IMPROVEMENTS IN COVERING SUBMARINE TELEGRAPH CABLES, AND IN THE MACHINERY AND MEANS EMPLOYED FOR PAYING OUT OR HAULING IN THE BAME
Year: 1865

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Samuel Inkpen at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 11th September
1865.
I, SAMUEL INKPEN, of Bartholomew Terrace, Cambridge Road, Mile End,
in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for " IMPROVEMENTS IN COVERING SUBMARINE TELEGRAPH CABLES, AND
IN THE MACHINERY AND MEANS EMPLOYED FOR PAYING OUT OR HAULING IN THE
BAME," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in covering submarine
telegraph cables, and in the machinery and means employed for paying
out or hauling in the same, whereby injury to the insulation from undue
straining in the operations of paying out or- hauling in is rendered almost
impossible. It is well known that telegraphic cables in being paid out
or bauled in owing to their great weight are liable to be strained and
elongated, the insulation of the conducting wires being thus injured and
destroyed, and the object of the first part of my improvements is so to
cover telegraph cables that all strain upon the insulating material and
conductors is avoided.

page_text: In carrying out my improvements the telegraph cable to be covered
according to the first part of my Invention may either consist of ordinary
conducting wires simply covered with insulating materials, or the insulating
materials may be covered with hemp or other protecting materials (as is well
understood in the manufacture of telegraph cables), but I prefer to take the
cable after being covered with the insulating materials only, in order to avoid
any unnecessary weight in the structure of the cable when covered according
to my improvements. The insulated wires constituting a telegraph cable (are,
according to my improved method of covering the same,) laid between one or
more flat longitudinal continuous layers of stout canvass or webbings, which
are cemented with india-rubber or other suitable cement, and firmly stitched
or secured together so as to form flat longitudinal projecting webs or flanches
on each side of a cable so covered, such projecting webs serving as means for
supporting and holding the cable when being paid out or hauled in by
machinery arranged and constructed according to the second part of my
improvements.
The cable covered and formed with longitudinal webs, as above described,
I prefer to wind upon suitable reels, either situated in the hold of the vessel
or upon reels capable of being moved to the paying-out apparatus as may be
found most convenient. From the reel the cable is conducted between a pair
of grooved rollers capable of nipping the side webs only by means of a lever
or levers which act to press the rollers together. The central part or core of
the cable passing freely between the grooves of the rollers, from which it is
conducted between guide rollers to the delivering pullies or rollers mounted
in suitable bearings at the stern of the vessel. The delivering pullies or
rollers are formed, by preference, with curved undulating or serrated surfaces
or teeth, which serve to nip and hold the side webs of the cable firmly
between them when pressed together by means of suitable lever-break appa-
ratus arranged in combination therewith. The axes of the delivering pullies
have toothed wheels fixed thereon, to which motion can be communicated by
means of a toothed pinion mounted up an axis driven by a steam engine' or
other motive power capable of being thrown in and out of gear as required.
When the cable is being paid out it is allowed to run out freely between the
delivery rollers, but when required its outward movement can be readily
arrested by means of the lever-break apparatus, and then by inéans of the
toothed gearing the cable can be hauled in, all the strain being brought to bear
upon the side webs, which are acted upon by the toothed, curved, or serrated
surfaces of the delivering pullies for this purpose.
In place of forming a telegraphic cable with two side webs as previously

page_text: described, one of such webs only may be formed thereon and employed for
resisting the strain upon the insulating materials and conductors according
to my Invention by mechanism suitably arranged for the purpose; but I
prefer to construct the cable with two such webs as in the arrangement pre-
viously described, although I do not confine myself thereto.