Improvements in Coverings for Electric Wires.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 28th Dec., 1893-Accepted, 3rd Feb., 1894
CUMPLEIE
DI MULTIO
Improvements in Coverings for Electric Wires.
We, FRANKLIN STREETER RANDALL Electrician EDWARD PACKARD Broker
JOHN ROBINSON Merchant and WILLIAM JULIAN CHANINEL Merchant all
of No. 1220 Filbert Street, Philadelphia, County of Philadelphia State of
Pennsylvania, United States of America, 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 Improvements in Coverings for Electric Wires, which
covering is an insulator itself, and may also serve as a medium for retaining and
holding other insulations if necessary; and the invention consists in wrapping or
otherwise covering the wire with raw cotton in bulk.
The drawing herewith illustrates the application of the covering, and shows in
Fig. 1a piece of electric wire partially covered with the cotton. Fig. 2 is a
longitudinal section, showing the wire surrounding by the covering. Fig. 3 is a
cross-section, and Fig. 4 is also a cross-section of the wire and covering with an
additional insulation applied thereto.
In the drawing, A indicates a wire for electric purpose, B the covering and C an
additional outer insulation.
In the insulating and covering of wires for electric purposes the cotton as
heretofore employed is formed into yarns, bands, tubes braids etc., and is either plaited,
knitted, braided or wound in a single strand, or a series of strands formed into tubes
or layers, one upon the other, around the wire to the required thickness of the
cover, to hold the insulating compound. This form of covering of course requires
the cotton, silk or other fibrous growth used, to be manufactured into some definite
condition, either as yarn, or in some other regular form, and thus be a manufactured
product in itself.
Machines are required after this is done either to plait, braid, knit, or weave the
product around the wire, or to wrap it when in bands, or in some mechanical
manner to cover the wire in the use of a manufactured material by a series of
independent layers, in order to secure the required thickness of the covering to
hold the insulating compound. We obviate all expenses due to the production of
cotton or other fibrous materials into any of the forms described, or into any other
that may be adopted for the purpose, and simply cover the wire to the desired
thickness with the loose raw cotton from bulk.
It will readily be seen that by using the raw or unworked cotton, in applying it
to the wire, the mechanical means at present in use for braiding, wrapping tubing,
or twisting it over the wire would not be serviceable. The cotton must first be
manufactured into some definite condition in order that proper machines may be
able to mechanically apply it. This is widely different from our invention for the
cotton when applied in its raw or unworked condition in the mass or bulk is in such
a form by interlapping of the fibres of the mass to sufficiently entangle the sliver
to give the cotton a strong homogeneous body that it can be readily applied to the
wire in regular thickness in the simplest possible manner.
To readily apply the cotton when in this form for short or long distances or
sections, it has been found desirable to coat the outside of the wire with thin
shellac, glue, or other sticky, or adhesive substance, but not necessarily an
insulating compound, any of these articles causing the fibre of the cotton to more
readily adhere to the wire; and furthermore they produce a greater draft from the
loose mass, and the fibre may readily be pressed upon the wire in a uniform shape
either by rollers, or any like device, or even by hand.

page_text: A wire covered by loose cotton is capable of any amount of manipulation and
bending without the least liability to destroy the covering as an insulation, or
separate it from the wire, and it will be very readily understood that the sliver or
staple not having been previously treated, drawn or straightened as it would require
to be in the manufacture of any form of yarn, is allowed to remain in its naturally
crimped, crocked, flexible and irregular condition in the mass; nor are the fibres
twisted one with another by force that would in any manner straighten them and
thereby render them harsh or brittle, so that a wire thus fully covered in the
mauner described, is capable of being bent into any conceivable shape or position
and remaining so, and the covering still retain its hold upon the wire, and at all
times form a perfect covering or insulation.
In the loose unworked manner in which the cotton is shown applied in our
invention, it is much cheaper and more serviceable than when the fibre is
manufactured into yarn or fabric and is placed on the wire in the manner before
described. In the unworked condition the fibre yields with and to any additional
insulating material that may be used, the latter not exhibiting any stubborness or
tendency to crack, the fibre not being saturated with the insulation, which is
applied entirely to the outside of the covering as at C. The insulation C by its
innumerably flexible holds upon the covering will be retained indefinitely in
position.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim, is:
:
A covering for electric wires the same consisting of raw cotton in bulk applied in
the manner substantially as shown and described and for the purpose set forth.
Dated this 28th day of December 1893.
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicants.