IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF RESTORING WASTE VULCANIZED INDIA- RUBBER OR GUTTA-PERCHA, AND IN COMPOUNDS PRODUCED THEREBY, WHICH INVENTION ALSO COMPRISES IMPROVEMENTS IN TELEGRAPHIC OR TELEPHONIC WIRES. COATED OR COVERED WITH SUCH COMPOUNDS OR OTHER MATERIALS
Year: 1881

page_text: $$
LETTERS PATENT to Henry Harris Lake, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake,
& Co., Patent Agents, Southampton Buildings, London, for an Invention of
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF RESTORING WASTE VULCANIZED INDIA-
RUBBER OR GUTTA-PERCHA, AND IN COMPOUNDS PRODUCED THEREBY, WHICH
INVENTION ALSO COMPRISES IMPROVEMENTS IN TELEGRAPHIC OR TELEPHONIC
WIRES. COATED OR COVERED WITH SUCH COMPOUNDS OR OTHER MATERIALS."
A communication from abroad by Henry Augustus Clark, of Boston,
Massachusetts, United States of America.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Henry Harris Lake at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 18th January 1881.
"
HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent
Agents, Southampton Buildings, London. IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF
RESTORING WASTE VULCANIZED INDIA-RUBBER OR GUTTA-PERCHA, AND IN
COMPOUNDS PRODUCED THEREBY, WHICH INVENTION ALSO COMPRISES IMPROVEMENTS
IN TELEGRAPHIC OR TELEPHONIC WIRES COATED OR COVERED WITH
COMPOUNDS OR OTHER MATERIALS." A communication from abroad by Henry
Augustus Clark, of Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
SUCH
This Invention relates first to the treatment of waste vulcanized india-rubber or
gutta-percha for desulphurizing and devulcanizing the same, and thereby reducing
it to a suitable condition to be worked over again and revulcanized, and again
applied to the various purposes and uses for which india-rubber or gutta-percha
is adapted; secondly, to the treatment of waste vulcanized india-rubber or gutta-
percha, and either before or after the same has been desulphurized and devulcanized,
with a vegetable oil such as palm oil, or with a resinous material such as common
resin, or with both a vegetable oil and a resinous material; thirdly, to compounds
produced according to my process; fourthly, to the application of desulphurized
and devulcanized waste vulcanized india-rubber or gutta-percha as a coating for
wire used for telegraphic or telephonic purposes for the purpose of insulating the
said wire; and, fifthly, to the protection with a strip of tin foil or other suitable
Price 6d1

page_text: material of telegraphic or telephonic wire insulated by means of a coating of
desulphurized and devulcanized waste vulcanized india-rubber or gutta-percha, or
otherwise.
According to this Invention to desulphurize and devulcanize waste vulcanized
india-rubber or gutta-percha I proceed substantially as follows, that is to say:-
I first reduce the waste vulcanized india-rubber or gutta-percha to be treated by
grinding or otherwise to fine or small particles, and the finer they are the better
will be the result. Then I either place this material so ground in water and in
any suitable manner, or with any suitable apparatus or. means, boil the whole, or
dampen or moisten such material with water and evaporate the water therefrom,
and from time to time as the water is so evaporated from the material again moisten
and dampen the same, and evaporate as before. To evaporate the water as afore-
said a steam-jacketted kettle or other chambered receptacle may be employed, and
in boiling the material in water as stated the water is to be changed and renewed
from time to time as necessary. The application of water and heat to ground waste
vulcanized india-rubber or gutta-percha, as aforesaid, washes and cleanses the
material of all foreign substances, and tends to a greater or lesser extent to desul-
phurize it, and this operation is to be continued until the material is thoroughly
washed and cleansed. Upon the completion of the treatment of the material with
water or the vapor of water as aforesaid, and after the material is thoroughly dried
in any convenient manner, I add to it from two (2) to ten (10) per cent. of its
weight of palm-oil or other vegetable oil or oils, palm oil being preferable, and
this addition of the oil may be either before or while the material is subjected to
heat. The material with its palm or other oil is heated, and the whole thoroughly
mixed together, after which it is subjected to the vapors of turpentine or cam-
phene, or other equivalent material or materials under heat.
This may
be
accomplished either by placing the material in a vessel adapted by perforations or
otherwise for the vapor of turpentine or the like to enter the vessel from the
outside, and to pass into and through the material placed therein, or by moistening
or dampening the material with the turpentine or the like, and then by heating
the material, thus evaporating the turpentine.
This treatment of the material with the vapor of turpentine is to be continued
until the material is reduced to a soft and plastic condition suitable for it to be
worked over and employed again in the various uses of india-rubber or gutta-percha,
and by such treatment the desulphurization and also devulcanization of the material
is practically completed.
It is preferable in treating the material with the vapors of turpentine or
camphene, or the like, to moisten and dampen the material therewith, and then
evaporate the turpentine as above described for the reason that the vapor of the
turpentine is thus circulated, disseminated, and diffused directly within, around,
and about the material, and thus the better enabled to permeate the material than
they could possibly do if generated outside of the material, and allowed to pass
through it.
To the material devulcanized as aforesaid I add from two (2) to ten (10) per
cent. of its weight of resinous matter, such as common resin, either in lumps or
powdered, and then thoroughly mix the whole together under heat.
In manufacturing the material thus treated into goods, it is run through any
suitable calendering or grinding machine, and is otherwise treated and operated
upon in a similar manner to that in which the india rubber or gutta percha was
originally treated to vulcanize it.
The addition of palm or other vegetable oil softens and opens the material, and
renders it the more susceptible to the influence of the vapor of turpentine to devul-
canize it, but it is not absolutely necessary to add the oil before treating the
material with the vapor of turpentine, as has been described, although for the
reason stated it obviously is preferable. The addition of common resin or other
resinous material gives coherency to the material and increases its adaptability to
be again used.

