IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF TELEGRAPHIC OR TELEPHONIC CONDUCTORS OR CABLES, AND IN MACHINERY THEREFOR."
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Robert Lake, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake,
& Co., Patent Agents, Southampton Buildings, London, for an Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF TELEGRAPHIC OR TELEPHONIC
CONDUCTORS OR CABLES, AND IN MACHINERY THEREFOR." A communication
from abroad by Henry Augustus Clark, of Boston, Massachusetts, United;
States of America.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Robert Lake at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 14th June 1881.
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
TELEGRAPHIC OR TELEPHONIC CONDUCTORS OR CABLES, AND IN MACHINERY
THEREFOR." A communication from abroad by Henry Augustus Clark, of Boston,
Massachusetts, United States of America.
This Invention relates to improvements in the manufacture of insulated
telegraphic or telephonic conductors or cables, and to machinery therefor.
Machines constructed according to the said Invention are adapted for the
covering of telegraph or telephone wire with an insulating material, such, for
instance, as the india rubber or gutta percha ordinarily employed, or with restored
waste vulcanized india rubber or gutta percha in any of their vulcanizable or
other compounds, or with any suitable material or materials, the said machines
being of that class which are constructed and arranged for the passage and guiding
of wire axially through a circular opening in a die or head block, and for the
forcing at the same time of the material with which the wire is to be coated
through the same die-opening in a manner to dispose and place such coating
material about and around the wire.
One object of this Invention is to adapt such machines for their application of
such coating material to a wire, which lins or has not been previously coated with
a material or materials of a nature or formation to yield or give either in thickness
or length, or both, to the pressure thereon under the operation of the machine, to
force and apply the coating to such wire as they together pass through the circular
die opening.
Another object of this Invention is to adapt such machines to the production

page_text: and manufacture of a compound telegraph conductor or cable composed of a series
of wires arranged in lines more or less parallel with but separated from each other,
and for the purpose of insulation surrounded and enclosed as a whole, and also as
to each of the series with a homogeneous and one and the same mass of material
or materials such as aforesaid.
To these ends the machinery constructed according to this Invention comprises
a guide for the wire, which, at and along its end at which the wire escapes and
passes therefrom into the die opening, has exterior parallel sides or sides sub-
stantially parallel in conbination with a die opening, which for a part of its length
has parallel sides or sides substantially parallel, when the former is so located in
reference to the said die opening, that its said parallel or substantially parallel
sides either for the whole or for a part of their length shall project and lie within
the said die opening at and along its said parallel sides or substantially parallel
sides either for the whole or a part of their length, substantially as hereinafter
described.
The said Invention also comprises a guide for the series of wires forming a
compound telegraph conductor or cable, having a distinct guide tube or way for
ench wire of the series, all of which guide ways are arranged in lines parallel or
substantially so with the axis or common opening in the die or head block, and
open to such die opening either at or within its mouth, and as to each other aro
constructed and arranged for the material which with the series of wires is forced
through the common die opening to circulate about and surround them as a whole,
and also as to each other, and thus to be disposed at and about the series of wires
as a whole, and as to each other where they leave and pass out of their guide
tubes into the common die opening; all substantially as hereinafter described.
The said Invention further comprises a telegraph or telephone cable or conductor
composed of a series of wires made of any metal suitable for telegraphic, telephonic,
and other electrical purposes, running in line more or less parallel with but
separated from each other, and for the purpose of insulation surrounded and
enclosed as a whole, and also as to each of the series with a homogeneous, and one
and the same mass of the material or materials or compounds of the same herein-
before referred to, or surrounded and enclosed, as also cach of the series of wires
with any other homogeneous mass of material or materials capable of similarly
surrounding the several wires of the cable, and of securing insulation about each
of them as to each other, and combined and arranged together substantially as
herein described by a simultaneous and continuous operation.
