IMPROVEMENTS IN ROPES AND CABLES FOR TELEGRAPHIC OR OTHER PURPOSES, AND IN MACHINERY USED
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Thomas Henley, of 46, St. John Street Road,.
London, Telegraph Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN ROPES
AND CABLES FOR TELEGRAPHIC OR OTHER PURPOSES, AND IN MACHINERY USED
Sealed the 4th June 1858, and dated the 5th December 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Thomas Henley
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
5th December 1857.
I, WILLIAM THOMAS HENLEY, of 46, St. John Street Road, London, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ROPES
AND CABLES FOR TELEGRAPHIC OR OTHER PURPOSES, AND IN MACHINERY USED IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF SUCH AND OTHER ROPES AND CABLES," to be as follows:-
My improvements consist in making ropes or cables of strands formed of
wire and cocoa-nut fibre, hemp, or other suitable material; these strands are
made by laying alternate threads of wire and vegetable fibre or other suitable
material into a strand having a central thread or core of hemp or other
similar material; these strands are then laid round another and larger core
into a rope. Cables made in this way will have great strength and much
pliability, and be well adapted for protecting the conducting wires of the
submarine telegraph. When used for submarine purposes the core should be
of gutta percha coated with serving of tarred yarn instead of the soft hemp
core as before mentioned; or the gutta percha wire may be covered with the
strands without tarred yarn; in either case it will be found an efficient cable,

page_text: and easy to pay out from a vessel. It will bear a great strain without breaking
as the threads of wire force themselves into the soft vegetable threads of the
strands and core without cutting them, and when the strain is taken off, will
recover their place again, whereas in a wire cable it is so rigid and so little
capable of stretching, that when a great strain comes on, the cable breaks.
The conducting wires of telegraph cables are now generally made of strand
consisting of, say six wires wound around a central one, but I prefer winding
the wire round a core of hemp or other similar material, as the conducting
wire will in that case bear more stretching without breaking.
The second part of my Invention relates to the machinery for making ropes
or cables.
And firstly, to making the strands or small ropes. Sheet 1 of the
annexed Drawings represents a machine for this purpose. The wire or
other material of which the strand or rope is to be made is shewn on
bobbins a, one of which only is seen mounted on a fixed stand. The
threads pass from these over a pulley b and enter the fixed plate c. A is a
revolving frame, carrying or receiving bobbin B; the threads, after passing the
fixed lay plate, pass through the nipping rollers d, d, which revolve with the
frame, and lay the threads or wires round each other, thus forming the strand
or small rope. From the nipping rollers they pass to the taking-of pulley C,
from thence to the bobbin B. The cylinder, with the two screws cut across
cach other, D, with its nut and arm lays the strand on the bobbin B from end
to end until it is full, when it is replaced by an empty one. The taking-off
pulley C, the screw D, and the bobbin B, obtain their necessary motions from
the worm shaft E, driving the worm wheels F and G; the worm shaft obtains
it motion from the cone pulley II, keyed on the end of it. This pulley is
driven by a band lapping round the statinary pulley I by the revolution of the
frame. The lower worm wheel is attached to the friction springs e, e, e, which
drive the bobbins by their friction, so that as the bobbins fill, the springs may
slip, otherwise the strands would have a tendency to wind on the bobbin faster
than delivered from the pulley C, and would break the strand; but as it is
necessary that the scrow D should keep pace with the bobbin B for laying on
the strand, a socket F receives the square on the bobbin B, and by means of
the two pulleys and cord drives the pinion g, which with the spur wheel h gives
the requisite slow motion to the screw D. As the bobbin gets full the springs
must slip faster, but at the same time the strand gets further from the axis of
the bobbin, and exerts more leverage, so that the strain on the strand from the
taking-off pulley is about equal all the time.
In making wire ropes it is always necessary to take care that no wire shall

page_text: receive a twist but that the wires shall be simply laid round each other, or
round a central core in a spiral direction. To obviate this tendency to twisting
of the wires in all cable machines, the bobbins are so arranged that whilst they
revolve with the wheel or table on which they are placed, they keep the same
position; for instance, if the table is in a vertical position the axis of the
bobbins always retain the horizontal position. This will be more clearly
understood by reference to Sheet 2, which shews one of my improved machines.
In order to compel the bobbins to keep the desired position in machines used
hitherto, sometimes tooth wheels have been used, a wheel fixed on the axis of
each bobbin communicating by intermediate wheels with a central stationary
tooth wheel fixed on the framework of the machine; in others, cranks are
fixed ou the bobbin axles, with pins from the cranks working in a second table,
or wheels revolving on an excentric; sometimes the bobbins are placed in tho
machine with their centres of gravity much below the centres of suspension,
and by their weight keep the desired position; but all these plans are
objectionable; the first from the noise and jarring of the tooth wheel preventing
the machine being run at full speed without breaking wheels, &c.; the second,
from the great weight of the second table and friction on the large excentric;
and the third, from the inability of running quick without oscillation of the
bobbin frames to a dangerous extent.
Sheet 2, Fig. 1, 2, and 3, shews one of my improved machines. A is a
table, in this case carrying eighteen bobbins; the bobbins are mounted on
the bobbin frames a, a, a; these last are each fixed to a central spindle passing
through the bosses on the table; these bosses are made long, so as to give a long
bearing to the spindles. The spindles have each a crank on the back end, as
shewn in Fig. 3; these cranks are shewn in two circles, all placed parallel to
each other, and of course whilst they remain parallel, the bobbin frames and
bobbins remain in the same position; they are all kept so by the two rings B
and C, Fig. 1 and 3; these rings bang on the cranks by the crank pins i, i, i, i, i,
which are made to move freely in the holes of the rings; if only one circle of
bobbins were used; one ring would be sufficient, and if the machine was large
and consequently travelled slow, the weight of the ring or rings if made heavy
would be sufficient to keep the crank and bobbins in the parallel position
during the revolution of the machine; but to enable a machine to run at a high
speed, instead of making use of the weight of the rings, I use a pulley or
roller on one side of the ring. If the machine is travelling in the direction of
the arrow, the pulley must be fixed to the left of the machine, if placed outside
of the rings; but I prefer to place them as shewn in Fig. 3, where two pullies
D, E, D, E, are movable on an axis fixed to the framework F; one pulley

page_text: would be suflicient for both rings when they are tied together by the pieces of
iron d, d, and when the machino is only required to run one way, but by
placing two rollers or pullies it may run either way; and as the weight of the
rings is not made available, they may be of very light wrought iron, and the
cranks placed upwards instead of in a downward position. In either caso they
with the bobbins will remain quite parrallel, the same part of the bobbin frame
always remaining upwards, as in Fig. 2, whatever the speed of the machine
may be, the rings always keeping the same relative position to the table while
they revolve with it, as the cranks prevent their moving up or down, and the
rollers prevent their changing their position horizontally, and the friction is
reduced to the smallest possible amount. Although the table is shewn in this
case vertical, of course it can just as well be placed in the horizontal position
with the shaft vertical, as the arrangement of rings and rollers acts quite as
well in that way. The table, as represented in Sheet 2, is mounted on the
shaft G, having a central hole in it from end to end for the core to pass
through. At the back end are placed fast and loose pulleys for the driving
strap; at the other end the strands or wires pass through holes in the head of
the shaft which forms the bearing, and also the pulley for giving motion by
strap to tho screw and shaft H; this screw is made of a quick pitch, and works
the worm wheel 1; this is fixed on the same shaft as the taking-off pulley K.
The wires or strands and core, after passing through the head of the shaft, pass
through a hard steel lay plate, and then being formed into a rope or cable by
the revolution of the shaft, pass round the taking-off pulley three or four times,
the turns being kept from riding on each other by a fixed inclined plane,
which not being new, need not be described. To alter the length of lay of
the rope, pulleys of other sizes can be placed on the end of the screw shaft at
LL. The table of the machine can be run on either direction, whilst the
taking-off pulley will always go in one direction by using the strap crossed or
straight, as may be required.
Fig. 4 and 5 shew another method of keeping the bobbins and frames in
the parrallel position. The bobbin frame and spindles, instead of cranks have
pulleys fixed on them; a central pulley of the same size is fixed on a framing;
a band or gut passes round this, and quite round each pulley, as seen in the
Drawing. As the table revolves round this fixed pulley, the band laps round
it, giving motion to all the rest, causing them to move once round for each
revolution of the table, or rather the holes in the table revolve round the
spindles, as they in reality do not revolve at all on their axes, but merely have
motion in common with the table. Instead of using grooved pullies, wheels
with teeth may be used to receive a flat chain; in that case it would not be

