IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING TO CABLES OR CONDUCTORS FOR TELEPHONIC AND TELEGRAPHIC PURPOSES
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Robert Lake, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake,
65
& Co., Patent Agents, Southampton Buildings, London, for an Invention of
IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING TO CABLES OR CONDUCTORS FOR TELEPHONIC
AND TELEGRAPHIC PURPOSES." A communication from abroad by Charles
Edward Chinnock, of Brooklyn, New York, and John De Hart Harrison,
of Newark, New Jersey, both in the United States of America.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Robert Lake at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 17th February 1880.
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London. "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING TO CABLES
OR CONDUCTORS FOR TELEPHONIC AND TELEGRAPHIC PURPOSES." [A communication
from abroad by Charles Edward Chinnock, of Brooklyn, New York, and John
De Hart Harrison, of Newark, New Jersey, both in the United States of
America.]
These improvements relate particularly to cables composed of or comprising a
number of line wires or conductors employed in the transmission of messages, and
they are especially applicable to cables of this kind which are used in connection
with telephones.
The principal object of the said improvements is to more effectually preclude the
transmission of messages from one line wire or conductor to another in its vicinity,
and their conveyance thence to any other than the desired destinations. A general
object of the improvements, however, is to carry off all currents caused by escape
or induction from any outside source, and thereby prevent them from interfering
with the transmission of messages along the line wires or conductors. To these
ends the said improvements comprise the combination with a line wire or conductor
provided with an insulating covering and with an external electric conductor of an
uninsulated conducting wire, independent of said line wire or conductor, but in
electrical communication with its external electric conductor, and in communication
with the ground, whereby electric currents caused by escape or induction from an
outside sourco are carried off to the independent conductor, and thence with littlo
resistance to the ground at any suitable point or points.
11

page_text: The said improvements also comprise the combination with a group of line wires
or conductors severally provided with insulating coverings and with external
electric conductors, in contact with each other, of conductors extending from the
said external electric conductors to the ground, whereby the several external
electric conductors are easily connected to the ground, and may be made quite thin
and inexpensive because of their aggregating a large conductive surface of little
resistance common to all the line wires and conductors, and over which electric
currents, induced by or escaping from any of the several line wires or conductors,
or any outside source, may easily pass off.
The said improvements also comprise the combination with a group or series of
line wires or conductors provided with insulating coverings and with external
electric conductors of a centrally arranged wire for bracing the cable comprising
the line wires or conductors, and insulated from external electric conductors of the
line wires or conductors.
The said improvements also comprise the combination of a group of line wires or
conductors arranged circularly around a central line wire or conductor, all of said
line wires or conductors having coverings of insulating material and external
electric conductors whereby a compact cable having a large conductive surface for
carrying off induced and escaping currents is produced.
The said improvements also comprise the coinbination with a group or series of
line wires or conductors provided with insulating coverings, and some or all pro-
vided with external electric conductors, of an uninsulated conducting wire
indepentent of them, and in communication with them and the ground, whereby in
a simple way induced or escaping electric currents may be carried off to the ground
from any of the line wires or conductors, because the said external electric con-
ductors and independent conductor aggregate a large conductive surface of very
little resistance and easily grounded.
The line wires or conductors may be of copper or any other suitable material.
Their insulating coverings may be of any suitable kind, such, for instance, as a
woven material saturated or impregnated with paraffin and spirally wrapped around
the wires, and their external electric conductors may be of any suitable material,
such, for example, as a strip of tin, lead, or other metallic foil spirally wound
outside their coverings of insulating material, and forming exposed external con-
ductors encasing them. The coverings of insulating material may, however, be of
gutta-percha, and the external electric conductors may be of lead pipe drawn over
or forined around the gutta-percha.
These line wires or conductors are preferably to be so disposed relatively to each
other that their external electric conductors will be accessible for the attachment
of a ground wire or wires in electrical communication with them. They may be
so disposed that their external electric conductors are in contact and form the
exterior of the cable comprising them, and when thus disposed the ground wire has
only to be wrapped and fastened around the cable in order to fulfil its functions.
