Couplings, and Connections.
Year: 1887

page_text: Date of Application, 25th May, 1887
Complete Left, 7th Feb., 1888
Complete Accepted, 9th Mar., 1888
Couplings, and Connections.
We, WALTER CLAUDE JOHNSON and SAMUEL EDMUND PHILLIPS both of 14 Union
Court, Old Broad Strect in the City of London, Telegraph Engineers do hereby
declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
Our invention relates to submarine cable grapnels and grapnel ropes in which an
electrical conductor passes from on board ship through the grapnel rope and grapnel
in order either by induction or by making electrical contacts to indicate by signals
on board ship the presence of the submarine cable in or near the grapnel, as described
in the specification to Sir James Anderson and W. C. Johnson's Patent No. 2311
of 1882, or to give indications by making contacts when the grapnel is upon or near
the sea bottom. The object of our present improvements is to obviate the necessity
for splicing the grapnel rope and jointing its conductor at the point where it is joined
to the grapnel and its conductor and to dispense with shackles and thimbles, and the
necessarily complicated electrical connection which they require, for which purpose
we, according to one arrangement, construct the grapnel with its shank divided
longitudinally into two or more parts, enclosing a hollow between them, so that the
grapnel rope with its conductor can be secured to the grapnel without splicing or
jointing, by laying it in the hollow of the shank where it is secured by merely bolting
or otherwise fixing the parts thereof thereof together; or instead of being divided, the
grapnel shank may be in one piece, provided with a suitable hollow through which
the grapnel rope could pass and be then enlarged at the lower end to prevent it
coming out.
The rope can either be fixed firmly into the grapnel or left loose and arranged in
such a manner that the grapnel can turn without any tendency to untwist the strands
of the rope.
Thus the grapnel rope with its conductor passes continuously down to the end of
the grapnel where its conductors are connected to the particular device employed for
producing the signals.

page_text: The above described method of connecting the rope to the grapnel may also be used
for making joints or couplings in the length of the grapnel rope where required, the
ends of the lengths being secured in metal sockets which are then connected together
cither by an articulated or a rigid joint, the conductor of the two lengths of rope
being connected together within such sockets.
Our invention is more particularly applicable to the before mentioned construction
of grapnel described in Anderson's and Johnson's Patent, and by way of example we
have shown its application to this construction on the accompanying drawing, in
which Fig. 1 shews an elevation of the grapnel, Fig. 2 a sectional elevation and
Fig. 3 a cross section of one arrangement. The grapnel is divided longitudinally into
two halves A and A¹ in each of which is formed a semi-circular channel a a¹ of such
a size that the grapnel rope B with its electrical conductor bb will fit therein, so that
when the two parts are secured together by screws CC passing through the part A
and screwing into A¹ the rope will be firmly gripped between them so as to be
securely attached thereto. The channels a a¹ may have helical grooves formed therein
corresponding to the twist of the rope, so as to fit closely into this, or they may be
roughened or provided with slight projections in order to increase the firmness of the
hold. From the lower end of the embedded rope a conductor or conductors bb pass
to coils on the prongs of the grapnel which operate as described in the said Patent
No. 2311 of 1882. It is found that when even slight signals are passing through the
submarine cable these can be heard by a telephone on board ship in connection with
the coils even when the cable is more than a foot distant from the coils. The
cavity in the lower end of the grapnel is closed at bottom by a plate D secured by
screws d. Instead of constructing the two parts A A¹ quite separate they may be
joined together on the one side by a binge as shown at Fig. 4, or the shank may be
of more than two separate parts. Also, in place of securing them together by screws
they may be held by collars or clamping rings driven on the tapering shank and tho
induction coil or coils may be attached to either the inside or outside of the shank of
the grapnel, instead of to the prongs, as shewn at Fig. 5, which also shews the
before mentioned construction of tubular shank E with the enlargement of the lower
part of the hollow, so that when the cable has been passed through, and had its end
enlarged, it will fill the enlargement of the hollow as shewn, and fit tightly against
the shoulder at e. Fig. 6 shews the application of our invention to a grapnel in
which the pressure of the hooked cable acting on levers E' causes a pin F to bend
a diaphragm G and make contact with the end of the conductor b, thus closing an
electrical circuit as also described in the said Patent No. 2311 of 1882. The
diaphragm may be of India rubber or of a plate concentrically corrugated, or any
other suitable material.
Figs. 7 and 8 shew arrangements of couplings for grapnel ropes. The ends of the
ropes B B¹ to be coupled are passed through the sockets F F into which they are
drawn back again after being enlarged so as to fit tightly against the shoulders at ffl
as in the grapnel shewn at Fig. 5. The joint having been made in the conductors of
the two ropes, the sockets are then coupled either by a universal joint as shewn at
Fig. 7 or by any other suitable form of articulated joint to allow the rope to take a
moderate bend, or they may be connected rigidly as in Fig. 8 or the socket or sockets
may be divided longitudinally as shown at Fig. 9, the enlarged ends of the ropes
being laid in the hollows, and the halves of the sockets then bolted together, firmly
gripping the ropes as in the grapnels before described with reference to Figs. 1
and 2.

