IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH WIRE ROPES OR CABLES."
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Pitman Hooper, of Lombard Street, in the City of
London, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH WIRE ROPES OR CABLES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Pitman Hooper at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 5th July 1881.
"
JOHN PITMAN HOOPER, of Lombard Street, in the City of London. IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH WIRE ROPES OR CABLES."
This Invention relates to the manufacture of all electric telegraph cables where
wire strands are employed for the sheathing, whether such strands are composed
of wire only or a combination of wire and hemp, including submarine electric
telegraph cables and electric cables for torpedo operations, both towing and
countermining, and has for its object the counteracting of the springiness of such
cables during the operation of paying out or other handling to which the cables
may be subjected, and thus counteracting in such cables the tendency to form rings
or coils which are liable to be drawn into kinks.
According to my Invention I take strands of any convenient number of wires
and lay them helically round the insulated conductor of the electric telegraph
cable, as has been hitherto done, but instead of employing strands, all of which
have their wires laid in the same direction, I use alternately strands having a right
hand and a left hand lay. Where an odd number of strands is employed two
strands of the same lay will of course come together. The tendency of electric
telegraph cables to springiness will thus be greatly counteracted, and they will be
less liable to kink, and will be more conveniently handled, especially when made
with hard wire.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said John Pitman Hooper in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
5th January 1882.
JOHN PITMAN HOOPER, of Lombard Street, in the City of London. "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH WIRE ROPES OR CABLES."
This Invention relates to the manufacture of all electric telegraph cables where wire
strands are employed for the sheathing, whether such strands are composed of wire
only or a combination of wire and hemp, including submarine electric telegraph
cables and electric cables for torpedo operations, both towing and countermining,
and has for its object the counteracting of the springiness of such cables during
the operation of paying out, or other handling to which the cables may be
subjected, and thus counteracting in such cables the tendency to form rings or coils
which are liable to be drawn into kinks.
According to my Invention I take strands of any convenient number of wires
and lay them helically round the insulated conductor of the electric telegraph
cable, as has been hitherto done, but instead of employing strands, all of which
have their wires laid in the same direction, I use alternately strands having a right
hand and a left hand lay. Where an odd number of strands is employed two
strands of the same lay will of course come together. The tendency of electric
telegraph cables to springiness will thus be greatly counteracted, and they will be
less liable to kink, and will be more conveniently handled, especially when made
with hard wire.
In order that my Invention may be fully understood I have shewn in the
Drawing hereunto annexed an example of an electric. cable made as above
described.
The Drawing shews an exterior view of a portion of the cable with at one end
a projecting length of the central core uncovered with the outer covering wire
strands.
The
A is the central insulated core containing the metallic conductor or conductors;
B is a covering of hemp strands wound around the core; C, C', are alternate
strands of wire forming the outer sheathing of the cable. The wire strands C
have the wires of which they are composed laid in one direction, whilst the wires
of which the strands C' are composed are laid in the opposite direction.
machinery employed in the making up of the cable may be the same as has
heretofore been used for making wire rope electric cables, except that for the
making of the strands C, C', I employ two machines similar in construction but
with the shaft carrying the bobbins of wire which are to be made up into a strand
driven in one direction in one machine, and in the opposite direction in the other
machine. In this way the wires of the strands made in one machine will be laid
in one direction, whilst the wires of the strands made in the other machine will be
laid in the opposite direction. In both machines the strands as they are produced
are wound up on to bobbins.
In the machine by which a number of wire strands are to be laid around the
central core I make up the ring of bobbins which hold these strands of bobbins
taken alternately from the two strand making machines, so that the bobbins taken
from one machine have on either side of them bobbins taken from the other
machine. The construction of machinery for making up wire strands and for
laying wire strands around central cores is well understood, so that it is unnecessary
to describe any particular construction of machine that may be used for the
purpose.

page_text: Any desired number of wires may be employed in the formation of each strand,
and any desired number of strands may be used in the formation of the outer
covering of the central insulated core.
In the cable shewn in the Drawing there are twelve wire strands, each composed
of seven wires.
Electric telegraph wire ropes or cables made as above described will lie in a
straight line when payed out, and will also coil much more readily than wire rope
telegraph cables as heretofore made.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of per-
forming the same, I would have it understood that I claim the manufacture of
electric telegraph wire ropes or cables, substantially as herein before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Pitman Hooper, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Third day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eighty two.