IMPROVEMENTS IN TELEGRAPH CABLES, ALSO APPLICABLE TO OTHER SIMILAR PURPOSES."
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Hanham Collyer, of Alpha Road, Regent's
Park, M.D., for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN TELEGRAPH CABLES,
ALSO APPLICABLE TO OTHER SIMILAR PURPOSES."
C
L
'PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Hanham Collyer
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 29th May 1860.
I
1
I, ROBERT HANHAM COLLYER; of Alpha Road, Regent's Park, M.D.,. do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TELE-
.GRAPH CABLES, ALSO APPLICABLE TO OTHER SIMILAR PURPOSES," to be as follows:
Instead of employing gutta percha, india-rubber, or other elastic gum, of
'Trinidad pitch, alone or in combination with siliceous matter for coating or
covering metallic wires for the purpose of insulating them, and enabling them.
to be employed as electric conductors, l'employ one of the compositionsformed.
as hereafter described, for coating or covering single or compound metallic wires
or metallic tubes, the interior of which tubes being filled or charged with the same.
composition, Itake bitumen, shellac, and oil, ina heated fluid state, and I add
thereto the short hair of animals, the shorts of wood or other fibrous material,
and I also mix therewith a sufficient quantity of calcareous matter to temper
the composition to the requisite degree of hardness and solidity; the whole
mass is intimately mixed by means of an agitator, and when it is intended to
Price S1

page_text: employ it for the covering of wires, and the covering and filling of conducting
tubes, I exhaust the air from the mass before it is allowed to cool and con-
solidate, if intended to be stored away in blocks, and before it is applied in a
semi-fluid state in the process of covering or insulating telegraphic conductors.
Instead of combining with the mastic composition, hair, wool, or like material
combined and treated as just described, I take paper pulp or paper materials
prepared in accordance with the modes or methods patented by me on the
Twenty-ninth day of February and the Twenty-eighth day of March last
respectively, and after thoroughly washing and drying such pulp or paper ma-
terials so produced, I mix or combine them with the mastic composition before
mentioned.
In applying the non-conducting or insulating composition resulting from the
processes just described, either direct from the cauldron or vessel in which
the same has been mixed, or from the vessel in which blocks of the material
have been remelted, I force it under considerable pressure into tapering tubes
and dies, in the centre of which or in such other position or positions as it may
be required, I place the metallic conductor or conductors; and I provide
snitable bearing, and guiding holes for insuring the proper arrangement
and disposition of the metallic conductors within the body of the insulating
material, whatever external form or shape may be given thereto.
Before the single or compound metallic conducting wire or the conducting
tube is permitted to enter the mass of material by which it is to be surrounded,
I heat it to a sufficiently high temperature whilst being drawn through, and
in the process of manufacture into a cable or whilst being covered, and I pass
the wire so heated through a solution or through a solvent or mineral oil, by
which a more perfect contact and adhesion of the exterior conducting material
can be insured, and the tendency to slide or slip away from the insulating
coating on the expansion or contraction of the metal is prevented, and thus a
source of leakage, rupture, and destruction to the insulating coat is avoided.
Whenever several independent conducting wires, strands, or tubes have to
be combined within one insulating mass in the form of a cable, I prefer first
to form each singly and perfect the insulating coat, and oxidise and harden the
exterior surface of each length of insulated covering by means of currents of
atmospheric air discharged against or thro' amongst a number of insulated
wires so manufactured or covered. And after this oxidising and hardening
operation has been carried on, I pass the several lengths of conductor thus
insulated through suitable dies and between rollers, for the purpose of com-
bining them together either longitudinally and parallel side by side or spirally
as may be required.

page_text: In each case and wherever the same can be effected during the process of
covering or combining, I employ an exhauster for withdrawing the air from
the fluid or semifluid mass.
1
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Robert Hanham Collyer in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 29th November 1860..
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
HANHAM COLLYER, of Alpha Road, Regent's Park, M.D., send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-third year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Robert Hanhanı Collyer, Her special licence that I, the said Robert Hanham
Collyer, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or snch others as I, the
said Robert Hanham Collyer, 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 TELEGRAPH CABLES, ALSO APPLICABLE TO. OTHER SIMILAR
PURPOSES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Robert
Hanham Collyer, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly
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 Robert Hanham Collyer, 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:—
Instead of employing gutta percha, india-rubber, or other elastic gum, or
Trinidad pitch, alone or in combination with silicious matter for coating or
covering metallic wires for the purpose of insulating them and enabling them
to be employed as electric conductors, I employ one of the compositions formed
as hereafter described, for coating or covering single or compound metallic

