IMPROVEMENTS IN SUBMARINE TELEGRAPHIC CABLES
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Stoddart, of Tours, France, for the Inven-
tion of "IMPROVEMENTS IN SUBMARINE TELEGRAPHIC CABLES."-A commu-
nication from abroad by John S. Davison, residing at the State of New
Jersey, in the U. S. of America.
Sealed the 19th June 1860, and dated the 1st February 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Stoddart at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
1st February 1860.
I, ALEXANDER STODDART, of Tours, France, do hereby declare the nature of
the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SUBMARINE TELEGRAPHIC CABLES," to be
as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in submarine telegraphic
cables; in the process of laying telegraphic cables they are exposed to severe
strains, which cause them to stretch, and in cables of the ordinary construction,
as the interior conductor is less capable of extention than the exterior of the
cable, a great part of the strain is thrown on the conductor, which is thus
liable to be broken. Now, according to this Invention, the conductor is made
capable of greater extention than the exterior of the cable. This is effected

page_text: by forming it of a bundle of straight wires, each wire being of a comparatively
short length; they are bound together by a wire lapped spirally around the
bundle, and each of the short wires in the bundle is attached at one end to one
of the convolutions of the binding wire. When a strain comes on a conductor
constructed as above described, it causes it to elongate; the coils of the spiral
binding wire becoming more open, and the interior wires slide the one on the
other, being all of them attached to the spiral. In this manner the conti-
nuity of the conductor is ensured, however much it may be extended while
laying.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alexander Stoddart in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 31st July 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
STODDART, of Tours, France, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-third year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Alexander Stoddart, Her special licence that I, the said .Alexander Stoddart,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Alexander Stoddart, 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
SUBMARINE TELEGRAPHIC CABLES," a communication from abroad by John S.
Davison, residing at the State of New Jersey, in the U. S. of America, upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Alexander Stoddart, my execu-
tors 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 Alexander Stoddart, .do hereby declare
the nature of the. said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be

page_text: with one another, and the current passes through without interruption. The
wires a should be of bright copper wire, as it is desirable that the con-
ductors of the cable should offer as little resistance as possible to the
electric current.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Stoddart, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
ALEXANDER STODDART. (L.S.)