In carrying the said Invention into practice I provide a chambered cylinder, and
a screw arranged to turn within said cylinder. Thero is a holo which opens to
the said screw intermediate of its length, and through which the insulating inaterial
with which the wire is to be coated is inserted for the screw to force the saine up to
and through the die block. A guide for the wire runs at right angles to the length of
the screw and cylinder, or may be loosely within the screw. A die block is provided
axially coincident with the axial line of the said wire guide severally arranged for
the passage of a wire through the die-opening, and at the same time for the forcing
of a coating material through the die opening as the wire passes through the same.
The cylinder has chambers through which steam or cold water passes to keep the
insulating material in proper working condition. The guide for the wire at and
along its end at which the wire escapes or passes therefrom to the die opening is
made with exterior parallel sides, or sides substantially parallel, and such portion
of the said guide enters and projects either for the whole or a part of its length into
the die opening, which die opening either for the whole or a part of its length
corresponding therewith is similarly provided with parallel sides, or sides substan-
tially parallel, and these said parallel sides, as well also as the location of the wire
guide within the die opening, are such as to leave un opening or space between
them for the passage of the material with which the wire is to be coated.
This construction and arrangement of the guide for the wire and tho die opening
under the operation of the apparatus to force the coating material through the die

page_text: opening, as the wire proceeds through the same, give direction to such coating
material in the line along which it is intended to and should pass through the
die-opening before it reaches and comes in contact with the wire which it is to
coat, and thus it is prevented from working itself in a backward direction upon
the wire, which obviously is most advantageous if the wire should have been
previously covered with a coating or coatings of materials which are of a nature
capable of compression in their thickness, or of extension or movement in their
length, as, for instance, a wire previously coated with insulating material, either alone
or in combination with a strip of tin foil exteriorly covering said insulated wire.
According to another part of my Invention I provide a wire guide having a
series of guide ways or tubes which run in the direction of its length and in
parallel lines; they are arranged as follows, vist, one at and along the axial line
of the guide, and the remainder in a circle about such central guide and at equal
distances apart. Each of these several guide tubes is adapted for the free passage
of a wire, and at the end of the guide, which is toward the die opening, they each
project and extend froin the body portion of the guide in parallel lines into the die
opening, and therein are separate and distinct from each other, so as to leave a free
and open space between each two and between them all and the wall of the die
opening, which is made of sufficient diameter to admit the said series of wire guide
tubes and leave a space between them and the wall of the die opening as stated.
With a series of wire guides or tubes constructed and arranged in relation to
each other and to the die openings above described, obviously the coating material
with which the several wires are to be coated, and in conjunction with which they
are to pass through the die opening, is free to dispose and circulate itself about and
around the wire guides before reaching the wires which are issuing from the wire
guides at their open ends toward and within the die opening, and as a consequence
to circulate about and between the series of wires as they issue from their several
guide tubes, and between the wires and the wall of the die opening, thereby
securing a disposition of the coating material about and around the several wires,
which material so disposed is in a homogeneous and in one and the same mass
throughout, and is disposed and combined with the wires simultaneously and in ą
continuous operation.
A separation of the wire guides, as above described, before the wires issue from
them and come into contact with the coating material being forced through the
die opening and thus secure the disposition of the coating material relative thereon;
as above described, is absolutely essential, as otherwise the wires from the pressure
of the coating material would be forced together, and thus the proper disposition
of the coating material between and around and about them prevented.
The number of the wire guides and their relative arrangement may be varied,.
and therefore it is not intended to limit the said Invention to any particular
number or to any particular relative arrangement, except that there is to bo a
series of wire guides. Practice has shewn that seven wires can be simultaneously
coated and covered with success.
The several wires in a compound cable made according to my Invention are
embedded and surrounded with a cylinder of the insulating material, and as so
surrounded have one at the centre thereof and the remainder arranged in a circular
form about said central wire, and at equal and regular distances apart parallel with
each other. But obviously they may be of a greater or lesser number than seven,
and arranged in other relations to each other.