page_text: The oil and the resinous matter although herein described as applied at different
stages in the operation of desulphurizing and devulcanizing waste vulcanized india-
rubber or gutta-percha, which experience has demonstrated to be the best and most
efficient mode, may however be applied at one and the same time, and either before
or after devulcanization; and again, the oil alone or the resinous material alone
may be used, but it is preferable to use them both for the reasons stated, and again
for the further reason that they are found to give increased life and activity to
the restored waste vulcanized india-rubber or gutta-percha.
In using the resulting product from the treatment of waste vulcanized india-
rubber or gutta-percha, as herein described, benzine or other solvents may be
employed to soften it.
Although the addition of a vegetable oil or of a resinous matter, either alone or
together, has been herein described as combined with waste vulcanized india-rubber
or gutta-percha, restored in a manner substantially such as herein described, either
or both may be combined with similar advantageous results with waste vulcanized
india-rubber or gutta-percha restored in other and well known methods, and
therefore, while such addition of materials is made a part of this Invention as to
waste vulcanized india-rubber or gutta-percha restored substantially as herein
described, yet the said addition is comprised under this Invention as well in the
restoration of waste vulcanized india-rubber or gutta-percha under all other methods.
Waste vulcanized india-rubber or gutta-percha restored in a manner substantially
as herein described, and whether or not combined substantially as described with a
vegetable oil or oils, or with a resinous matter or matters, or both, is suitable for
use for various purposes, and among them as an exterior coating or covering for
telegraph or telephone wires to insulate the same, and the present Invention
consists partly in the combination of such restored waste india-rubber or gutta-
percha with telegraph or telephone wires by applying the same to the outside
thereof in any suitable manner (as in the application of other well known coatings
or coverings to such wires, as, for instance, a coating of native india-rubber or
gutta-percha). In the application of this restored waste vulcanized india-rubber or
gutta-percha it is mixed with sulphur and vulcanized in the ordinary manner of
vulcanizing india-rubber or gutta-percha, and either after or before it is so
vulcanized it is exteriorly covered with a strip of tin foil, or other suitable sheet
material, applied lengthwise of the wire, and either with its edges meeting or
overlapping.
An insulated telegraphic or telephonic wire, having the insulating coating
covered with a strip of tin foil, is shown in the accompanying Drawing, in
which
Figure 1 is a perspective view of such wire, and
Figures 2 and 3 are transverse sections thereof, Figure 2 showing the edges of
the tin foil as overlapping and Figure 3 as simply meeting.
In addition to the above the Drawing illustrates the application of an insulating
material, such as restored waste vulcanized india-rubber or gutta-percha, to the
outside of the tin-foil covering, as aforesaid, Figure 4 being a perspective view
thereof, and Figures 5 and 6 transverse sections shewing the strip of foil overlapping
at its edges and meeting at its edges.
The remaining Figures are hereinafter described.
The combination of the insulating covering upon the tin foil strip covering the
inner insulating covering of the wire also constitutes a part of this Invention.
In the Drawing a represents a telegraph or telephone wire covered with an
insulating material 6 composed of the waste vulcanized india-rubber or gutta-
percha restored, substantially as herein described; c is a strip of tin-foil, or other
suitable sheet material, which is wrapped around the insulated telegraph wire,
and runs in and parallel with the direction of its length, and either meets or
overlaps at and along its edges d, d; f is a covering of insulating material applied
to and about the wrapper c of tin-foil or other suitable material, enclosing a
telegraph wire which has been insulated by a covering b, as herein described..