page_text: Improvements in Submarine Cable Grapnels, Grapnel Rope
Couplings, and Connections.
We, WALTER CLAUDE JOHNSON and SAMUEL EDMUND PHILLIPS both of 14 Union
Court, Old Broad Street in the City of London, Telegraph Engineers, 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 :-
--
Our invention relates to submarine cable grapnels and grapnels ropes in which an
electrical conductor passes from on board ship through the grapnel rope and grapnel
in order either by induction or by making electrical contacts to indicate by signals on
board ship the presence of the submarine cable in or near the grapnel, as described in
the specification to Sir James Anderson and W. C. Johnsons Patent No. 2311 of 1882
or to give indications by making contacts when the grapnel is upon or near the sca
bottom. The object of our present improvements is to obviate the necessity for
splicing the grapnel rope and jointing its conductor at the point where it is joined
to the grapnel and its conductor and to dispense with shackles and thimbles and the
necessarily complicated electrical connection which they require for which purpose
we according to one arrangement, construct the grapnel with its shank divided longi-
tudinally into two or more parts enclosing a hollow between them, so that the grapnel
rope with its conductor can be secured to the grapnel without splicing or jointing by
laying it in the hollow of the shank where it is secured by merely bolting or other-
wise fixing the parts thereof together or instead of being divided the grapnel shank
may be in one piece, provided with a suitable hollow through which the grapnel rope
could pass and be then enlarged at the lower end to prevent it coming out.
The rope can either be fixed firmly into the grapnel or left loose and arranged in
such a manner that the grapnel can turn without any tendency to untwist the strands
of the rope.
Thus the grapnel rope with its conductor passes continuously down to the end of
the grapnel where its conductors are connected to the particular device employed for
producing the signals.
The above described method of connecting the rope to the grapnel may also be
used for making joints or couplings in the length of the grapnel rope where
required the ends of the length being secured in metal sockets which are then
connected together either by an articulated or a rigid joint the conductor of the
two lengths of rope being connected together within such sockets.
Our invention is more particularly applicable to the before mentioned construction
of grapnel described in Anderson's and Johnson's Patent and by way of example we
have shewn its application to this construction on the drawing accompanying our
provisional Specification dated 25th May 1887 in which Fig. shews an elevation
of the grapnel Fig. 2 a sectional elevation and Fig. 3 a cross section of one
arrangement.
The grapnel is divided longitudinally into two halves A and A¹ in each of which is
formed a semi-circular channel a a¹ of such a size that the grapnel rope B with its
electrical conductor will fit therein, so that when the two parts are secured

page_text: together by screws CC passing through the part A and screwing into A¹ the rope
will be firmly gripped between them so as to be securely attached thereto. The
channels a a¹ may have helical grooves formed therein corresponding to the twist of
the rope, so as to fit closely into this, or they may be roughened or provided with
slight projections in order to increase the firmness of the hold. From the lower end
of the imbedded rope a conductor or conductors bb pass to coils on the prongs of
the grapnel which operate as described in the said patent No. 2311 of 1882. It is
found that when even slight signals are passing through the submarine cable these can
be heard by a telephone on board ship in connection with the coils b¹ even when the
cable is more than a foot distant from the coils. The cavity in the lower end of the
grapnel is closed at bottom by a plate D secured by screws d. Instead of constructing
the two parts A A¹ quite separate they may be joined together on the one side by a
hinge as shewn at Fig. 4 or the shank may be of more than two separate parts. Also,
in place of securing them together by screws they may be held by collars or clamping
rings driven on the tapering shank and the induction coil or coils may be attached to
either the inside or outside of the shank of the grapnel, instead of to the prongs as
shewn at Fig. 5 which also shews the before mentioned construction of tubular
shank E with the enlargement of the lower part of the hollow, so that when the cable
has been passed through, and had its end enlarged it will fill the enlargement of the
hollow as shown, and fit tightly against the shoulder at e. Fig. 6 shews the
application of our invention to a grapnel in which the pressure of the hooked cable
acting on lever E¹ causes a pin F to bend a diaphragm G and make contact with tho
end of the conductor 6 thus closing an electrical circuit as above observed in the said
Patent No. 2311 of 1882. The diaphragm may be of India rubber or of a plate
concentrically corrugated or any other suitable material.
Figs. 7 and 8 shew arrangements of couplings for grapnel ropes. The ends of the
ropes BB to be coupled are passed through the sockets F F into which they are
drawn back again after being enlarged so as to fit tightly against the shoulder at ff¹
as in the grapnel shewn at Fig. 5.
The joint having been made in the conductors of the two ropes the sockets are then
coupled either by a universal joint as shewn at Fig. 7 or by any other suitable form
of articulated joint to allow the rope to take a moderate bend, or they may be
connected rigidly as in Fig. 8, or the socket or sockets may be divided longitudinally
as shewn at Fig. 9 the enlarged ends of the ropes being laid in the hollows and the
grooves of the sockets then bolted together firmly gripping the rope as in the
grapnels before described with reference to Figs. 1 and 2.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what we claim is :-
1. The method of connecting a grapnel rope to a submarine cable grapnel by
passing the same through a longitudinal hollow forined in the shank of the grapnel
and securing it therein substantially as herein described.
2. Constructing submarine cable grapnels with a longitudinal hollow in the shank
for receiving the grapnel rope, the shank being either in one piece or divided for this
purpose substantially as herein described.
3. Constructing couplings for grapnel ropes substantially as herein described.
n