page_text: wires or metallic tubes, the interior of such tubes being filled or charged with
the same composition. I take bitumen, shellac, and oil in a heated fluid state,
and I add thereto the short hair of animals, the shorts of wool, or other fibrous
materials; and I also mix therewith a sufficient quantity of calcareous matter
to temper the composition to the requisite degree of hardness and solidity; the
whole mass is intimately mixed by means of an agitator, and when it is
intended to employ it for the covering of wires and the covering and filling of
conducting tubes, I exhaust the air from the mass before it is allowed to cool
and consolidate, if intended to be stored away in blocks, and before it is applied
in a semifluid stato in the process of covering or insulating telegraphic
conductors.
Instead of combining with the mastic composition, hair, wool, or like mate-
rial, combined and treated as just described, I take paper pulp or paper
materials prepared in accordance with the modes or methods patented by me
on the Twenty-ninth day of February and Twenty-eighth day of March last
respectively, and after thoroughly washing and drying such pulp or paper
materials so produced, I mix or combine them with the mastic composition
before mentioned.
In applying thenon-conducting or insulating composition resulting from the
processes just described, either direct from the cauldron or vessel in which the
same has been mixed, or from the vessel in which blocks of the material have
been remelted, I force it under considerable pressure into tapering tubes and
dies, in the centre of which, or in such other position or positions as it may be
required, I place the metallic conductor or conductors, and I provide suitable
bearing and guiding holes for ensuring the proper arrangement and disposition
of the metallic conductors within the body of the insulating material, whatever
external form or shape may be given thereto.
Before the single or compound metallic conducting wire or the conducting
tube is permitted to enter the mass of material by which it is to be surrounded,
I heat it to a sufficiently high temperature whilst being drawn through and in
the process of manufacture into a cable, or whilst being covered, and I pass
the wire so heated through a solution, or through a solvent or mineral oil, by
which a more perfect contact and adhesion of the exterior conducting material
can be ensured, and the tendency to slide or slip away from the insulating
coating upon the expansion or contraction of the metal is prevented, and thus
a source of leakage, rupture, and destruction to the insulating coat is also
avoided.
Whenever several independent conducting wires, strands, or tubes have to
be combined within one insulating mass in the form of a cable, I prefer first to

page_text: form each singly, and perfect the insulating coat, and oxidize and harden the
exterior surface of each length of insulated covering by means of currents
of atmospheric air discharged agailist or through amongst a number of such
insulated wires so manufactured or covered; and after this oxidizing and
hardening operation has been carried on, I pass the several lengths of conductor
thus insulated through suitable.dies-and-between rollers for the purpose of
combining them together, either longitudinally and parallel side by side or
spirally, as may be.required.
1
In each case, and wherever the same can be effected during the process of
covering or combining, I employ an exhauster for withdrawing the air from
the fluid or semifluid mass.
I prefer to employ natural bitumen, and to harden or temper up to the
required extent with either the substances or materials herein-before men-
tioned; and when in a heated fluid state to charge in the greatest amount of
any of the fibrous materials herein-before mentioned, which the heated bitu-
minous composition will take up or hold; and when the compost or partially
solid mass has been properly mixed and produced ready for use, in accordance
with the purpose for which it is intended, I place it within a cylinder contain-
ing a piston, to which power is applied for the purpose of expressing or forcing
the semi-solid contents of the cylinder through a tapering or conical tube or
tubes, within which the conducting wires or conducting tubes are led and made
to pass in any required manner, whether singly or otherwise combined, within
the resulting form or shape of the cable or insulated body intended as a sub-
stitute for the ordinary forms of submarine or other descriptions of telegraph
lines or series of conducting wires.
In the same manner I form continuous articles of similar character, although
they may be intended or employed for other purposes.
Having how described my said Invention of improvements in telegraph
cables, also applicable to other similar purposes, I wish it to be understood that
what I claim is,-
First, the use or employment of bitumen, tempered as herein described, in
combination with any of the short fibrous materials herein set forth, for the
purposeofcoating, surrounding, and otherwiseinsulating and protectingelectric
conducting wires or conducting tubes, as herein described.
Second, the use or employment of bituminous compositions charged with
fibre, as herein set forth, for the purpose of forming continuous lengths of
electrically insulated lines, as described.
Third, the method of forming the compost or material herein-before described
into the required form or shape, by the employment of pressure in combination

page_text: with the conical tubes and dies described for receiving the wires, and by which
the conducting wires or their equivalents are disposed in any required position,
and discharged from the apparatus simultaneously with the expulsion of the
insulating material.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Hanham Collyer, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of November, One
thousand eight hundred and sixty.
ROBERT HANHAM COLLYER. (L.S.)
Witness,
FREDERIC ROBERTS,
19, Salisbury St., Adelphi, W.C.