A compound wire or cable made as described herein, if to be vulcanized in order
to preserve the disposition of the wires and of the coating material specified, and
also the proper form of the whole against derangement, should be wrapped with
cloth or similar sheet material before vulcanizing it, but this obviously has no
bearing whatever upon or relation to the operation of the machine as described.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said William Robert Lake in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
14th December 1881.
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
TELEGRAPHIC OR TELEPHONIC CONDUCTORS OR CABLES, AND IN MACHINERY
THEREFOR." A communication from abroad by Henry Augustus Clark, of Boston,
Massachusetts, United States of America.
This Invention relates to improvements in the manufacture of insulated
telegraphic or telephonic conductors or cables, and to machinery therefor.
Machines constructed according to the said Invention aro adapted for the
covering of telegraphic or telephonic wire with an insulating material, such, for
instanco, as the india-rubber or gutta percha ordinarily employed, or with restored
waste vulcanized india-rubber or gutta percha in any of their vulcanizable or other
compounds, or with any suitable material or materials, the said machines being of
that class which are constructed and arranged for the passage and guiding of wire
axially through a circular opening in a die or head-block, and for the forcing at the
same time of the material with which the wire is to be coated through the same
die-opening in such a manner as to dispose and place such coating material about
and around the wire.
One object of this Invention is to adapt such machines for the application of the
said coating material to a wire which has or has not been previously coated with a
inaterial or materials of a nature or formation to yield or give either in thickness
or length, or both, to the pressure thereon under the operation of the machine to
force and apply the coating to such wiro as they together pass through the circular
die-opening.
Another object of this Invention is to adapt such machines to the production
and manufacture of a compound telegraph conductor or cable composed of a series
of wires arranged in lines more or less parallel with, but separated from each other,
and for the purpose of insulation surrounded and enclosed as a whole, and also as
to each of the series with a homogeneous and one and the same mass of material or
materials such as aforesaid.
To these ends the said Invention consists of a guide for the wire which, at and
along its ond at which the wire escapes and passes therefrom into the die opening,
has exterior parallel sides or sides substantially parallel in combination with a die-
opening, which for a part of its length has parallel sides, or sides substantially
parallel when the former is so located in reference to the said dic-opening, that its
said parallel or substantially parallel sides either for the whole or for a part of
their length shall project and lie within the said die-opening at and along its said
parallel sides or substantially parallel sides, either for the whole or a part of their
length, substantially as hereinafter described.
The said Invention also consists of a guide for the series of wires forming a
compound telegraph conductor wire or cable, having a distinct guide-tube or way
for each wire of the series, all of which guide-ways are arranged in lines parallel
or substantially so with the axis or common opening in the die or head block, and
open to such die-opening either at or within its mouth, and as to each other are
constructed and arranged for the material which with the series of wires is forced
through the common die-opening to circulate about and surround them as a whole, and
also as to each other, and thus to be disposed at and about the series of wires as a
whole, and as to each other where they leave and pass out of their guide-tubes
into the common die-opening, all substantially as hereinafter described.

page_text: The said Invention further consists of a telegraph or telephone cable or compound
telegraph conductor composed of a series of wires made of any metal suitable for
telegraphic, telephonic, and other electrical purposes, running in lines more or less
parallel with but separated from each other, and for the purpose of insulation
surrounded and enclosed as a whole, and also as to each of the series with a homo-
geneous and one and the same mass of the material or materials or compounds
of the same hereinbefore referred to, or surrounded and enclosed, as also each of the
series of wires with any other homogeneous mass of material or materials capable of
similarly surrounding the several wires of the cable, and of securing insulation about
cach of them as to each other, and combined and arranged together substantially as
heroin shown and described by a simultaneous and continuous operation.
