NEW AND IMPROVED COMPOUNDS FOR THE COATING OR INSULATING OF SUBMARINE ELECTRIC TELE- GRAPH WIRES, AND WHICH ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO THE COATING OR INSULATING OF ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH WIRES LAID UNDERGROUND
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Leonard Wray, of No. 5, Devonshire Street, Portland
Place, London, Gentleman, for the Invention of "NEW AND IMPROVED
COMPOUNDS FOR THE COATING OR INSULATING OF SUBMARINE ELECTRIC TELE-
GRAPH WIRES, AND WHICH ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO THE COATING OR INSULATING
OF ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH WIRES LAID UNDERGROUND."
Sealed the 8th April 1859, and dated the 12th October 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Leonard Wray at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
12th October 1858.
I, LEONARD WRAY, of No. 5, Devonshire Street, Portland Place, London,
Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "NEW AND
IMPROVED COMPOUNDS FOR THE COATING OR INSULATING OF SUBMARINE ELECTRIC
TELEGRAPH WIRES, AND WHICH ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO THE COATING OR INSULATING
OF ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH WIRES LAID UNDERGROUND," to be as follows:-
I take, first, vegetable or mineral caoutchouc or gutta percha. Secondly,
powdered flint,or flower of glass, or other suitable silicious or aluminous matter.
And, thirdly, lac or shell-lac or other suitable resinous substance, and com-
bine them in such proportions as are best suited to the purpose intended; for
instance, I obtain an excellent material by combining two parts of caoutchouc
with one part of flower of glass and one and a half part of shell-lac. Or I use

page_text: equal parts of caoutchouc, silicious matter and shell-lac, or I use one part of
caoutchouc to two parts of flower of glass and two parts of shell-lac; all these
proportions varying to suit the particular purpose to which the compound
is to be applied, whether a submarine wire or a wire laid underground.
I also combine either caoutchouc or gutta percha with powdered flint or
flower of glass, or other suitable silicious or aluminous matter; for instance, two
parts of the former with one part of the latter, or other suitable proportions to
meet particular requirements in coating or insulating submarine electric
telegraph wires; or electric telegraph wires laid underground.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Leonard Wray in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
12th April 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, LEONARD
WRAY, of Devonshire Street; Portland Place, London, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of October, 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 Leonard Wray, Her special license that I, the said Leonard Wray, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Leonard
Wray, 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,aud Isle of Mau,an Invention for "NEW AND IMPROVED COMPOUNDS FOR
THE COATING OR INSULATING OF SUBMARINE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH WIRES, AND WHICH
ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO THE COATING OR INSULATING OF ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH WIRES
LAID UNDERGROUND," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,the said Leonard
Wray, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should par-
ticularly 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Leonard Wray, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,

page_text: to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following state-
ment (that is to say):-
My Invention of "New and Improved Compounds for the Coating or
Insulating of Submarine Electric Telegraph Wires, and which are also
applicable to the Coating or Insulating of Electric Telegraph Wires laid
underground," consists in combining together substances of three different
classes, so as to form a compound material, which will be found more appli-
cable for coating or insulating telegraphic wires than those substances or
compounds that have heretofore been employed for the purpose. The sub-
stances which I propose to employ in carrying out my Invention are, first,
vegetable caoutchouc, (comprised under which designation are all those gum
elastics produced by numerous South American, Oriental, and African plants,
such as the "Hevæa caoutchouc." the "Jatropha elastica," the "Ficus
Indica," the "Ficus elastica," the "Artocarpus integrifolia," and others.)
Mineral caoutchouc (bitumen) or gutta percha (under which designation
are comprised the gummy or gum resinous products obtained from all the
plants of the natural order sapotads or sapotea), or other suitable gum elastic
or gum resinous substances, or one or more of them together. Second,
powdered flint, flour of glass, or other suitable siliceous or aluminous matter,
such as kaolin. Third, lac or shell-lac or other suitable resinous sub-
stances, either one or more together. I mix and combine these different
substances in such varied proportions as I find best adapted for the particular
case to which I wish to apply the compound; for instance, 1 take two
and a half parts by weight of india-rubber (caoutchouc) cleansed according
to the mode well known in the trade, and add to it one and a half part of
shell-lac in a melted state, and I well and thoroughly mix and incorporate
them together by means of grinding or mixing rollers heated by steam or
otherwise. I then add to this mixture one part of flour of glass, and con-
tinue the grinding or mixing by the heated rollers until the whole becomes
a sufficiently homogeneous mass; or, I take four parts of cleansed india-
rubber, one part of gutta percha (cleansed by modes well known in the
trade) reduced to a plastic state by means of heat, and when these are well
mixed and incorporated together by the grinding, masticating, or mixing
rollers, heated by steam or otherwise, I add two parts each of shell-lac and
flour of glass, grinding and mixing them as before until the compound is
brought into a sufficiently homogeneous condition. Or I take two parts of
either vegetable caoutchouc or mineral caoutchouc (bitumen) or gutta
percha, or either separately, or one or more combined, and I add thereto
one part of powdered flint, flour of glass or other suitable siliceous or

