IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH CABLES
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Statham, of Islington, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRIC
TELEGRAPH CABLES."
Sealed the 20th March 1856, and dated the 18th October 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Statham at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 18th
October 1855.
I, SAMUEL STATHAM, of Islington, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH CABLES," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in producing a telegraph cable, light, flexible, and
strong, applicable for submarine as well as for subterranean purposes, in which
I compose the outer casing of gutta percha, or of any of its known compounds,
or either of these alone or combined with metallic or other substances, which
I apply over strands of hemp or cord, or over a tube of any suitable fibrous
material, coated or not, or over metallic wires or strands covered or not with
fibrous material, or covered with both wires or strands and fibrous materials,
and these I apply over, round, or upon a core of gutta percha, or other
insulating material containing therein one or more metallic wires, strips, or
plates used for conducting the electric fluid.
By the means aforesaid I am enabled to produce a light, flexible, and strong
cable, especially suited for submarine purposes, in which the weight may be

page_text: regulated by the employment of metal wires, strands, or plates, or hempen
fibres between the insulated wire or wires and the outer coating, as well as by
the employment of gutta percha, or any of its known compounds, alone, or by
combining with either of these, more or less, some suitable substance heavier
than gutta percha itself, with the gutta percha or gutta percha compound
employed for the outer casing. Or I take a core of gutta percha, or any of
its compounds, or of fibrous material covered with suitable insulating material,
and lap at right angles, or nearly so, around such core, metal wire, strands, or
strips, insulate the same, and place spirally or otherwise thereon conducting
wire or wires, which I afterwards insulate with any required number of coats
or coverings of insulating material prior to the application of the exterior
protecting casing, herein-before alluded to, or of any other exterior protecting
casing suitable for the purpose.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Samuel Statham in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
18th April 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
STATHAM, of Islington, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, send grecting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her. Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of October, in the year of our. Lord
One thousand cight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Samuel Statham, Her special licence that I, the said 'Samuel 'Statham,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Samuel
Statham, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRIC
TELEGRAPH CABLES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Samuel 'Stathan, 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 tlie said Invention, and in what mannci
the same was to be performed, and cause the 'sanie 'to be filed in the Great
Seal Patent Office within six calendar montis next and immediately after
the date of the said Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Samuel Statham, do hereby declare the
nature of my 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:
My Invention consists in producing a telegraph cable, light, flexible, and
strong, applicable for submarine as well as for subterranean purposes, in the
following manner :--I take a core of gutta percha or other insulating material,
containing therein one or more metallic wires, strips, or plates, used for
conducting the electric fluid, and place thereon, or round, or over such core,
strands of hemp or cord, or a tube of any suitable fibrous material, or metallic
wires or strands covered with fibrous material, or both wires or strands and
fibrous material, or with wire or strands of wire, fibrous material and wire, or
strands covered with fibrous material, either or all of these substances being
coated with some protecting material, such as marine glue, or employed
without being coated; and I encase the core covered by one or other or all of
the materials just named in an outer casing or tube of gutta percha, or any
of its known compounds, or either of these combined with metallic or other
substances.
By the means aforesaid I am enabled to produce a light, flexible, and strong
cable, especially suited for submarine purposes, in which the weight may be
regulated by the employment of metal wires, strands, or plates, or fibrous
materials between the insulated wires or wires and the outer coating, as well
as by the employment of gutta percha, or any of its known compounds, alone,
or by combining with either of these, more or less, some suitable substance
heavier than gutta percha itself, with the gutta percha or gutta percha
compounds employed for the outer casing.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim the forming of
electric telegraph cables in the manner herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Statham, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of April One thousand eight hundred
and fifty-six.