page_text: necessary for the chain to go round the wheels, but merely to take hold of a
few teeth on the periphery of each, and lapping round a central tooth wheel
fixed to the framing. I do not confine myself to any particular arrangement
of the machinery shewn in Sheet 1, so long as the principle is not departed
from of twisting or laying strand or rope by causing the bobbin or other
recipient of such strand or rope to revolve whilst the material with which such
rope is made is led from stationary or other suitable holders detached from the
revolving machinery. Neither do I limit myself to any particular arrange-
ment of that part of the machinery carrying the bobbins represented in Sheet
2, so long as I keep to the principle of using rings in conjunction with the
cranks or the wheels with band, strap, or chain, for the purpose of keeping the
bobbins in the parrallel position, whether such bobbins are placed on a
revolving table or arranged round the shaft.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Thomas Henley in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 5th June 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
THOMAS HENLEY, of No. 46, Saint John Street Road, London, Telegraphic
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand cight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twenty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said William Thomas Henley, Iler special licence, that I, the said William
Thomas Henley, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said William Thomas Henley, 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 "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN ROPES AND CABLES FOR TELEGRAPHIC OR OTHER PURPOSES, AND IN
MACHINERY USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SUCH AND OTHER ROPES AND CABLES,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Thomas
Henley, 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

page_text: 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 William Thomas Henley, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement
My improvements consist in making ropes or cables of strands formed of
wire, and cocoa-nut fibre, hemp, or other suitable material; these strands are
made by laying threads of wire and vegetable fibre, or other suitable material
into a strand, having a central thread or core of hemp or other similar
material; these strands aro then laid round another and larger core into a
rope. Cables made in this way will have great strength and much pliability,
and be well adapted for protecting the conducting wires of the submarine
telegraph. When used for submarine purposes the core must be the ordinary
conducting wire, coated with gutta percha, and covered with serving of tarred
yarn instead of the soft hemp core, as before mentioned; or the gutta percha
wire may be covered with the strands without tarred yarn; in either case it
will be found an efficient cable, and easy to pay out from a vessel; it will bear
a great strain without breaking, as the threads of wire force themselves into
the soft vegetable threads of the strands and core without cutting them, and
when the strain is taken off recover their place again, whereas in a wire cable
it is so rigid, and so little capable of stretching, that when a great strain
comes on, the cable breaks. The conducting wires of telegraph cables are
now generally made of strand consisting of, say six wires wound around a
central one, but I prefer winding the wire round a core of hemp or other
similar material, as the conducting wire will in that case bear more stretching
without breaking.
The second part of my Invention relates to the machinery for making ropes
or cables.
And firstly, to making the strands or small ropes. Sheet of the
annexed Drawings represents a machine for this purpose; the wire or
other material of which the strand or rope is to be made is shown on
bobbins a, one of which only is seen mounted on a fixed stand. The
threads pass from these over a pully b, and enter the fixed lay plate c. A is
a revolving frame, carrying a receiving bobbin B; the threads, after passing
the fixed lay plate, pass through the nipping rollers d, d, which revolve with
the frame, and lay the threads or wires round cach other, thus forming
the strand or small rope. From the nipping rollers they pass to the taking-off

