either alone, or by preference mixed
with shellac or other resin or gum, is applied as a coating to the conductor,
which may be done by pressure when the material is in a sufficiently plastic
state, or the material may be otherwise applied.
Having thus stated the nature of my Invention, I will proceed more fully
to describe the manner of performing the same. Linseed or other drying oils
having been converted into semi-resinous matter by being oxidized, which I

page_text: believe may be best done in the manner described in the Specification of my
said former Patent, it is partially dissolved or rendered into a plastic state by
means of a volatile solvent assisted by heat, preferring spirits of turpentine for
the purpose heated from 212° to 220° of Fahrenheit, and in this state the
compound is used for coating electric telegraph wires or conductors in like
manner to that in which gutta percha and other insulating materials have been
employed for insulating such conductors; but I prefer to use such preparations
of drying oils in combination with shellac or with other resin or gums, and I
use the preparations of drying oils in proportions according as I wish to
produce a more or less flexible compound. I have however found that about
two parts by weight of the prepared oil to one part of shellac, resin, or gum,
is a good compound for insulating wires or other electric telegraph conductors.
In cases where it is desired that the coatings should be more flexible than
results from the proportions above mentioned, I add more of the prepared oil,
and where less flexibility is desired, I add more of the shellac or other resin
or gum.
The compounds are produced by employing volatile solvents such as spirits
of turpentine, or others by which, with the assistance of heat, the shellac or
other resin or gum is first rendered plastic, and the prepared oil is then mixed
therewith by a masticating or other suitable machine or mixer, or part of the
solvent may be first mixed with the prepared oil. One or more coatings of
the compound is applied to the wire or other conductor of electric telegraphs,
as has heretofore been done when coating with gutta percha or other insu-
lating material or compounds. The peculiarity of the present Invention con-
sists in applying the preparation of drying oils herein described alone, or in
combination with shellac or other resin or gum, to insulate the conductors of
electric telegraphs.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederick Walton, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Tenth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
FREDERICK WALTON. (L.S.)