IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF SUBMARINE TELEGRAPH CABLES
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henri Adrien Bonneville, of the British and Foreign
Patent Offices, 24, Rue du Mont Thabor, Paris, in the Empire of
France, and 38, Porchester Terrace, Bayswater, in the County of
Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF
SUBMARINE TELEGRAPH CABLES."-A communication from Pierre Francois
LETTERS PATENT to Henri Adrien Bonneville, of the British and Foreign
Patent Offices, 24, Rue du Mont Thabor, Paris, in the Empire of
France, and 38, Porchester Terrace, Bayswater, in the County of
Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF
SUBMARINE TELEGRAPH CABLES."-A communication from Pierre Francois
Leon Pereme, residing in Paris, 138, Boulevard de Neuilly, in the
Empire of France, aforesaid.
Scaled the 28th December 1866, and dated the 2nd July 1866.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Henri Adrien Bonneville at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and
Declaration, on the 2nd July 1866, pursuant to the 9th Section of the
Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRI
ADRIEN BONNEVILLE, of the British and Foreign Patent Offices, 24, Rue du
Mont Thabor, Paris, in the Empire of France, and 38, Porchester Terrace,
Bayswater, in the County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
CONSTRUCTION OF SUBMARINE TELEGRAPH CABLES," communicated to me by Pierre
Francois Leon Pereme, a person residing in Paris, 138, Boulevard de Neuilly,
in France, and have petitioned Her Majesty to grant unto me, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, Her Royal Letters Patent for the same, and have
made solemn declaration that it is a communication.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Henri Adrien Bonneville, do hereby
declare that the following Complete Specification, under my hand and seal,

page_text: fully describes and ascertains the nature of the Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, reference being had to the figures of the
accompanying Drawing, and to the letters marked thereon, that is to say:-
The Invention relates to the construction of submarine telegraph cables
with two interior coverings running parallel with the electric conductor, and
with an exterior covering or shielding of tempered or non-tempered steel.
The object of this Invention is to construct submarine telegraph cables of
sufficient strength to resist the powerful tractions of the sea resulting from
currents and the deep cavities at the bottom of the ocean.
The Figures of the accompanying Drawing exhibit the various dispositions
of cables conformably with this Invention.
Figure shows the section of an isolated cable with its first covering;
Figure 2. the section of a complete cable; Figure 3, a longitudinal view of a
complete cable with certain parts of its envelopes taken off; Figures 4, 5,
and 6 show the sections of cables with three, four, and five conducting wires.
The letters of the three first Figures indicate similar parts.
A is the conducting wire; B, the first covering; C, the first isolating
envelope; D, the second covering; E, the second isolating envelope; F, the
outward covering or shielding.
The letters of Figures 4, 5, and 6 indicate similar parts.
A is the cable without the exterior covering; B, the second covering
provided with an isolating envelope; C, the second covering without envelope;
D. the isolating envelope: E, the exterior covering.
Figure No. 1 of the accompanying Drawing shows the principle of the
whole Invention; it is merely provided with an interior covering, which is
applied round the conducting wires. Nevertheless the exterior covering has
been made to figure, because even in that condition the cable would render
great services from its complete isolation and resistance. Figure No. 2
exhibits the whole cable, that is, what it should essentially be to realise
the Invention. A conductor of copper wire or wires twisted together like a
rope is immediately surrounded with wires of tempered steel coppered by
galvanoplastic process, so as to render them good conducting media. in
number more or less considerable according to their diameter, which varies in
proportion to the required resistance; these wires are placed longitudinally
and parallel with the conducting medium, so as to avoid diminishing their
strength by twisting. (The wires of this first covering might consist of fine
twisted wire like the conductor, but the covering would be less strong.) An
isolating envelope girds the wires thus twisted. The isolating envelope is
made of a flaxen. woollen. cotton, hempen, jute, or felt material impregnated

page_text: with paraffine dissolved in schist oil, to which is added a small proportion of
tar taken from the distillations of bituminous schist, so as to give more
consistency and suppleness to the whole. Caoutchouc and gutta percha may
also be used. On this envelope is applied the second interior covering
composed of tempered steel wires, coppered or not, to which may be added
one or two thousandths part or thereabouts of white wolfram; this second
covering, like the first, is provided with an isolating envelope of same
composition, and it is on that envelope that the exterior covering is applied,
which is a shielding of tempered or non-tempered steel of variable thickness,
according to the nature of bottom the cable is to come in contact with in its
length, to which it would be well to add some white wolfram. This steel
shielding is wound round spirally, so that at each turn the spire may still
slightly cover by its edge the preceding spire, and so on in its whole length.
In that state the cable may be immersed; its resistance is very great, as may
be verified by calculation, and this resistance necessarily augments with the
diameter of the interior coverings of wires and with the thickness of the
exterior covering. In cables consisting of several conductors the second
covering is made of steel wires of different diameters distributed in all the
spaces; some are coated with an isolating substance, others are bare. All
these wires run in the same direction as the conductors, that is, they are in
the plan passing through their axes, and are consequently parallel to them.
The exterior covering alone turns spirally.
Having now described the nature of the said improvements, and the
manner of carrying them into effect, I would have it understood that I do not
confine myself to the precise details above laid down, but claim the general
construction and arrangements of submarine telegraph cables with two
interior coverings running parallel with the electric conductor and with an
exterior covering or shielding of tempered or non-tempered steel, substantially
as above described and represented in the different Figures of the accompanying
Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henri Adrien Bonneville, have hereto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of June, in the year of