In the accompanying Drawing the first part of this Invention is illustrated as
applied in two ways in relation to the forcing of the coating material through the
die-opening, and to the guiding of the wire to be coated, which ways consist in the
ono instance in locating such parts in lines at right angles to each other, and in
the other instanco in lines parallel with each other.
Figures 1 and 4 aro central longitudinal sections of the machine arranged in the
two ways stated.
Figuro 2 is a transverse section on the line 2, 2, Figure 1, and
Figure 3, a transverse section drawn to an enlarged scalo on the line 3, 3,
Figure 1.
A represents a chambered cylinder; B, a screw arranged to turn within the
said cylinder; C, a hole which opens to the said screw intermediate of its length,
and through which the insulating material with which the wire is to be coated is
inserted for the screw B to force the same up to and through the die-block; D, the
guide for the wire, which in Figure 1 is shewn as running at right angles to
the length of the screw B and cylinder A, and in Figure 4 as being loosely
within the screw; and E the die block, which is axially coincident with the axial
line of the said wire guide D severally arranged for the passage of a wire through
the die-opening, and at the same time for the forcing of a coating material through
the said die-opening as the wire passes through the same. The cylinder A has
chambers G through which steam or cold water or the like passes to keep the
insulating material in proper working condition.
The guide for the wire at and along its end at which the wire escapes or passes
therefrom to the die-opening a is made with exterior parallel sides or sides sub-
stantially parallel, and such portion of the said guide enters and projects either for
the whole or a part of its length into the said die-opening a, which either for the
whole or a part of its length corresponding therewith is similarly provided with
parallel sides b, b, or sides substantially parallel, and these said parallel sides, as
well also as the location of the wire-guido within the die-opening are such as to
leave an opening or space c between them for the passage of the material with
which the wire is to be coated.
This construction and arrangement of the guide D for the wire and the die-
opening a under the operation of the apparatus to force the coating material through
the die-opening as the wire proceeds through the same, give direction to such conting
material in the line along which it is intended to and should pass through the die-
opening before it reaches and comes in contact with the wire which it is to coat,
and thus it is prevented from working itself in a backward direction upon the
wire, which obviously is most advantageous if the wire should have been previously
covered with a conting or coatings of materials which are of a nature capable of
compression in their thickness, or of extension or movement in their length; as
for instance, a wire previously coated with insulating material, either alone or
in combination with a strip of tin-foil, exteriorly covering the said insulated wire.
In Figures 5, 6, and 7, are illustrated the second part of this Invention.
Figure is a longitudinal section of a machine similar to Figure 1, except as
hereinafter described.

page_text: Figures 6 and 7 are transverse sections drawn to an enlarged scale on the
lines 6, 6, and 7, 7, Figure 5.
In these Figures, A represents the chambered cylinder; B, the screw; C, the
hole opening to the said serow; F, the guide for the series of wires d; E, the die
or head-block having an opening f, the whole being constructed and arranged for
the passage of wires through the wire-guide F into the die-opening f, and at the
same time for the forcing of a coating material through the die-opening as the
wires pass through the same, all substantially as specified, except as herein-after
described with reference to and as shown in Figure 1.
This wire-guide F, Figures 5 and 7, is provided with a series of guide-ways or
tubes g which run in the direction of its length and in parallel lines, and as shewn
in the present instance; they are seven in number, arranged one at and along the
axial line of the guide, and the remainder in a circle about such central guide and
at equal distances apart. Each of these several guide-tubes is adapted for the
free passage of a wire, and at the end of the guide which is toward the die-
opening they each project and extend from the body portion of the guide in
parallel lines into the die-opening, and therein are separate and distinct from each
other so as to leave a free and open space between coach two and between them all,
and the wall of the die-opening f which is made of sufficient diameter to admit tho
said series of wire-guide-tubes, and leave a space between them and the wall of the
said die-opening, as above stated.