page_text: pulley C, from thence to the bobbin B. The cylinder with the two screws
cut across each other, D, with its nut and arm lays the strand on the bobbin
B from end to end until it is full, when it is replaced with an empty one. The
taking-off pulley C, the screw D, and the bobbin B, obtain their necessary
motions from the worm shaft E, driving the worm wheels F and G; the worm
shaft obtains its motion from the cone pulley H, keyed on the end of it. This
pulley is driven by a band lapping round the stationary pulley I by the
revolution of the frame. The lower worm wheel is attached to the position
springs e, e, e, which drive the bobbins by their friction, so that as the
bobbins fill, the springs may slip, otherwise the strand would have a tendency
to wind on the bobbin faster than delivered from the pulley C, and would
break the strand; but as it is necessary that the scrow D should keep pace
with the bobbin B for laying on the strand, a socket F receives the square on
the bobbin B, and by means of the two pulleys and cord driving the pinion g,
which with the spur wheel h gives the requisite slow motion to the screw D. As
the bobbin gets full the springs must slip faster, but at the same time the strand
gets further from the axis of the bobbin, and exerts more leverage, so that the
strain on the strand from the taking-off pulley is about equal all the time.
In making wire ropes it is always necessary to take care that no wire shall
receive a twist, but that the wires shall be simply laid round each other, or
round a central core in a spiral direction. To obviate this tendency to twisting
of the wires in all cable machines, the bobbins are so arranged that whilst
they revolve with the wheel or table on which they are placed, they keep the
same position; for instance, if the table is in a vertical position, the axis of
the bobbins always retain the horizontal position. This will be more clearly
understood by referring to Sheet 2, which shows one of my improved machines.
In order to compel the bobbins to keep the desired position in machines used
hitherto, sometimes tooth wheels have been used, a wheel fixed on the axis
of each bobbin communicating by intermediate wheels with a central
stationary tooth wheel fixed on the framework of the machine; in others,
cranks are fixed on the bobbin's axles, with pins from the cranks working in a
second table or wheel revolving on an excentric; sometimes the bobbins are
placed in the machine with their centres of gravity much below the centres
of suspension, and by their weight keep the desired position; but all these
plans are objectionable; the first, from the noise and jarring of the tooth wheel
preventing the machine being run at full speed without breaking wheels, &c.;
the second, from the great weight of the second table and friction on the large
excentric; and the third, froin the inability of running quick without oscillation
of the bobbin frames to a dangerous extent.

page_text: Sheet 2, Figures 1, 2, 3, shows one of my improved machines. A is a table,
in this case carrying eighteen bobbins; the bobbins
are mounted on
the bobbin frames a, a, a;
passing through the bosses on the table; these bosses are made long, so as to
give a long bearing to the spindles. The spindles have cach a crank fixed on
the back end, as shown in Figure 3; these cranks are shewn in two circles,
all placed parallel to each other, and of course whilst they remain parallel
the bobbin frames and bobbins remain in the same position; they are all
kept so by the two rings B and C, Figures 1 and 8; these rings hang on the
cranks by the crank's pins i, i, i, i, i, which are made to move freely in the holes
of the rings; if only one circle of bobbins were used, one ring would be
sufficient; and if the machine was large and consequently travelled slow, the
weight of the ring or rings if mude heavy would be sufficient to keep tho
crank and hobbins in the parallel position during the revolution of the
machine; but to enable a machine to run at a high speed, instead of making
use of the weight of the rings, I use a pulley or roller on one side of the ring.
If the machine is travelling in the direction of the arrow, the pulley must be fixed
to the left of the machine, if placed outside of the rings; but I prefer to place
them as shewn in Figure 3, where two pullies D, E, D, E, are are moveable on
an axis fixed to the framework F; one pully would be sufficient for both rings
when they are tied together by the pieces of iron d, d, and when tho machine
is only required to run one way, but by placing two rollers or pullies it may
run either way; and as the weight of the rings is not made available, they
may be of very light wrought iron, and the cranks placed upwards instead of
in a downward position. In either case they with the bobbins will remain
quite parralel, the same part of the bobbin frame always remaining upwards,
as in Figure 2, whatever the speed of the machine may be, the rings always
keeping tho same relative position to the table while they revolve with it, as
the cranks provent their moving up or down, and the rollers prevent their
changing their position horizontally, and the friction is reduced to the smallest
possible amount. Although the table is shewn in this case vertical, of course
it can just as well be placed in the horizontal position with the shaft vertical, as
the arrangement of rings and rollers acts quite as well in that way. The table,
as represented in Sheet 2, is mounted on the shaft G, having a central hole in
from end to end for the core to pass through. At the back end are placed
fast and loose pullies for the driving strap; at the other end the strands or
wires pass through holes in the head of the shaft which forms the bearing, and
also the pulley for giving motion by strap to the screw and shaft HI; this screw
is made of a quick pitch, and works the worm wheel I; this is fixed on the
these last are each fixed to a central spindlo

