IMPROVEMENTS IN COATING CONDUCTING WIRES USED FOR ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHIC PURPOSES
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Rogers, of 9, Queen Square, Bartholomew
Close, in the City of London, Rope Maker, and Edward Johnson Tweed,
of 22, Castle Street, Falcon Square, also in the City of London, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN COATING CONDUCTING WIRES USED FOR
ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHIC PURPOSES."
Sealed the 1st October 1859, and dated the 6th April 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Rogers and
Edward Johnson Tweed at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 6th April 1859.
WO, JOSEPH ROGERS, of 9, Queen Square, Bartholomew Close, in the City
of London, Rope Maker, and EDWARD JOHNSON TWEED, of 22,,Castle Street,
Falcon Square, also in the City of London, do hereby declare the nature of
the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN COATING CONDUCTING WIRES USED FOR
ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHIC PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in coating conducting wires
used for electric telegraphic purposes. For these purposes the conducting
wire or wires are first coated over with gutta percha, india-rubber, or other
insulating material or materials; then longitudinal bands of braided or plaited
hemp or other fibrous materials, or cords or yarns of such fibres are applied, so
as to surround the insulated wire or wires; and these longitudinal bands or
cords, or yarns, may be bound round with yarn, or not, to retain them, and
then a coating of wires, which have been previously bound or wound round
with hemp, flax, or other fibrous materials, are braided or plaited over the

page_text: outer surfaces of the parts previously combined, as above explained. Or, in
place of the longitudinal bands, cords, or yarns of fibrous materials, or in
addition thereto, one or more series of wires previously wound or bound round
with hemp or other fibrous materials are laid around the insulated wire or
wires, and over these is braided or plaited a coating of yarns of hemp or other
fibrous materials; and such braiding or plaiting yarns may, when desired, bo
previously wound or bound round wires. When thus using wires coated or
bound round with hemp, flax, or other fibrous materials, particularly when the
wires are of iron or steel, zinc may be applied in such manner as to be in con-
tact with them and with the water or earth in which the conducting telegraph
wires thus coated are laid. The hemp, flax, or other fibres employed, as
above described, may be saturated with resinous or other preservative
matters before or after they are applied, as herein. explained. In some cases
the longitudinal bands applied to surround an insulated conducting wire or
wires are attached thereto by the aid of an adhesive cement or compound.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Joseph Rogers and Edward Johnson Tweed in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 6th October 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOSEPHI
ROGERS, of 9, Queen Square, Bartholomew Close, in the City of London,
Rope Maker, and EDWARD JOHNSON TWEED, of 22, Castlo Street, Falcon
Square, also in the City of London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixth day of April, in the year of our Lord One.
thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-second year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said Joseph Rogers and Edward Johnson Tweed, Her special licence
that we, the said Joseph Rogers and Edward Johnson Tweed, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Joseph Rogers
and Edward Johnson Tweed, our 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 COATING CONDUCTING WIRES USED FOR ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHIC
PURPOSES," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Joseph

page_text: Rogers and Edward Johnson Tweed, our executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under our or their hands and seals, or under the hand
and seal of one of us or them, 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 we, the said Joseph Rogers and Edward Johnson
Tweed, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in coating conducting wires
used for electric telegraphic purposes. For these purposes the conducting
wire or wires are first coated over with gutta percha, india-rubber, or other
insulating material or materials, then longitudinal bands of braided or plaited
hemp or other fibrous materials, or cords or yarns, of such fibres are applied,
so as to surround the insulated wire or wires, and these longitudinal bands, or
cords, or yarns, may be bound round with yarn or not to retain them, and then
a coating of wires which have been previously bound or wound round with
hemp, flax, or other fibrous materials, are braided or plaited over the outer
surfaces of the parts previously combined, as above explained. Or in place
of the longitudinal bands, cords, or yarns, of fibrous materials, or in addition
thereto, one or more series of wires previously wound or bound round with
hemp or other fibrous materials are laid around the insulated wire, or wires,
and over these is braided or plaited a coating of yarns of hemp or other fibrous
materials, and such braiding or plaiting yarns may, when desired, be pre-
viously wound or bound round wires. When thus using wires coated or bound
round with hemp, flax, or other fibrous materials, particularly when the wires
are of iron or steel, zinc may be applied in such manner as to be in contact
with them and with the water or earth in which the conducting telegraphi
wires thus coated are laid. The hemp, flax, or other fibres employed as above
described may be saturated with resinous or other preservative matters, before
or after they are applied as herein explained. In some cases the longitudinal
bands applied to surround an insulating conducting wire or wires are attached
thereto by the aid of an adhesive cement or compound.
Having thus stated the nature of our said Invention, we will proceed more
fully to describe the manner of performing the same.
The conductors of wire to be used for electric telegraphic purposes having
been coated with gutta percha, or with other suitable insulating matter-or.

