Improvements in and Connected with Insulating Devices for Sup- porting Telegraph and other Wires or Electrical Conductors.
Year: 1888

page_text: Date of Application, 31st Dec., 1888
Complete Specification Left, 30th Sept., 1889-Accepted, 9th Nov., 1889
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and Connected with Insulating Devices for Sup-
porting Telegraph and other Wires or Electrical Conductors.
I GEORGE FOWLER of 22 Moncrieff Road, Hanover Park, Peckham, in the County
of Surrey, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
This Invention relates to that kind of insulating devices for supporting telegraph
and other wires or electrical conductors, described in the complete specification of an
application for letters patent filed by me dated January 30th 1888 No. 1386 in which each
device comprises a spring (or springs), and an insulator proper, so combined and
arranged that the spring shall itself control the insulator and (a) cause the insulator to
exert a constant pull upon the electrical conductor connected to it, (b) allow the
insulator to automatically yield in the event of contraction of or abnormal strain
upon the conductor, and (e) cause the insulator to automatically take up slack due to
expansion or other cause, the insulator proper being constructed with circumferential
ribs flanges or fillets to admit of the said conductor, or a length of flexible material
in connection therewith, being readily wound upon and secured to the insulator.
According to my present invention instead of arranging the spring (or springs) of
each device. between the insulator proper and the supporting bolt therefor in the
manner shown and described in my said former specification, I arrange it (or them)
between the said supporting bolt and the arm of the telegraph post or other support
for such bolt. By this construction the insulator proper can be made of smaller
dimensions than it can be when the spring is arranged between it and its supporting
bolt. One end of the spring is in rigid connection with the arm or support, whilst
the other end is secured to the insulator bolt which is so arranged as to be capable
of rotating within the arm or support and as the insulator proper rigidly secured to
it, the arrangement being such that the insulator is controlled in the manner herein-
before described by the action of the spring upon its supporting bolt.
The spring may be enclosed within and have its outer end connected to a box that
can be secured to the upper or lower side of the arm of a telegraph post, and the
hole in such arm, through which the insulator bolt passes, may be bushed or lined
with metal to reduce friction and wear.
To connect a length of main conductor to successive insulators without the
necessity of cutting it into sections short lengths of flexible wire or other material
may be used that are wound upon and secured to the insulators in the manner
described in my said former specification, these short auxiliary lengths of wire being
secured to the main length by any suitable means such as wrappings of finer wire,
solder, or by gripping devices of any suitable construction adapted to securely hold
the wires together.
According to a modification the supporting bolts of two adjacent insulators may be
mounted upon a bar that is carried by a spindle to which one end of the spring is
attached. The other end of the spring is fixed to the box or case which is secured
to the arm of the telegraph post in which the spindle is arranged to partly rotate.
With this construction the main conductor may be connected to the insulators in
the ordinary or in any suitable manner.
Dated this 31st day of December 1888.
W. LLOYD WISE,
46, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C., Agent for the Applicant.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and Connected with Insulating Devices for Sup-
porting Telegraph and other Wires or Electrical Conductors.
1, GEORGE FOWLER of 22 Moncrieff Road, Hanover Park, Peckham, in the County
of Surrey, Civil. Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement :-
This invention relates to that kind of insulating devices for supporting telegraph
and other wires or electrical conductors described in the specification of Letters
Patent granted to me dated January 30th 1888 No. 1386 in which each device com-
prises a spring (or springs) and an insulator proper so combined and arranged that
the spring shall itself control the insulator and (a) cause the insulator to exert a
constant pull upon the electrical conductor connected to it (b) allow the insulator to
automatically yield in the event of contraction of or abnormal strain upon the con-
ductor, and (c) cause the insulator to automatically take up slack due to expansion or
other cause the insulator proper being constructed with circumferential ribs flanges
or fillets to admit of the said conductor, or a length of flexible material in connection
therewith, being readily wound upon and secured to the insulator.
According to my present invention instead of arranging the spring (or springs)
of each device, between the insulator proper and the supporting bolt therefor in the
manner shown and described in my said former specification I arrange it (or them)
between the said supporting bolt and the arm of the telegraph post or other
support for such bolt. By this construction the insulator proper can be made of
smaller dimensions than it can be when the spring is arranged between it and its
supporting bolt. One end of the spring is in rigid connection with the arm or
support, whilst the other end is secured to the insulator bolt which is so arranged as
to be capable of rotating within the arm or support and has the insulator proper
rigidly secured to it, the arrangement being such that the insulator is controlled in
the manner herein before described by the action of the spring upon its supporting
bolt.
The spring may be enclosed in or have its outer end connected to a box that can be
secured to the upper or lower side of the arm of a telegraph post, and the hole in
such arm through which the insulator bolt passes may be bushed or lined with metal
to reduce friction and wear.
In the accompanying drawings
Fig. 1 shows partly in vertical section and partly in elevation an insulating device
constructed according to this part of my invention.
Fig. 2 is a horizontal section on the line A B Fig. 1.
1, is an insulator of any suitable non-conducting material formed with flanges 2
between which are spaces one of which is shown at 3 and to which flanges the wire
to be supported is connected in the manner described in my said former specification.
4 is a supporting bolt to the upper end of which the insulator 1 is connected it may
be in the ordinary manner and the lower portion of which extends through the
support 5, in such a way that it can turn therein. The bolt 4 is provided with a
collar 6 that rests upon the top of the support 5, which may be an arm of a telegraph
post, and retains the bolt and insulator in position. 7 is a bush or metal tube fixed
in the support 5, and through which the bolt 4 extends. This bush or tube enables
the bolt to turn without excessive friction within its support and the tube prevents
the support being rapidly worn away by the bolt as it otherwise would be when made
of wood as is usual. 8 is a coiled metallic spring the inner end of which is bent to
forn a square tube 9 to fit the lower end of the bolt 4 which is correspondingly
formed as shown; the outer end of the spring is secured to a spring case 10 that
is rigidly fixed to the arm or support 5 by any suitable means, as for example by
screws or bolts. The insulator 1 will thus be controlled in the manner and
for the purposes herein before described by the action of the spring on the supporting
bolt.

page_text: To connect a length of main conductor to successive insulators without the
necessity of cutting it into sections short lengths of flexible wire or other material
may be used that are wound upon and secured to the insulators in the same manner
as is the main conductor described in my said former specification, these short
auxiliary lengths of wire being secured to the main length by any suitable means
such as wrappings of finer wire, solder, or by gripping devices of any suitable con-
struction adapted to securely hold the wires together.
Referring to Fig. 3, 10 is the main conductor and 11 is the length of flexible
conductor connected thereto at the points 12 and 13 by fine wire and secured to and
wound upon the insulator 1.
In order that adjacent insulators may act similarly upon the conductor between
them, either to stretch it, or to relievo it, the conductor can be arranged either
diagonally between the insulators as indicated diagrammatically in Fig. 4 when the
springs 8 are all wound in the same direction. Or if the springs in two adjacent
insulators be arranged to turn the insulators in opposite directions the conductors
may be arranged as shown in Fig. 5. In these figures the arrows indicate the
directions in which the coiled springs tend to turn the insulators.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is
The combination of parts comprising an insulator of the kind referred to above, a
supporting bolt to which the insulator is fixed so as to turn with it, and a spring that
controls the motion in a rotary sense of the supporting bolt as described.
Dated this 30th day of September 1889.
W. Lloyd Wise,
UMU. FOWLER.
46, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C., Agent for the Applicant.