page_text: aluminous matter, such as purified kaolin, and I combine them together by
means of heated masticators, or grinding or mixing rollers, as before described.
I find that very good and suitable compounds are produced by the
combined materials in the proportions I have just described; I do not, how-
ever, intend to confine myself to these exact combinations or proportions,
but I vary the combinations and proportions in order to produce such
different degrees of hardness, toughness, elasticity, and durability in the
compound material, as may be required according to the particular purpose
for which the combination is intended to be employed.
The compound having been made as described, is either rolled out or cut
into thin sheets of suitable thicknesses, with which I coat or cover the electric
or telegraphic wire or conductor, either by lapping slips of the thin sheet of
compound spirally round the said wire or conductor in successive layers or
coatings, until it has attained the desired thickness, each coating or layer so
put on being consolidated by passing between grooved rollers or through dies
made for that purpose to suit the different sizes required, or I cover the wire
or conductor with thin sheets of the compound, and pass the wire, when so
covered, over a steam table through or between grooved rollers (which may
or may not be heated). Or I take the compound when in a plastic state by
heating and grinding, and place it in hollow (heated) cylinders, from which it
(the compound) is to be forced by pressure through suitable sized dies,
through which the wire or conductor is passed at the same time. By this
means the wire will receive a coating of the compound material, and (passing
from the dies) the newly coated wires are carried through some suitable
cooling medium, whereby the heated and plastic compound is cooled and
hardened. The coated wire may then pass between grooved rollers in order
still further to compress and consolidate the coating thereon. In this manner,
one, two, or more coatings may be given to the wire or electric conductor.
This last described method of putting the coatings on to the conducting
wire, is a very old and well-known method of coating or enveloping one
substance with another, a similar operation having been formerly used for
making candles, and in more recent years an analogous process has been
adopted for coating electric telegraph wires with gutta percha.
I would observe, that whenever it is considered desirable, I coat or glaze
the wires or electric conductor with a suitable gummy, gum-elastic, resinous,
gum-resinous, bituminous, or siliceous solution (always avoiding such solutions
as are made with mineral naphtha or similar solvents). This preliminary
coating or covering of the wires is effected previous to covering or insulating
them with the compound or compounds above described; but I do not claim the

page_text: use of this glaze as any part of my Invention; I also employ as a protection
to my compound material when used on electric telegraph wires, an improved
waterproof composition in lieu of those composed of tar, pitch, and other
materials, and now employed for saturating the hempen strands which overlay
and protect the present gutta percha covered wires in submarine electric cables.
This improved waterproof composition may be composed of some gummy,
adhesive,and viscid product, such as that obtained from the well-known Indian
tree "gab," (named in botany "Diospyros embryopteris,") or some other
elastic, bituminous, resinous, or waxy substance combined with bitumen or
asphaltum, dammer, tallow and oil, or other analogous substances.
Having now described my Invention of new and improved compounds for
the coating or insulating of submarine and other electric telegraph wires, and
having explained the manner of carrying the same into effect, I would remark
that telegraph wires or electric conductors coated or covered with myimproved
compounds herein-before set forth will be perfectly protected and insulated,
and may be employed either for submarine electric telegraph purposes or as
electric conductors to be used either above or below ground; I would also
observe that I do not mean or intend to confine myself rigidly to the precise
combinations and proportions herein set forth, as it may perhaps be necessary
to vary them according to the purpose for which they are to be employed, and
this may be done without departing from the nature and objectofmy Invention;
nor do I mean to confine myself to any particular mode of coating or covering
the electric wires or conductors with the improved compounds, nor do I claim
as of my Invention any of the modes herein set forth of coating the wires or
conductors with the compounds, as similar processes have been used before
for analogous purposes; but that which I consider to be new and intend to
claim as of my Invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is the use and
application of the new and improved compounds herein described and set forth
for the coating and insulating of submarine and other electric telegraph wires.
In witness whereof, I, the said Leonard Wray, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Twelfth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
Witness,
W. E. NEWTON.
LP WRAY. (L.S.)