Connected with Flectrical Conductors.
Year: 1886

page_text: Connected with Flectrical Conductors.
!
I PHILIP MIDDLETON JUSTICE of 55 and 56 Chancery Lane in the County of
Middlesex Fellow of the Institute of Patent Agents do hereby declare the nature
of this invention (a communication from abroad by Edward G. Acheson of the City
County and State of New York United States of America, Electrician) and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement :-
'
The invention relates to electrical conductors and the manufacture thereof, and
it has for its object to improve the construction and mode of manufacture in such
a way as to produce a cheap and effective conductor that is flexible and durable
and at the same time will avoid the disturbances due to induction from neighbouring
wires.
.
To these ends the invention consists in the conductor and in the method sub-
stantially as hereinafter pointed out for manufacturing the conductor, and in more
particularly describing the invention, reference is made to the accompanying
drawing in which Fig. 1. is a view of a portion of a conductor, and in Fig. 2 is
indicated one form of apparatus by which the improvements may be carried out.
The line wire or conductor A, is covered with some insulating material B,
preferably consisting of a fibrous covering saturated with some hydrocarbon
having a comparatively high melting point, as asphaltum. This may be applied in
any usual and well known manner not necessary to illustrate in the drawing.
Over this insulating material is formed a flexible metallic covering tube or
sheath C preferably of copper deposited by electrolytic action, and in order to do
this cheaply and effectively the insulated conductor A, B, is first passed through
a box or receptacle C₁, containing powdered graphite. This graphite will adhere
to the insulating covering, but to insure its uniform distribution, rubbers or brushes
may be used as is usual in such instances to produce a thin uniforin coating of the
plumbago or lead.
The conductor is now in condition to receive the coating of copper and in doing
this it is preferred to cover it first with a thin metal surface and subsequently
build up upon this the coating to the desired thickness. The deposition of the
first coat requires a current of comparatively high electro-motive force to overcome

page_text: the resistance due to the graphite, but it has been found that the shield is more
flexible, durable, and suitable for the purpose designed when the greater part of
the deposition of the metal is more slowly performed and by a current of lower
electro motive force, and of greater quantity.
Various arrangements may be adopted for carrying out this part of the invention,
but the one shown has been found to be convenient.
The insulated conductor with its covering of graphite is passed over a metal
wheel W, into the bath M, of electrolytic fluid and one end a, of the circuit of the
electric generator G, is connected to the wheel and the other end, to a plate K, of
copper for instance, immersed in the bath.
This bath may be comparatively short and a current of comparatively high
electro-motive force be passed through it, as is indicated by including the three
cells of battery in the circuit.
From this bath the conductor passes to another similar though larger bath,
which in practice may be a practical continuation of the first, and thence through
the bath and out over another roller W¹, which is connected to one branch b, of
the circuit from the generator, the other being connected to the large plate K.
Three battery cells are shown as connected in series in the circuit of the first
bath, and a single cell in the circuit of the second bath. The electro motive force
of the currents used will depend upon the thickness of the two coats of metal
desired, as well as the conditions of the electrolytic fluid, and other conditions well
known to those skilled in the art.
It will thus be seen that while the operation is practically continuous there
are in fact two kinds of deposits made upon the conductor, which combined give
it great strength and flexibility and the shield is formed over the insulating
material of an uniform thickness.
It has been found that by making the baths of proper proportion and using
proper strengths of current the conductor may be fed along continuously and
the operation be expeditiously and effectively performed. While any suitable
electric generator may be used, very satisfactory results have been derived from an
improved dynamo electric machine having an uniform field of force which gives an
unusually steady current of great quantity and low electro motive force.
It has also been found advantageous to coat the electro-deposited shield with
a metallic alloy baving a low melting point and to do this the conductor is simply
passed through a vessel containing the alloy in a fused state and which is allowed
to adhere to the copper shield, such an arrangement being shown at H, and as the
conductor is rapidly passed through the alloy it does not receive a heat sufficient to
injure the insulating material.
"The conductor D may be further covered with insulating or protective coverings
in any of the well known ways and to suit the purpose for which it is to be used.
If the enclosing metallic sheath is continuous it may be used as one limb of
the complete metallic circuit, that is, it may form the return circuit, or it may be
connected to the earth at its extremities or at intervals along the line, or if the
sheath is not continuous it may serve as a magnetic shield to the main conductor;
and prevent the disturbing effects of neighbouring wires.
Various modifications of the invention will suggest themselves to those skilled in
the art, which do not depart from the spirit of the invention, and which are not
necessary to be specified here..
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed as communicated to
me by my foreign correspondent I declare that what I claim is
1. An electric conductor consisting of a line wire, and insulating covering for
the same, a continuous homogeneous metallic shield of thin flexible material, and
a protective covering, substantially as described.
2. An electric conductor consisting of a line wire, an insulating covering of
fibrous material and asphaltum, a thin flexible shield of electrolytically deposited

page_text: copper, a coating of a metallic alloy, and a protecting covering, substantially as
described.
3. The method of forming electric conductors, which consists in covering insu-
lated conductors with an electrolytically deposited shield by first forming a layer
of comparatively hard crystalline deposit and then forming upon such deposit a
layer of comparatively soft and flexible deposit, substantially as described.
4. The method of forming electric conductors which consists in covering them
with an electrolytically deposited shield of different layers in one continuous
operation by passing the conductors through baths of different size and supplied
with currents of different electro motive forces, substantially as described.
5. The method of forming electric conductors which consists in covering the
insulated conductor with a metal shield electrolytically deposited in layers of
different degrees of hardness, and covering the same with a metal alloy by passing
the conductor through a molten mass of the alloy, substantially as described.
Dated this first day of June 1886