IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND LAYING DOWN OF SUBTERRANEOUS TELEGRAPH WIRES
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 88, Porchester Terrace, Bayswater, in the County of
Middlesex, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE CONSTRUCTION AND LAYING DOWN OF SUBTERRANEOUS TELEGRAPH WIRES,"
-A communication from Pierro François Léon Pérémé, residing in
Paris, 188, Boulevard de Neuilly, in the Empire of France.
Sealed 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 AND LAYING DOWN OF SUBTERRANEOUS TELEGRAPH WIRES,"

page_text: communicated to me by Pierre François Léon Pérémé, 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
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 communicated to me relates to the novel preparation of
telegraphic wires to be placed under ground, and to the manner of placing
them there. Their preparation consists in surrounding them with three
isolating envelopes.
The accompanying Drawing, in which the similar parts of the appuratus
are indicated in the different Figures by the same letters of reference, shows the
internal disposition of the wires, and the way in which they are placed.
In these Figures A is the mass of ciment or mortar; B, the tar paper;
C, the textile envelope; D, the second envelope of like material; E, the
bandages surrounding the wires; F, the conducting wires; G, the bandages
cut longitudinally; H, the wire conductor cut longitudinally. The red lines
are the seams.
The conducting media are wires of copper, iron, or iron coppered by
galvanoplastic process; they are composed of a single wire of variable
diameter, or of several wires twisted together like a cord in long spires, the
sections of which united are equivalent to the diameter of a single conductor.
These conductors are wrapt round with bandages of felt, cotton, wool, hemp,
jute, or any other textile material in a long spiral form impregnated with tar
taken from the distillations of bituminous schists very rich in oil and paraffine.
Thus prepared these wires are sewn to any quantity in an envelope of one of
the stuffs above given, done over with tar of the peculiar composition also
above given, so as to separate the wires a little, confined as they are by two
seams, and to preserve an interval of at least two centimetres from axis to axis;
the whole is then wrapt up in a second envelope of felt or or any other coarse
stuff made of the textile materials above enumerated, done over on the insido
with schist oil charged with paraffine, and on the outside with tar already
described. This second envelope is attached to the whole apparatus by seams
in the interspaces of the wires as may be seen in Figures 1 & 2. The schist

page_text: oils, rich in paraffine, have this advantage that they do not volatilise, and
possess the property of banishing insects; the paraffine is an indifferent body,
which is not subject to combination. When about to be laid down the cable
thus prepared is covered over with a sheet of paper tarred on both sides so as
to preserve it from immediate contact with the ciment, mortar, sand, or earth
which surrounds it, and in which several superposed envelopes might be
enclosed, as shewn in Figure No. 2. By means of this system it is readily
seen how easy it would be to branch off the necessary wires from the main line
at the various stations, as in the case of electric clocks set up in a city, the
current of which would be supplied by a single pile. The laying down of such
a line is very easy; it is merely necessary to cut a trench, in which is placed
the material to form the bed, on which the prepared cable is spread, to cover
it over with a fresh layer, and so on until the whole cable is obtained. This
system of electric conductors may be applied to the working of telegraphs
generally in that of sections conceded to certain persons for the working of their
factories or on their estates, or as a conductor of the electric current to manu-
factures where electro-metallurgy and electro-motive machines are employed.
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 construc-
tion and arrangements of subterraneous cables with electric conductors in
three isolating envelopes 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
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
H. BONNEVILLE. (L.S.)