AN IMPROVEMENT IN ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH CABLES OR ROPES
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Josiah Latimer Clark, of Adelaide Road, Haverstock
Hill, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT
IN ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH CABLES OR ROPES."
Sealed the 24th December 1858, and dated the 2nd July 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Josiah Latimer Clark
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 2nd July 1858.
I, JOSIAH LATIMER CLARK, of Adelaide Road, Haverstock Hill, in the
County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "AN
IMPROVEMENT IN ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH CABLES OR ROPES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object an improvement in electric telegraph
cables or ropes. For this purpose, in order to distinguish one wire from
another when coated with gutta percha or a compound containing gutta
percha, or with other plastic insulating matter, a projecting rib or ribs, or it
may be groove or grooves, are formed longitudinally on or in the coating.
By these means when such coated wires are made up into telegraph cables
or ropes, the wires have each their distinguishing marks.
For a similar purpose elevations or depressions may be formed at intervals
in or on the surface of the coating of gutta percha, or compound containing
gutta percha, or other plastic insulating matter.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Josiah Latimer Clark in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 1st January 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSIAH
LATIMER CLARK, of Adelaide Road, Haverstock Hill, in the County of
Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Second day of July, 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 Josiah Latimer Clark, Her special licence that I, the said Josiah
Latimer Clark, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Josiah Latimer Clark, 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 "AN
IMPROVEMENT IN ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH CABLES OR ROPES," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Josiah Latimer Clark, 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 Josiah Latimer Clark, 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 an improvement in electric telegraph
cables or ropes.
For this purpose, in order to distinguish one wire from
another when coated with gutta percha, or a compound containing gutta percha,
or with other plastic insulating matter, a projecting rib or ribs, or it may be
groove or grooves, are formed longitudinally on or in the coating. By these
means, when such coated wires are made up into telegraph cables or ropes, the
wires have each their distinguishing marks. For a similar purpose elevations or
depressions may be formed at intervals in or on the surface of the coating of gutta
percha, or compound containing gutta percha, or other plastic insulating matter.

page_text: And in order that my said Invention may be most fully understood and
readily carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the manner in which I
prefer to proceed.
In constructing telegraphic cabies or ropes containing conducting wires
which are covered with gutta percha, or gutta percha compound, or other
plastic insulating material, I form on the coating of plastic insulating material,
as before mentioned, a projecting rib or ribs, or a groove or grooves, or
elevations or depressions at intervals, and each of the wires placed in proximity
the one to the other has a different arrangement of ribs, grooves, elevations,
or depressions on its covering of plastic insulating material, by which either of
them may at any point in its length .be readily recognised. And my Invention
is applicable both to cables or ropes suitable for laying in water and in earth,
and both to cables or ropes protected externally by wires laid round them, and
to those which are laid in metal troughs or pipes, or otherwise. Of these
different systems of marks, that which I prefer to employ is the rib or ribs
formed on the coating of plastic insulating material with which the conducting
wire is covered, and such ribs are best produced during the covering operation,
and for this purpose I notch the covering die by means of a.
otherwise.
graving tool or
To
Figures 1 of the annexed Drawing show transverse sections of a number of
wires covered by means of dies so notched, and the wires are arranged in a
series, the marks on them representing numbers from one to twelve.
produce a groove in place of a rib in the covering of plastic insulating material,
a burr is formed on the covering die by a sharp pointed punch, but this
system is not so advantageous as the first, as it renders comparatively useless
a considerable portion of the covering of plastic insulating material.
In order to produce projections at intervals on the surface of wire covered
with plastic insulating material, I cause the covered wire before the covering
is entirely set, to pass between small rollers with grooved surfaces, such as are
shewn at Figure 2, one of which is plain and the other has engraved on it the
pattern or indicating mark to be produced on the wire; the rollers are pressed
together by springs of moderate strength, so as to produce the required
projections on the surface of the covered wire without crushing the covering.
In order to produce indentations at intervals on the surface of wire covered
with plastic insulating material, I employ rollers like those shown at Figure 2,
only with projections in place of indentations on the surface of one of them,
and in place of passing the wire through these rollers before the coating is set,
I prefer in this case to pass the wire through the rollers when the coating has
become nearly or quite hard. The same result may be produced by the use

page_text: of stampers or punchers striking the indentations on the wire as it passes them,
but I prefer the use of rollers. Thus it will be readily understood that by
constructing telegraphic cables or ropes according to my Invention, any one
of the covered wires may be readily recognised at every point in the length of
such cables or ropes.
In witness whereof, I, the said Josiah Latimer Clark, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this First day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
Witness,
JNO. ALCOCK.
JOSIAH LATIMER CLARK. (L.S.)