The line wires or conductors circularly arranged have a central wire or conductor
arranged between them. This central wire braces or stays and strengthens the
cable. It may serve simply as an independent conductor for aggregating with the
external electric conductors of the line wires or conductors, a large conductive
surface for carrying off induced and escaping currents, and then may consist of an
uninsulated wire made of iron and galvanized. It may, however, constitute an
extra stout line wire or conductor, and then its external electric conductor will
aggregate with the external electric conductors of the surrounding line wires or
conductors, a large conductive surface for carrying off induced or escaping currents.
When the central wire is either an uninsulated wire or a line wire or conductor
having an external electric conductor the surrounding line wires or conductors need
not all have external electric conductors. When the central wire is desired merely
for bracing or staying and strengthening the cable it may be insulated from the
surrounding line wires or conductors by a covering of insulating material. In lieu
of connecting the uninsulated wire to the ground by the ground wires the said

page_text: uninsulated wire may in some instances itself be extended to the ground to carry
off induced and escaping currents. In lieu of a centrally arranged uninsulated wire
a wire wound around the group of line wires or conductors, and in contact with
their external electric conductors, may be used in certain cases.
The covering of insulating material of each line wire or conductor serves to
confine to it the electric current transmitted through it as far as it is practicable
So to do, even though such current is an induced current as in a telephone. Electric
currents arising through escape from a line current in a wire are conducted by
the external electric conductor of that wire off to the ground. Electric currents
arising from induction from an electric current transmitted through a line wire
or conductor will, because of their excessive tension, pass through the coverings of
insulating material of the line wires or conductors, in which they are induced into
the external electric conductors, and will be conducted thence to the ground. The
ground wires may be connected with the external electric conductors at any
desirable intervals, and in all cases are to be so arranged that they will intercept
induced or escaping currents and prevent them from reaching such parts of tho
cable as would cause the enunciation of a message carried by the transmitted
electric current from line wires or conductors other than that which at the time
may be in use. To ensure the proper operation of the ground wires with each of
the electric line wires or conductors it may be interlaced around the external
electric conductors of the latter.
A cable may also be made similar to those above described, savo that the line
wires or conductors instead of having their coverings of insulating material encased
in external electric conductors have wires spirally wound around them with their
coils at a considerable distance apart, but still connecting with the ground wires.
The encasing external electric conductors may be preferable on account of their
protecting the insulators from evaporation or wetting. Thus in a telephone electric
currents induced and escaping from the transmitted electric currents, or any outsido
source, and heretofore invariably the cause of great trouble when a number of
wires are grouped together in a cable in the ordinary manner by causing the trans-
mission of messages where they are not desired to be sent, are conducted away, and
the difficulty is avoided. As the improvements provide for the use of telephone
line wires or conductors in a cable without the above referred to objection in a
simple and practical manner, and at a comparatively small expense, such line
wires or conductors may be extended in a very simple, cheap, and efficacious
manner.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said William Robert Lake in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 17th
August 1880.
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London. "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING TO CABLES
OR CONDUCTORS FOR TELEPHONIC AND TELEGRAPHIC PURPOSES." A communication
from abroad by Charles Edward Chinnock, of Brooklyn, New York, and John
De Hart Harrison, of Newark, New Jersey, both in the United States of
America.
These improvements relate particularly to cables composed of or comprising a
number of line-wires or conductors employed in the transmission of messages, and
they are especially applicable to cables of this kind which are used in connection
with telephones.
The principal object of the said improvements is to more effectually preclude the
transmission of messages from one line-wire or conductor to another in its vicinity,
and their conveyance thence to any other than the desired destinations. A general
object of the improvements, however, is to carry off all currents caused by escape
or induction from an outside source, and thereby prevent them from interfering
with the transmission of messages along the line-wires or conductors. To these
ends the said improvements consist in the combination with a line-wire or con-
ductor provided with an insulating covering and with an external electric conductor
of an uninsulated conducting wire independent of the said line-wire or conductor,
but in electrical communication with its external electric conductor, and in com-
munication with the ground, whereby electric currents caused by escape or
induction from an outside source are carried off to the independent conductor,
and thence with little resistance to the ground at any suitable point or points.