page_text: same shaft as the taking-off pulley K. The wires or strands and core, after
passing through the head of the shaft, pass through a hard steel lay plate, and
then being formed into a rope or cable by the revolution of the shaft, pass
round the taking-off pulley three or four times, the turns being kept from
riding on each other by a fixed inclined plane, which not being new, need not
be described. To alter the length of lay of the rope, pullies of other sizes can
be placed on the end of the screw shaft at L, L. The table of the machine
can be run on either direction, whilst the taking-off pulley will always go in
one direction by using the strap crossed or straight, as may be required.
Figures 4 and 5 shew another method of keeping the bobbins and frames
in the parallel position. The bobbin frame and spindles, instead of cranks
have pullies fixed on them; a central pulley of the same size is fixed on the
framing; a band or gut passes round this, and quite round each pulley, as seen
in the Drawing. As the table revolves round this fixed pulley, the band laps
round it, giving motion to all the rest, causing them to move once round for
each revolution of the table, or rather the holes in the table revolve round the
spindles, as they in reality do not revolve at all on their axis, but merely have
motion in common with the table. Instead of using grooved pullies, wheels
with teeth may be used to receive a flat chain; in that case it would not be
necessary for the chain to go round the wheels, but merely to take hold of a
few teeth on the periphery of each, and lapping round a central tooth wheel
fixed to the framing; this is shewn by Figures 1, 2, 3, Sheet 2. The end-
less chain passes round the outer tooth wheels, and one of the studs carries
a second wheel, from which another endless clain connects this with the
central fixed wheel, and by this means the proper motion is imparted to the
rest.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and how the same
is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I am aware it has been
proposed to make strands for ropes of wires twisted together, each wire being
surrounded by a fibrous material, and also of wire or wires surrounded partly
by wire and partly by fibrous substances; all of which modes differ from my
Invention, inasmuch as they use a metallic core for their strands. Now, what
I claim is the mode of making ropes and cables of strands formed of wires and
threads of vegetable fibre, in the manner described in the first part of my
Specification, that is to say, the threads and wires are laid round a central
core of vegetable fibre or other material, not metallic; and these strands are
laid up into a rope in the usual manner; or, if intended for a submarine tele-
graph cable, are laid round a conducting wire, coated with gutta percha or
other insulating material, either with or without the usual coating of tarred

page_text: yarn, and also constructing the conducting wire of strand of metal with non-
metallic core.
Secondly, I claim the improvements in machinery employed in the con-
struction of ropes and cables, as herein-before described and shown.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Thomas Honley, have hereunto
set my hand and scal, this Fourth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
Witness,
C. BARLOW, Patent Agent,
89, Chancery Lane.
W. T. HENLEY. (L.S.)