IMPROVEMENTS IN TELEGRAPH CABLES
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Branscombe, of Noel Street, Islington, in the
County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN TELEGRAPH
CABLES."
Sealed the 23rd July 1861, and dated the 8th February 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Branscombe at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 8th
February 1861.
I, JOHN BRANSCOMBE, of Noel Street, Islington, in the County of Middlesex,
do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TELEGRAPH
CABLES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in telegraph cables. In the
construction of telegraph cables it is usual to serve over the insulated wires
with tarred yarn, over which the external protecting wires are laid; this
arrangement is objectionable, inasmuch as the tarred yarn itself serving as an
insulating material masks any defects there may be in the insulating coating
of the conducting wire, and prevents their being detected when the cable is
tested.
According to this Invention the insulated wires are coated with leather,
which is, by preference, served round the insulated wire or wires, and the
external protecting wires are laid over the serving of leather; the leather
makes a good bed for the protecting wires to lay on, and prevents them cutting

page_text: into the insulating material, while, at the same time, the leather, particularly
when in a moist state, being a sufficiently good conductor of electricity, any
defect in the insulating material will readily be detected on testing the
cable.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Branscombe in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
8th August 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
BRANSCOMBE, of Noel Street, Islington, in the County of Middlesex, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fourth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said John Branscombe, Her special licence that I, the said John Branscombe,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John
Branscombe, my 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 Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TELEGRAPH
CABLES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Brans-
combe, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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 Seal
Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Branscombe, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in telegraph cables. In the
construction of telegraph cables it is usual to serve over the insulated wires
with tarred yarn, over which the external protecting wires are laid; this
arrangement is objectionable, inasmuch as the tarred yarn itself serving as an

page_text: insulating material marks any defects thero may be in the insulating coating
of the conducting wire, and prevents their being detected when the cable is
tested.
According to this Invention the insulated wires are coated with leather,
which is, by preference, served round the insulated wire or wires, and the ex-
ternal protecting wires are laid over the serving of leather; tho leather makes
a good bed for the protecting wires to lay on, and prevents them cutting into
the insulating material, while, at the same time, the leather, particularly
when in a moist state, being a sufficiently good conductor of electricity,
any defect in the insulating material will readily be detected on testing the
cable.
In carrying out this Invention I take a skin of leather, by preference, sheep
skin, commonly called basil, and have it cut into strips of a suitable width
(say about of an inch, more or less); I then join the strips either by sewing,
rivetting, or adhesive compound, such as marine glue, and thus form a long
ribbon or tape; this may be applied as a "serving" to an insulated wire by
band, but I prefer to employ an ordinary taping machine, and should two
coatings of the leather ribbon be required, I prefer to put them on in reverse
layers by a double machine at one operation. The leather being vet, and
consequently a conductor, enables the core to be continually under an electrical
test throughout the process of making it into a cable. The outer protecting
wires are afterwards applied in the usual manner.
I am aware that it has been before proposed to employ other substances
saturated with conducting fluid (instead of with tar as heretofore) to serve or
coat insulated wires, and therefore make no claim thereto; but what I claim
is, the use of leather applied when saturated with a conducting liquid to serve
or coat insulated wires so as to form a bed upon which to lay the outer or
protecting wires of a cable.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Branscombe, have hereunto set iny
hand and seal, this Sixth day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
JOHN DDANCCORD
JOHN BRANSCOMBE. (L.)