The said improvements also consist in the combination with a group of line-
wires or conductors severally provided with insulating coverings and with external
electric conductors in contact with each other of conductors extending from the
said external electric conductors to the ground, whereby the several external
electric conductors are easily connected to the ground, and may be made quite thin
and inexpensive because of their aggregating a large conductive surface of little
resistance common to all the line-wires or conductors, and over which electric
currents induced by or escaping from any of the several line-wires or conductors, or
any outside source, may easily pass off.
The said improvements also consist in the combination with a group or series of
line-wires or conductors provided with insulating coverings and with external
electric conductors of a centrally arranged wire for bracing the cable, comprising
the line-wires or conductors, and insulated from the external electric conductors of
the line-wires or conductors.
The said improvements also consist in the combination of a group of line-wires
or conductors arranged circularly around a central line wire or conductor, all of
the said line-wires or conductors having coverings of insulating material and
external electric conductors, whereby a compact cable having a large conductive
surface for carrying off induced and escaping currents is produced.
The said improvements also consist in the combination with a group or series of
line-wires or conductors provided with insulating coverings, and some or all pro-
vided with external electric conductors of an uninsulated conducting wire
independent of them, and in communication with them and the ground, whereby
in a simple way induced or escaping electric currents may be carried off to the
ground from any of the line wires or conductors, because the said external electric

page_text: conductors and independent conductor aggregate a large conductive surface of very
little resistance and easily grounded.
In the accompanying Drawing-
Figure 1 is a perspective view of a cable embodying the said improvements, one
of the wires thereof being extended beyond the others and partially divested of its
covering of insulating material and its external electric conductor to illustrate more
clearly the said improvements, and
Figure 2 is a transverse section of the said cable.
Figure 3 is a transverse section of a cable of modified form.
Figure 4 is a transverse section of a cable of another modified form.
Figure 5 is a transverse section of a cable illustrating a method of attaching a
ground wire.
Figure 6 is a perspective view of a line wire or conductor having a different
insulating material and a different external electric conductor, and
Figure 7 is a perspective view of a cable of modified form embodying my
improvements.
Like letters indicate the same parts throughout the Drawing.
The improvements in cables, as shewn in the Drawing, are especially adapted for
aerial use.
A, A, represent a number of line-wires or conductors provided with coverings of
insulating material B, and also provided with external electric conductors C,
consisting of casings of electric conducting material.
The line-wires or conductors may be of copper or any other suitable material,
and their insulating coverings may be of any suitable kind, such, for instance, as a
woven material saturated or impregnated with paraffin and spirally wrapped around
the wires, and their external electric conductors C may be of any suitable material,
such, for example, as a strip of tin, lead, or other metallic foil spirally wound
outside their coverings of insulating material, and forming exposed external con-
ductors encasing them, as shewn in Figures 1 to 5. The coverings of insulating
material may, however, be of gutta-percha, and the external electric conductors
may be of lead pipe drawn over or formed around the gutta-percha, as shewn in
Figure 6.
These line wires or conductors A are preferably to be so arranged relatively to
each other that their external electric conductors C will be accessible for the
attachment of a ground wire or wires D in electrical communication with them.
They are shewn as so disposed that their external electric conductors are in contact
and form the exterior of the cable comprising them, and when thus disposed the
ground wire has only to be wrapped and fastened around the cable in order to
fulfil its functions. The line-wires or conductors circularly arranged have a central
wire or conductor arranged between them. This central wire braces or stays and
strengthens the cable. It may serve simply as an independent conductor for
aggregating with the external electric conductors of the line-wires or conductors A,
a large conductive surface for carrying off induced and escaping currents, and then
may consist of an uninsulated wire E, as shewn in Figures 1, 2, and 7, made of
iron and galvanized. It may, however, constitute an extra stout line-wire or con-
ductor A, as shewn in Figures 3 and 5, and then its external electric conductor
will aggregate with the external electric conductors of the surrounding line-wires
or conductors a large conductive surface for carrying off induced or escaping
currents. When the central wire is either an uninsulated wire E, or a line-wire or
conductor having an external electric conductor C, the surrounding line-wires or
conductors need not all have external electric conductors. When the central wire
is desired merely for bracing or staying, and strengthening the cable, it may be
insulated from the surrounding line-wires or conductors by a covering E' of insu-
lating material, as shewn in Figure 4. In lieu of connecting the uninsulated wire E
to the ground by the wires D the said wire E inay in some instances itself be
extended to the ground to carry off induced and escaping currents. In lieu of a
centrally arranged uninsulated wire E a wire wound around the group of line-

page_text: wires or conductors A, and in contact with their external electric conductors, may
be used in certain cases.
