A NEW (OR IMPROVED) MODE OF PROTECTING INSULATED TELEGRAPH WIRES
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Orange Wildman Whitehouse, of Stoke
Newington, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "A
NEW (OR IMPROVED) MODE OF PROTECTING INSULATED TELEGRAPH WIRES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edward Orange Wildman
Whitehouse at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 21st October 1868.
I, EDWARD ORANGE WILDMAN WHITEHOUSE, of Stoke Newington, in
the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "A NEW (OR IMPROVED) MODE OF PROTECTING INSULATED
TELEGRAPH WIRES," to be as follows:-
Hitherto when telegraphic wires have been covered or coated with
gutta percha or other similar insulating material great injury has
accrued to them either from exposure to a heated atmosphere or
otherwise, or from attrition, or from other circumstances, owing to
the insulator or insulating material being exposed externally or being
only imperfectly or in part protected.

page_text: Now my Invention consists in the application of an external coating
to any of such wires, such wires having been previously insulated
either by means of gutta percha or otherwise, consisting either
entirely or in part of such compounds as are known as parkesine or
other combinations consisting essentially of a solution of xyloidine,
or of the same in conjunction with oils, resins, tar, asphalts, pigments,
or other body giving non-conducting materials.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Edward Orange Wildman Whitehouse in the Great
Scal Patent Office on the 21st April 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
ORANGE WILDMAN WHITEHOUSE, of Stoke Newington, in the County of
Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of October, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the
thirty-second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Edward Orange Wildman
Whitehouse, Her special license that I, the said Edward Orange Wild-
man Whitehouse, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Edward Orange Wildman Whitehouse, my exc-
cutors, administrators, or 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, usc, exercise,
and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "A NEW OR
IMPROVED MODE OF PROTECTING INSULATED TELEGRAPH WIRES," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Edward Orange Wildman
Whitehouse, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, 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.
fr

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Edward Orange Wildman White-
house, 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, that is to say:-
Hitherto, when telegraphic wires have been covered or coated
with gutta percha, india-rubber, or other similar insulating materials?
great injury has accrued to them either from exposure to heat, or
from attrition, or from decomposition when buried in the earth, or
from other circumstances.
Now my Invention consists in the application of an external coating
for the protection of telegraphic wires which have been previously
insulated or coated, cither by means of gutta percha, india-rubber,
or otherwise, such protecting coating or covering being composed either
entirely or in part of compounds or combinations consisting essentially
of xyloidine in conjunction with volatile solvents, oils, resins, tar'
asphalte, pigments, or other similar bodies. As examples of the
combinations or compounds which I employ I will give the preparation
of a combination of xyloidine with oils, paraffine, pigments, &c., with
the employment of a volatile solvent. The gun cotton or xyloidine
is by preference used in a dry state, but humid gun cotton may be
employed. The gun cotton having been mixed with the volatile
solvent (such, for example, as a mixture of alcohol and ether, or of
alcohol and wood spirit or mineral naptha, or mixtures of the same,
or wood spirit alone may be employed; it is then thoroughly incorporated
or masticated by the employment of rolls or masticators, during such
process of mastication the other ingredient or ingredients being
added; or the oils and other ingredients may be mixed with the volatile
solvent before the addition of the gun cotton. When the resulting
compound has assumed a homogenous plastic condition it is suitable
for being employed for the coating and protecting of telegraphic
wires which have been previously coated or covered with gutta percha
or other insulating material. The plastic material before referred to
may be applied to or on the wire by the use of any wire coating
apparatus, similar to those now employed in the covering of wires
with gutta pecha or otherwise.
I am aware that it has been proposed to employ a solution of gun
cotton in a volatile solvent for the varnishing of telegraphic wires
which have been previously coated with an insulating material, but

page_text: my Invention differs therefrom, in that I employ a plastic mass
composed of the ingredients such as are herein-before mentioned
and in a manner similar to that now adopted for the coating or
covering of telegraphic wires by means of gutta percha.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or
carried into effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I consider
to be novel and original and therefore claim as the Invention secured
to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the
coating and protecting of telegraphic wires, which have been previously
coated or covered, with an insulating material, with any of the
compounds or combinations herein-before referred to, or with other
similar compounds, they having as one of their constituents xyloidine
or gun cotton, and they being applied in manner as hercin-before
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Orange Wildman White-
house, have to this my Specification set my hand and scal, the
Nineteenth day of April, One thousand cight hundred and
sixty-nine.
E. O. WILDMAN WHITEHOUSE. (L.s.)
E. O. WILDMAN WHITEHOUSE. (L.S.)