INSULATED TELEGRAPHIC WIRES."
Year: 1852

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Weightman Harrison and Joseph
John Harrison, both of Richmond, m the County of Surrey,
Engineers, for the Invention
INSULATED TELEGRAPHIC WIRES."
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PROTECTING
Scaled the 80th March 1853, and dated the 20th October 1852.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Weight-
man Harrison and Joseph John Harrison at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 20th
October 1852.
We, CHARLES WEIGHTMAN HARRISON and JOSEPH JOHN HARRISON,
both of Richmond, in the County of Surrey, Engineers, do hereby
declare, the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRO-
TECTING INSULATED TELEGRAPHIC WIRES" to be as follows:-
These Improvements have for their object to impart greater security
to the gutta percha or other insulator with which the conducting
telegraphic wires are surrounded, and at the same time to increase the
strength and specific gravity of the line, particularly when employed for
submarine communications.

page_text: With reference to the first part of our Invention, we paint or coat
over the gutta percha with a bituminous or resinous solution, the
composition of which we reserve for our Complete Specification.
The solution will also have the effect of preventing the corrosive
action of sea water on the gutta percha, and will preserve it from the
attacks of marine insects.
We next surround the insulated line, after the enamelled coating
has been given to it, by winding closely around it hair twisted or
plaited into a cord. This forms an additional lasting protection, as hair
is of a most imperishable nature, and does not imbibe moisture easily.
We finally surround the insulated liuc, when it has thus been
prepared, with a number of galvanized iron wires or ribbons wound
around it in a spiral manner. Each of these wires or ribbons forms
transversely the section of a ring of any breadth or thickness desired,
so that when a number of them are wound together around the line
they allord a complete and uninterstitial covering. By this means not
only is the line much stronger than those that are surrounded with iron
wires. as therto done, and not only is the specific gravity increased,
but greater security from abrasion is obtained. To prevent the
metallic covering as much as possible from oxidization, we wash it ovor
with a thin solution of marine glue dissolved in naptha, and laid on
while hot
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Charles Weightman Harrison and Joseph John
Harrison in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 20th April 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wė,
CHARLES WEIGHTMAN HARRISON and JOSEРл JOHN HARRISON, both of
Richmond, in the County of Surrey, Engineers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her Most Excellent Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, in the sixteenth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto us, the said Charles Weightman Harrison and Joseph John

page_text: Harrison; Eler 'special licence that we, the said Charles Weightman
Barrison and Joseph John Harrison. our executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said Charles Weightman Harrison
and Joseph John Harrison, our 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 King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man,
an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PROTECTING INSULATED TELEGRAPHIC
WIRES," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Charles
Weightman Harrison and Joseph John Harrison, by an instrument in
writing under our hand and scal, 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
Scal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, tho said Charlos Weightman Flarrison
and Joseph John Harrison, do hereby declare the nature of our said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement
thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed (that
is to say):
Our Invention consists, first, in a new composition or vanish where-
with we coat and protect the gutta percha or other insulator in which
electric telegraph wires are insulated; second, in protecting tele-
graph wires, after the same have been insulated, by a varnish or other
thin coating, by winding spirally round the same strips of caoutchouc in
combination with an outer coating of our varnish or composition; and,
.third, in protecting insulated telegraph wires for submarine purposes
by galvanized iron strips, ribbons, or plates, the cross section of which
is somewhat the shape of an inverted conc, and which when united
form a tubular line.
The manner in which we perform the first branch of our Invention
is as follows-We make our composition or varnish of the materials
and the proportions herein-after stated. We take one pound of
shreds of caoutchouc, and dissolve them in four gallons of bituminous

page_text: naptha (more or less), adding, when thoroughly dissolved, one ounce of
creosote. We place three parts by weight of this mixture, and five
parts by weight of shell-lac, into an iron vessel, which is placed over a
slow fire, and the mass is stirred until it becomes, thoroughly amalga-
mated The composition is then ready for use, and may be applied,
while warm, to coat the gutta percha or other insulator. Although we
have described the addition of creosote to the caoutchouc and naptha
it may be dispensed with, though we find the composition bettor when
the creosote is so added.
To perform the second branch of our Invention, we cover and protect
a wire, after it has been insulated, by such a composition as that
just described, or otherwise by winding spirally round it a ribbon or
strip of caoutchouc, in such manner that the convolutions slightly
overlap each other, over which we apply a coating of the composition
first herein-before described, whereby any interstices in the spiral strip,
or regularities in the winding thereof, will be filled up, and the convo-
lutions united together. Wires so protected and coated may be laid
under ground in metal or earthenware pipes or channels, but we prefer
subinitt ng them to the process for which John Chatterton, of Birming
ham, secured Letters Patent for England, dated the Twelfth day of June,
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one, and whereby a leaden tube
is diawn closely over such insulated and protected wires.
And we perform the third branch of our said Invention by winding
spirally over and around one wire or several wires, whether insulated
only, or whether. insulated and surrounded by a protective covering (for
which purpose we prefer to use strips or ribbons of flannel or horseliair
cord saturated with the composition herein-before described), several
strips, ribbons, or plates of galvanized iron, each of which forms
separately the segment of a circle, and the whole, when united, form a
complete and uninterstitial line, as shewn in the perspective view,
Figure 1, and cross section, Figure 2.
And having now described the nature of our said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that we claim,—
First, the protecting of insulated telegraph wires, by coating or
covering them with the composition herein-before described.
Second, the protecting of insulated telegraph wires. by coating or

page_text: covering them spirally with strips or ribbons of cloutchouc, in combi-
nation with the protecting vanish or composition first. helen-before
described.
And, thud, we claim the protecting of submarine telegraph wires, by
means of the galvanised iron covering forined as heroin-before repre-
sented and described.
In witness whereof, we, the said Charles Weightman Harrison
and Joseph John Harrison, have hereunto set our hands and
seals, this Eleventh day of April, One thousand eight hundred
and fifty-three.
CHARLES WEIGHTMAN HARRISON. (L.S.)
JOSEPH JOHN HARRISON (L.S.)
CHARLES WEIGHTMAN HARRISON. (L.S.)
JOSEPH JOHN HARRISON (L.S.)