page_text: compound, as is well understood, it is preferred to bind the same spirally
around with yarn or tapes, or strips of felt, or of cotton or other fibrous matter,
which binding, however, forms no part of our Invention, and may be omitted.
Over the insulated conductor or conductors a series of longitudinal bands of
braided or plaited hemp, or other fibrous materials, or it may be cords, threads,
or yarns, of like fibrous materials, are applied side by side in such manner as
to cover the exterior surface of the insulated conductor or conductors, which,
by preference, are bound round with yarn, or cord, or wire (covered or un-
covered), spirally in one or two directions, so as to retain the longitudinal
bands, or cords, or yarns, in their places; but this binding may be omitted,
and then a coating of wires is applied by braiding or plaiting, such wires
having been first coated or covered with heinp, flax, or other fibrous material,
by winding or otherwise surrounding them with yarns or threads, or other
preparation of such fibres. When using binding wires over longitudinal bands,
or cords, or yarns, it is preferred to serve the same over or around with hemp
or other yarn or strips of fibrous material before applying the outer coating of
braiding, whether of wire or other material.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 shews part of an electric telegraph cable, made according to our
Invention; and Figure 2 shows transverse sections thereof. The part marked
a, a, shows the finished cable; the part marked b, b, shows the cable before
receiving the coating of wire previously covered with fibre; and the part
marked c, c, is the insulated wire conductor coated with gutta percha, and
wound round spirally or not with yarns before applying the longitudinal bands,
or cords, or yarns b, b. In applying the longitudinal bands, or cords, or yarns
b, b, on to the insulated conductor, india-rubber or gutta percha or other
suitable cement may be employed between such longitudinal bands, cords, or
yarns, and the insulating conductor, and the longitudinal bands, or cords, or
yarns, may be first saturated or coated with such like cements; and such is
the case also in regard to the binding yarns. In place of or in addition to the
longitudinal bands, cords, or yarns, b, b, one or more coatings, each consisting
of a scries of wires, may be laid around in a long spiral direction, so as to
cover or partly to cover the exterior surface b, b, or c, c, according as tho
longitudinal bands, cords, oi yarns, b, b, are or are not used. If there be more
than one series of wires thus laid spirally around, then the succeeding series
should be laid in an opposite direction to the preceding series. These wires
so laid spirally around insulated electric conductors are to be first coated over
with fibrous materials in any suitable manner, and this is preferred to be dono

page_text: by an ordinary winding or covering machine or apparatus in like manner to
what wire has before been covered with cotton and with other yarn for other
purposes; and we would state it is well known that, amongst others, wires used
for the conductors of electricity have been so wound or covered with fibrous
materials; but the peculiarity of our Invention consists in employing such
covered wires in electric telegraph cables as a means of giving strength
thereto, for it should be understood that the covered wires in an electric tele-
graph cable according to our Invention are used spirally around the insulated
conducting wire or wires of the cable, the covered spirally laid wires not
themselves being used as conductors of electric currents. To complete an
electric telegraph cable when spirally laid covered wires are used as above
explained, a covering of braided or plaited yarus òr cords of hemp, flax, or
other fibrous materials, is used, and if desired to give additional strength to the
cable beyond what will result by the use of the covered wires laid spirally
around the insulated wire or wires, then this outer braided or plaited coating
may in place of simply consisting of hemp or other fibrous material, be com-
posed of wires coated with fibrous materials as above described. When using
iron or steel wire for giving strength to an electric telegraph cable, covered
with fibrous matter as before stated, then zinc may be applied thereto for pre-
serving such wires, as has heretofore been proposed, but to which we make no
separate claim.
What we do claim is, the combined means herein described, of coating
conducting wires used for electric telegraphic purposes.
In witness whereof, we, the said Joseph Rogers and Edward Johnson
Tweed, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Fifth day of
October, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
fifty-nine.