page_text: The wrapping of tin foil about an insulated telegraph wire by running the strip
in the direction of and parallel with the length of the wire, as herein described, is
in many respects advantageous, as, for instance, it can be applied with the greatest
ease and rapidity, and requires, as compared with a spiral winding of the tin-foil as
heretofore, a much less amount of material; again, it secures a most perfect
protection to the insulated coating, and adds greatly to the insulating and inductive
qualities of the wire, and renders it most especially applicable to telephone and
cable purposes.
An insulated telegraph wire, wrapped with tin foil or other suitable material,
and such wrapper covered and encased within an insulating material, secures
protection to the tin foil wrapper and advantageous results in relation to the
insulating and inductive qualities of the wire as a whole.
For placing a strip of tin foil upon and about an insulated telegraph or telephone
wire, as herein described, an apparatus such as is shown in Figures 7, 8, 9, 10, 11,
and 12 of the Drawing may be employed. Figure 7 is a plan, and Figure 8 a
longitudinal vertical section of the said apparatus, and Figures 9, 10, 11, and 12
are transverse sections thereof on the lines 9-9, 10-10, 11-11, and 12-12.
In these Figures A represents a strip of tin foil wound upon a roll B, and C
an insulated wire wound upon a roll D, both of which rolls are suitably supported,
and the former below the latter. E is a guide way of a suitable width for the
passage of the strip of tin foil along it. This guide way is situated to receive at
one end the strip A as it is unwound from the roll B, and it acts as a guide for the
passage of the said strip A into and through a tube F from end to end of such
tube. The tube F tapers lengthwise and is smallest at its discharging end n; it is
open along its whole length, and at its discharging end has the edges g, h, slightly
overlapping and separate from each other. The insulated wire and tin foil strip
enter this tube at its larger end, and as they pass toward the sinaller end the tin-
foil strip by the taper of the tube is bent and wrapped around the insulated wire,
and the two then pass to and through a die-opening of a die-block G suitably
located by which the close wrapping of the foil upon the insulated wire is completed.
To hold the strip of tin foil to its guide-way while the same is being folded or
wrapped within the tubular folder as described, the guide-way E is provided with
cross-straps H at proper points along its length.
The folding or wrapping tube although described and shewn as adapted to lap one
edge of the tin-foil beyond its other edge, obviously may be simply adapted to wrap
the foil so that its edges will meet and not overlap.
The application to an insulated telegraph wire which is wrapped with tin foil
or other suitable material of the outside covering or casing of an insulating
material, as, for instance, india-rubber, or gutta-percha, or any of its vulcanizable
compounds, may be accomplished in any of the well known methods of covering a
wire with an insulating material, and therefore such process needs no more
particular description herein.
Although the application of a strip of tin-foil to an insulated telegraph or
telephone wire so that such tin-foil shall run in the direction of the length of the
wire has been herein particularly described in connection with a wire insulated
with waste india-rubber or gutta-percha restored in the manner substantially as
herein described, either alone or compounded with either a vegetable oil, or with a
resinous matter, or with both, it may be so used in connection with a wire
insulated with waste india-rubber or gutta-percha restored by other methods and
compounded as herein described with either a vegetable oil or a resinous matter, or
with both, or with any other insulating material.
Having thus fully described the said Invention as communicated to me by my
foreign correspondent, and the manner of performing the same, I wish it understood
that I claim,
First. In restoring waste vulcanized india-rubber, first moistening and dampening
the material with water and evaporating such water, and then moistening and
dampening the material with turpentine, camphene, or equivalent substances, and

page_text: subsequently heating or evaporating the turpentine or the like, all substantially as
described for the purpose specified.
Second. The treatment of waste vulcanized india-rubber or gutta-percha and the
compounding of a vegetable oil or oils, or a resinous material or materials, or both,
with the same, all substantially as described for the purposes specified.
Third. The combination either of a vegetable oil or oils, or of a resinous matter
or matters, or of both, with restored waste vulcanized india-rubber or gutta-percha,
substantially as described for the purposes specified.
Fourth. An insulated telegraph wire wrapped with a strip or sheet of tin foil or
other suitable material in such a manner that it runs in the direction of and
parallel with the length of the wire, substantially as described for the purpose
specified:
Fifth. An insulated telegraph wire surrounded with a strip or sheet of tin foil or
other material that runs in the direction of and parallel with the length of wire
and is surrounded by an insulating material, all substantially as described for the
purposes specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Harris Lake, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and eighty one.
HENRY H. LAKE. (LS.)