IMPROVEMENTS IN IMPERMEABLE MASTIC COMPOSITIONS, AND IN THEIR APPLICATION FOR VARIOUS USEFUL PURPOSES
Year: 1866

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Clark at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents, with bis Petition, on the 28th November
1866. A communication from abroad by Jean François Abraham Henri
de Rivière, Member of the Council General of the Department of Gers,
and Jean Laurent Auguste Machabée, Merchant, both of 29, Boulevart
St. Martin, Paris.
I, WILLIAM CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex,
Engineer and Patent Agent, do bereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN IMPERMEABLE MASTIC COMPOSITIONS, AND IN THEIR
APPLICATION FOR VARIOUS USEFUL PURPOSES," to be as follows:
This Invention relates to the composition of improved mastics which are
impervious, elastic, and unchanged by the action of moisture, sea water, or
of acids, as also to their application as a waterproof coating for all kinds of
materials, and for covering the wires and cables used for conducting electricity,
either in the air or for subterranean or submarine telegraphs; in the latter
case they may serve to effect the complete insulation of each conducting wire
united to form a cable, so as to form a protection from oxidation, rust, damp,
and atmospheric changes of temperature. I compose one kind of mastic as
follows:-
1st, 100 hundred parts of common pitch or vegetable tar.
2ndly, 30 parts of bitumen de Bastène or mineral tar.
3rdly, 10 parts of virgin wax.
4thly,
parts of gumlac.
The whole is placed in a vessel and heated to boiling point, being suitably

page_text: results may be composed of the fonowi
matters, mixed together while hot in similar proportions to the above, which
may however be varied if desired:-American or Norwegian pitch, bitumen,
bees'-wax, gumlac, and gutta percha; this mastic possesses in a high degree,
first, the essential qualities required for insulating the wires of submarine and
subterranean telegraph cables, viz., ductility and impermeability, it being
further inalterable and of great insulating power; secondly, it serves as a com-
plete preservative for all kinds of surfaces against the effects of damp,
especially stonework, wood, iron, copper, and other surfaces. The proportions
I prefer to adopt are as follows:-
Common.pitch
-
Bitumen de Bastène
Wax
Gumlac
Gutta percha
100 parts.
30
"
10
"
5
"
5
دو
A third kind of mastic may be prepared by dispensing with the proportions
of gumlac and gutta percha above mentioned, and substituting therefor four
parts of mutton suet prepared without acid or alkali; this produces an
excellent waterproof mastic or composition at a less cost, wherewith to coat,
preserve, or protect all kinds of matters or materials. The proportions of the
different matters of which the mastics are composed may be varied according
to the purpose for which they are to be applied. The compositions are applied
either with a brush, by steeping, immersion, or otherwise.
The Invention thus consists in the composition of improved mastics, as
heretofore described, applicable, first, for insulating all kinds of telegraph
wires; secondly, for rendering various matters impervious to water or
moisture, more especially building materials, stonework, plaster, or glazed
surfaces; the first mastic forms the insulating covering, and the second the
waterproof coating, the latter of which in particular it may be of advantage
to color, according to that of the materials on which it is to be applied, which
is further facilitated by the nature of its composition. In order to color the
waterproof composition I mix the desired color, whether mineral or vegetable,
in powder, or oil, in the proportions of about fifty per cent. of dry material with
the mastic, first diluting the color in pure essence of turpentine and turning
the whole into the boiler in which the mastic is made, the mixture taking
place while the operation proceeds.
Method of Applying the Mastic to Telegraph Wires and Cables.-When
the mastic is heated and while in a liquid state I take one or more wires,
whether of brass, copper, iron, or other electric conductors, and dry and heat

page_text: them, either over a fire or in a stove; tube, or other heating apparatus kept
at an even temperature, after which I introduce the wires into a bath con-
taining the heated and liquid mastic, the mastic adhering so as to coat the
wire (or the wire may be painted or coated with the mastic by the aid of a
brush); a strip or covering of thread, cotton, or other material is then applied
on the wire so coated, and forms a sheath which adheres to the mastic with
which the wire is covered (or the band or strip may be previously steeped in
the mastic before applying it to the wire); lastly, the wire enclosed in the
sheathing may if necessary be passed through a bath of mastic, so as not to
leave any portion of the wire exposed. The wires in suitable number are
then united to form a cable, they being perfectly isolated one from the other
by reason of the mastic applied as above mentioned; the whole is then coate:I
with the mastic and enclosed in a suitable casing if desired, and in this state
is complete and ready for laying.
The advantage of the above method is, that the wire or cable may be laid
either underground, in the water, in marshes, lakes, rivers, or even be used
for ocean telegraphy without being affected by moisture, rust, oxidation, or
other cause tending to injure the electric wires or conductors, as the improved
mastics of this Invention possess the property of preserving metals generally
for an indefinite period, and of protecting them from the influence of atmo-
spheric changes, as also of protecting from damp and preserving any surface or
material to which they may be applied.