IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF INSULATORS FOR TELEGRAPHIC WIRES, AND IN MATERIALS AND MACHINERY FOR COATING TELEGRAPHIC WIRES
Year: 1861

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Heinrich Gottlieb Bernhard Roeber
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
4th June 1861.
J, HEINRICH GOTTLIEB BERNHARD ROEBER, of Silvertown, in the County of
Essex, Telegraphic Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF INSULATORS FOR TELEGRAPHIC
WIRES, AND IN MATERIALS AND MACHINERY FOR COATING TELEGRAPHIC WIRES," to
be as follows:-
Insulators for telegraphic wires have hitherto been made of only one
insulating material. Now my Invention partly consists in manufacturing
them of two or more insulating materials, such, for example, as india-rubber,
gutta percha, and their compounds, shellac or enamel, in combination with
porcelain, earthenware, or glass. The materials which I prefer to employ are
those which are differently affected by changes in the atmosphere, in order
that the effect of one material may counteract that of the other, whereby I
obtain an insulation as perfect as may be in all weathers. By way of example
I will explain one manner in which I apply this part of my Invention to an
insulator for an ordinary line wire. Supposing india-rubber and porcelain to be
the materials used, I take a metal rod of, by preference, a swan-neck shape, and
coat it with india-rubber, to the bill of the neck I connect a piece of porcelain
carrying a ring or other shaped piece of india-rubber on which the line wire
rests, or the ring may be dispensed with, and the line wire may rest on the
porcelain. I do not limit myself to this particular description of insulator, as

page_text: insulators may be made according to my Invention of any approved form to
suit, for example, the particular place to which they may be applied, and may
be fixed with metal, wood, or other material as desired. This part of my In-
vention consisting in the employment of two or more materials differently
acted on by changes in the atmosphere.
Decomposition takes place in india-rubber or its compounds when the
telegraph wire is coated solely with it or them. To overcome this defect, I coat
wire with india-rubber or its compounds, in combination with sulphurets,
sulphates, and oxides of metals together or separately, and I either place the
said materials, or one of them, between the wire and the insulating coat or
coats of india-rubber or its compounds, or I cover the wire with the said
materials only, or alternately with them and india-rubber or other insulating
materials. The protecting or insulating coat or coats for telegraph wires I
Jay on either spirally or longitudinally, and to apply it or them spirally I
either impart to the wire a double rotary motion, one about its own axis and
another round the circumference of a cylinder or cone, or I cause the wire to
revolve about its own axis only; the wire is drawn forward, and is coated as it
advances by india-rubber led from a bobbin or bobbins. In some cases I
impart a sliding motion to the bobbin or bobbins carrying the insulating
material and impart a rotary motion to the wire to be covered. To coat wire
longitudinally, I make use of a series of grooved rollers, each containing two
or more grooves according to the number of wires to be coated. The wires are
led between the first pair of rollers, where they receive their first coat of
insulating material, which is led from bobbins provided for the purpose. As
the grooved rollers revolve the insulating material is pressed round the wires,
and its adhesive nature causes the parts to adhere; the coated wires are then
led between a second pair of rollers having grooves somewhat larger than the
first, where they receive a second coat of insulating material in a similar
manner, and so on to another pair the grooves of which are still larger, con-
tinuing the process according to the number of coats the wire is to receive; as
soon as the covered wires leave the rollers, revolving or fixed knives divide
them one from another. By the arrangement described I am enabled to coat
any number of wires with as many coats as may be required in one and the
samo machine, and at the same time I prevent waste in the insulating
materials.