IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SUPPORTING ELECTRICAL CONDUCTORS WHICH INVENTION COMPRISES AN IMPROVED METHOD OF ADAPTING THE ROOFS OF HOUSES OR OTHER BUILDINGS FOR SUCH APPARATUS
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Joseph Sitzenstatter at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 28th September 1883..
JOSEPH SITZENSTATTER, of Queen Victoria Street, in the City of London,
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SUPPORTING ELECTRICAL CONDUCTORS WHICH
INVENTION COMPRISES AN IMPROVED METHOD OF ADAPTING THE ROOFS OF HOUSES
OR OTHER BUILDINGS FOR SUCH APPARATUS
"
The chief object of my invention is to provide an apparatus to be secured to the
roofs of houses or other structures for supporting electrical wires or conductors, the
said apparatus combining strength with lightness, and being capable of supporting
the greatest possible number of wires within the smallest possible space, and being
moreover of neat and ornamental appearance
The said invention is further designed to provide an improved method of adapting
the roof of a building for my said supporting apparatus.
In carrying the said invention into practice I provide a frame made of iron
rolled in well known T or L sections which combine lightness with great stiffness.
The said frame stands upon balks or saddle-beams of wood or iron to which it is
secured by three-armed forgings which also assist, in the case of pitched roofs, in
uniting the two sides of the wooden or iron saddles Braces are placed from a
point above, or about midway in, the height of the system of wires to near tho
ends of the balks or saddles to prevent the structure overturning in the event of
an excess of wire-tension on either side. The insulators to which the wires aro
attached are placed at intervals of about one foot, more or less, along the horizontal
bars of the fraine. Ornamental metal work is placed upon the top and is so
designed as not to interfere with the placing of insulators and wires upon the top
bar of the frame in the same manner as they are placed upon the other bars
A further advantage which my improved support possesses is that by a slight
modification I can set the cross bars which support the wires at any angle with
the ridge-pole of the house. This enables me to utilize roofs standing in any
position relatively to the direction of the wires, and also to turn a large body of
wires at any angle without causing them to approach inconveniently near to each
other on either side of the support. To this end I place upon the two balks or
saddles above mentioned a pair of light iron beams lying parallel to, and one on
each side of, the ridge-pole and I set the uprights of the frame upon these, bracing

page_text: them as before towards both ends. It will readily be understood that according to
whether the frame is to stand at right angles, or obliquely, to the ridge-pole. I may
place the two uprights in the centre of the iron beams, or I may advance one of the
uprights towards one corner of the horizontal frame and the other upright towards
the corner diagonally opposite, making the braces of correspondingly unequal
length on two sides of either upright. When it is necessary to alter the direction
of the wires. I can, in this way, cause the frame to bisect the angle made between
the two portions of the route, and by placing the insulators at the proper increased
distance apart I can cause the wires to stand at the same distance from each other
as on other parts of the line
To prepare a slated or tiled roof for the reception of my improved support I
remove all the slates or tiles from a sufficient portion of the roof, and I lay upon the
roof-timbers or existing roof-boards a substantial covering of boards, over which is
laid a covering of zinc or other suitable metal in sheets forming a complete covering
over all the space from which the slates or tiles have been removed and passing
under the wooden or iron balks forming the base of my support. The lower edges
of the zinc overlap the remaining slates or tiles, and at the sides of the zinc sheets
I introduce pieces of zinc sheet in the form of the removed slates causing them to
overlap each other and the remaining slates or tiles, in the usual manner employed
with respect to slates. The inner edges of these pieces of zinc are lapped over the
main sheets of zinc, the two adjoining edges being folded together so as to make
a tight joint in the ordinary manner as understood and practised by sheet metal
.workers