The covering of insulating material B of each line-wire or conductor A serves to
confine to it the electric current transmitted through it as far as it is practicable so
to do, even though such current is an induced current as in a telephone. Electric
currents arising through escape from a line-current in a wire are conducted by tho
external electric conductor C of that wire off to the ground. Electric currents
arising from induction from an electric current transmitted through a line wire or
conductor will, because of their excessive tension, pass through the coverings of
insulating material B of the line-wires or conductors, in which they are induced
into the external electric conductors C, and will be conducted thence to the ground.
The ground wires D may be connected with the external electric conductors Cat
any desirable intervals, and in all cases are to be so arranged that they will inter-
cept induced or escaping currents and prevent them from reaching such parts of the
cable as would cause the enunciation of a message carried by the transmitted
electric current from line wires or conductors other than that which at the time
may be in use. To ensure the proper operation of the ground-wires with each of
the electric line-wires or conductors it may be interlaced around the external
electric conductors of the latter, as shewn in Figure 5.
In Figure 7 is shewn a cable similar to those above described, save that the
line-wires or conductors A instead of having their coverings of insulating
material B encased in external electric conductors havo wires C₁ spirally wound
around them with their coils at a considerable distance apart, but still connecting
with the ground wires D. The encasing external electric conductors may be
preferable on account of their protecting the insulators from evaporation or wetting.
Thus in a telephone electric currents induced and escaping from the transmitted
electric currents or any outside source, and heretofore invariably the cause of great
trouble, when a number of wires are grouped together in a cable in the ordinary
manner by causing the transmission of messages where they are not desired to bo
sent are conducted away, and the difficulty is avoided. As the improvements
provide for the use of telephone line-wires or conductors in a cable without the
above referred to objection, in a simple and practical manner, and at a compara-
tively small expense, such line-wires or conductors may be extended in a very
simple, cheap, and efficacious manner.
Having thus fully described the said Invention, as communicated to me by my
foreign correspondents, and the manner of performing the same, I wish it understood
that I claim,
First. The combination with an electric line-wire or conductor, provided with an
insulating covering and an external electric conductor, of an uninsulated conducting
wire, independent of the said line-wire or conductor, but in electrical communica-
tion with its external electric conductor, and in communication with the ground, all
substantially as above set forth and for the purpose specified.
Second. The combination in an aerial cable with a group or series of electric
line wires or conductors severally provided with insulating coverings and external
electric conductors, in contact with each other, of conductors extending from the
said external electric conductors to the ground, substantially as above set forth and
for the purpose specified.
Third. The combination with a group or series of line-wires or conductors, pro-
vided with insulating coverings and with external electric conductors, of a centrally-
arranged wire for bracing the cable, comprising the line-wires or conductors, and
insulated from the external electric conductors of the said line-wires or conductors,
substantially as above set forth and for the purpose specified.
Fourth. The combination of a group or series of line-wires or conductors
arranged circularly around a central line-wire or conductor, all of the said line-
wires having coverings of insulating material and external electric conductors,
substantially as above set forth and for the purpose specified.
Fifth. The combination with a group or series of electric line-wires or conductors,

page_text: which are provided with insulating coverings, and some or all of which are pro-
vided with external electric conductors, of an uninsulated conducting wire,
independent of them, and in communication with them and the ground, substantially
as above set forth and for the purpose specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Robert Lake, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and eighty.
DADT T
W. ROBT. LAKE. (L.S.)