With a series of wire guides or tubes 9 constructed and arranged in relation to
each other and to the die-openings above described, it is obvious that the coating
material with which the several wires are to be coated and in conjunction with
which they are to pass through the die-opening is free to dispose and circulato
itself about and around the wire-guides before reaching the wires which are issuing
from the same at their open ends towards and within the die-opening, and as a
consequence to circulate about and between the series of wires as they issue from
their soveral guide-tubes and between the wires and the wall of the die-opening,
thereby securing a disposition of the coating material about and around the several
wires, which material so disposed is in a homogeneous and in one and the same
mass throughout, and is disposed and combined with the wires simultaneously and
in a continuous operation. A separation of the wire-guides, as above described,
before the wires issue from them and come into contact with the coating material,
being forced through the die openings, and thus secure the disposition of the
coating material relative thereon, as above described, is absolutely essential, as
otherwise the wires from the pressure of the coating material would be forced
together, and thus the proper disposition of the coating material between and
around and about them prevented.
0
Although I bave herein particularly described the wire-guides as seven in
number and arranged in a particular relation, it is evident that their number may
be more or less and their relative arrangement varied, and therefore it is not
intended to limit the said Invention to any particular number or to any particular
relative arrangement, except that there is to be a series of wire-guides, and
practico has shewn that seven wires can be simultaneously coated and covered
with success, as above described.
In Figures 8 and 9 are shewn views of the conductor as prepared with the
guide and die shown in Figure 1.
Figure 8 being a side view and partial longitudinal section of the conductor
with the coating material removed from a portion of the same, and Figure 9 a
transverse section of the same.
In these Figures, m represents the wire; n, an inner coating of insulating
material; o, a covering of tin-foil; and p, the outer coating of insulating
material, the inner and outer coatings being of the material or materials hereinbefore
described.
In Figures 10 and 11 are shewn a telegraph-cable composed of a series of wires
covered and coated with an insulating material such as above described, and as

page_text: covered or conted with the machine illustrated in Figures 5, 6, and 7, Figure 10
being a perspective view of such telegraph-cable showing the coating material of
the several wires removed from a portion of the same; and Figure 11 a transverse
section of the same.
In these Figures d, d, represent a series of telegraph-wires, seven in number, and
severally covered, coated, or surrounded with a homogeneous, and with one and
the same mass of insulating material r, and which may be either of the materials
herein before particularly specified or combinations thereof, or of any suitable
material or materials. The several wires as shown are embedded and surrounded
with a cylinder of the insulating material, and as so surrounded have one at the
centre thereof and the remainder arranged in a circular form about the said central
wire at equal and regular distances apart and parallel with each other; but it is
obvious they may be of a greater or lesser number than seven, and arranged in
other relations to each other.
A compound conductor or cable, made as herein described, if it is to be vulcanized,
in order to preserve the disposition of the wires and of the coating material
specified, and also the proper form of the whole against derangement should be
wrapped with cloth or other similar sheet material before vulcanizing it, but this
obviously has no bearing whatever upon or relation to the operation of the machine
as above described.
Having thus fully described the said Invention, as communicated to me by
my foreign correspondent, and the manner of performing the same, I wish it
understood that I claim,-
First. In a machine of the class herein described, the wire-guard D having
parallel sides, and the opening in die-block having similar parallel sides so arranged
and combined that the wire-guide at and along its parallel sides enters and lies
axially within the portion of the die opening having parallel sides, substantially as
above set forth and for the purpose specified.
Second. In a machine of the class herein described, the combination of a series
of wire-guides y constructed and arranged in relation to each other and to a
common dio opening, substantially as above set forth and for the purpose
specified.
Third. A compound telegraph or telephono conductor or cable composed of a
series of wires running in lines parallel or nearly so, but separated from cach
other, and for the purpose of insulation surrounded and enclosed as a whole and
also as to each other with a homogeneous and one and the same mass of material
when the said series of wires and the said material are combined and arranged
together by a simultaneous and continuous operation.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Robert Lake, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and eighty one.
WM DAR
2