IMPROVE- MENO IN CONION OF Drama TRADE CARLO OR ROPES
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Stewart Duncan, of Hereford Road, North,
Bayswater, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENO IN CONION OF Drama TRADE CARLO OR ROPES "
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Stewart Duncan
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 4th December 1860.
I, CHARLES STEWART DUNCAN, of Hereford Road; North, Bayswater; in the
County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH CABLES OR ROPES,"
to be as follows:-
I propose in the first instance covering the centre wire or wires with strips
of cane (bamboo or ratan), which I bind in a spiral form, with or without
unspun silk, or any other suitable cane or woods, the same being well tanned
with oak bark or other known tanning agent; or in some cases I propose
using strips of whalebone; the whole is then to be covered with a thin coat of
gutta percha, india-rubber, or marine glue, either separately or combined, for
the purpose of filling up the interstices between the coils; these coils or
bindings may be repeated as many times as may be deemed desirable for the
purpose of strength or preservation of the wire from external' moisture or
injury, care being taken to cover each coil of cane with a layer of any of the
above materials. After which the entire cable or rope is covered with yarn,
hemp, or shavings of any wood, and finally bound with strands of copper or

page_text: other wire, or strands of rope composed of hemp, separately or in combination
with copper or any other wire. By this means it will appear evident that great
strength and flexibility is obtained with very little weight, as well as a more
perfect insulation of the interior wire, these being great desideratums in
electric telegraph cables or ropes.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles Stewart Duncan in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 4th June 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
STEWART DUNCAN, of Hereford Road, North, Bayswater, in the County of
Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-fourth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Charles Stewart Duncan, Her special licence that I, the said
Charles Stewart Duncan, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Charles Stewart Duncan, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH
CABLES OR ROPES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Charles Stewart Duncan, my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly 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 I, the said Charles Stewart Duncan, 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, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object certain improvements in electric telegraph
cables or ropes.

page_text: In order to explain my said Invention as completely as possible, I now
proceed to describe the best means I am acquainted with for carrying the
same into practical effect, as follows:-
In the first instance I cover the centre wire or wires with strips of cane
(bamboo or ratan), which I bind in a spiral form, with or without unspun
silk, or any other suitable cane or woods, the same being well tanned with a
preparation of oak bark, terra japonica, mammosa, or sea-squill tan, or any
other known tanning agent. The whole is then to be covered with a thin coat
of gutta percha, india-rubber, or marine glue, either separately or combined,
for the purpose of filling up the interstices between the coils; these coils or
bindings may be repeated as many times as may be deemed desirable for the
purpose of strength or preservation of the wire from external moisture or
injury, care being taken to cover each coil of cane with a layer of any of the
above materials, after which the entire cable or rope is covered with yarn,
hemp, or shavings of any wood, and finally bound with strands of copper or
other wire, or strands of rope composed of hemp, separately or in combination
with copper or any other wire. By this means it will appear evident that
great strength and flexibility are obtained with very little weight, as well as a
more perfect insulation of the interior wire, these being great desiderata in
electric telegraph cables or ropes.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention for " Improvements
in the Construction of Electric Telegraph Cables or Ropes," and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, I would remark, in conclusion, that
what I claim as my Invention, intended to be secured to me by the herein
in part recited Letters Patent, is, constructing electric telegraph cables or
ropes in the manner herein described and set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Stewart Duncan, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Third day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
Witness,
JOHN MATTHIAS,
21, Kildare Terrace, Bayswater.
C. S. DUNCAN. (L.S.)