IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH CABLES
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Lewis Hope, of Bishopsgate Churchyard, in the City
of London, Merchant, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRIC
TELEGRAPH CABLES."-A communication.
Sealed the 1st April 1859, and dated the 9th October 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Lewis Hope at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
9th October 1858.
I, LEWIS HOPE, of Bishopsgate Churchyard, in the City of London,
Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH CABLES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in electric telegraph cables.
For this purpose the conducting wires are first coated with india-rubber or
compounds containing india-rubber in combination with sulphur, or with gutta
percha or compounds containing gutta percha together with sulphur. The
wires thus coated are subjected to heat in such manner as to produce the.
change in the india-rubber or gutta percha known as vulcanization, or the..
harder compounds which result from the application of sulphur and, heat..

page_text: The conducting wires are then further coated in the ordinary manner with
gutta percha, or gutta percha compounds, and the cables are then completed
with a coating of wires or other materials, as heretofore.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Lewis Hope in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 9th
April 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, LEWIS
HOPE, of Bishopsgate Churchyard, in the City of London, Merchant, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-second year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Lewis Hope, Her special licence that I, the said Lewis Hope,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Lewis Hope, 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
ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH CABLES," (a communication), upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Lewis Hope, 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 calender months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Lewis Hope, 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 electric telegraph cables.
For this purpose the conducting wires are first coated with india-rubber, or
compound containing india-rubber in combination with sulphur, or with gutta
percha or compound containing gutta percha together with sulphur. The

page_text: wires thus coated are subjected to heat in such manner as to produce the
change in the india-rubber or gutta percha known as vulcanization, or the
harder compounds which result from the application of sulphur and heat.
The conducting wires are then further coated in the ordinary manner with
gutta percha or gutta percha compounds, and the cables are then completed
with a coating of wires or other materials, as heretofore.
Having thus stated the nature of the said Invention, I will proceed more
fully to describe the manner of performing the same.
India-rubber or gutta percha, or a compound of these substances, is ground
or masticated together with about one-half the weight thereof of sulphur, and
when in a plastic state the compound is, by means of ordinary or any suitable
covering apparatus, applied to cover conducting wires for electric telegraphs.
It is preferred to use copper wire for the purpose, and in order to prevent the
sulphur acting injuriously thereon it is desirable to first coat the wire with tin,
by depositing from a solution of that metal. The compound of sulphur and
india-rubber, or gutta percha, or a combination of india-rubber and gutta
percha, having been applied so as to coat the conducting wire or wires, the
coated wire is then to be subjected to a process of heat, for which purpose the
heat is applied in any suitable manner, till the heat is brought up to about
three hundred degrees of Fahranheit, and at this temperature it is to be kept
for about three hours. The manner of applying the heat may be greatly
varied; a convenient mode, however, consists in winding a considerable length
of coated wire on to a reel, and to introduce the same into a suitable heated
chamber or vessel, and to retain the same there till the desired degree of
hardness has been obtained to the coating. The mode of applying the requisite
heat during the proper time may, however, be varied. The conducting wire
or wires having thus been coated, and the coating changed or converted into
the hard or semi-hard compound of india-rubber or gutta percha, the same is
then to be further coated with gutta percha, or a gutta percha compound by
the ordinary well-known means, and in this condition the wire may be employed
in constructing an electric telegraph, whether the same be used in the earth
or under water; or the same may be coated with wires, or strands of wires, or
with fibrous matters, in like manner to that in which electric telegraph wires
have been heretofore treated when simply covered or insulated with gutta
percha.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that what I claim is, the
coating of electric telegraph wires with the hard or semi-hard compounds of

page_text: sulphur and india-rubber or gutta percha, and then with a further coating of
gutta percha or gutta percha compound, as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Lewis Hope, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Ninth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
LEWIS HOPE. (L.S.)
Witness,
S. CARPMAEL.