Improvements in and in the Manufacture of Wire Glass, and in the Insulation of Electrical Conductors.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 22nd Oct., 1895-Accepted, 14th Dec., 1895
COME LEIE
Improvements in and in the Manufacture of Wire Glass, and in the
Insulation of Electrical Conductors.
We, JOHN HENRY CROSKEY of 461 Atlantic Avenue, Pittsburg in the
County of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, United States of America,
Mold Maker, and JOSEPH LOCKE of Knoxville Township, Allegheny aforesaid,
Designer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertamed in and
by the following statement
-
Our invention relates to methods or processes of manufacturing wne glass, or glass
having embedded therein wire or wife netting; and also relates to the material
prepared by our improved process.
Wne glass, or glass having wire or wire netting embedded in the body of the
glass, is a product of especial value where strength of the material is required, which
must be attained without appreciable sacrifice of transparency and without
unnecessary increase of weight
Glass of this character can be utilized in a great many positions, as for instance,
in sky-lights, vaults, covers, port holes of vessels, and for articles of any charactei
wbei ein great strength is required, and in positions where danger is to be appie-
hended from the fall of pieces of glase, the wire glass having the property of
matutaining its position, even though fractured, owing to the fact that the wire
will sustain the broken pieces of glass.
Heretofore great difficulty has been experienced in manufacturing wire glass free
from defects and possessing the necessary strength, as the contact of the hot glass
with the wire has the effect of generating gases or vapors which form bubbles 10
the glass, thereby seriously marring the appearance of the glass and lessening its
strength; furthermore, the application of molten glass to the bare wire results in
the production of material in which the glass and the wire ale uuder strain, (due to
the difference in expansion and contraction of the glass and metal) and which is
therefore liable to fracture from a slight blow. Our improved process consists in
coating, covering, or insulating the wire, previous to its inclusion in the glass, with
a material which will prevent absolute contact between the metal of the wie and
the molten glass in which it is enclosed or embedded, so as to prevent the generation
of gases or vapor from the metal and obviate the danger due to the inequality of
expansion and contraction between the wie and the glass.
Our invention further consists in the novel material produced by our improved
process of manufacture.
In carrying our invention into effect, we cover or coat the wire with a non-
combustible material; and we suggest as a suitable material, asbestos, which, as is
well known, may be spun into threads and this asbestos thread, we wrap or plan
around the wire and then we weave the wire to a net. The wire, after being
covered in this manner, is subjected to a high heat which has the effect of generating
and driving off gases or vapors and leaving the asbestos coating in such condition
that no further gases or vapors will be generated when the coated wire is enclosed

page_text: I
o the molten glass. We have stated that the wire is woven into a net before being
enclosed in the molten glass, and this is the usual mauner of arranging the wire
where it is intended to manufacture flat plates or sheets of glass for sky-lights and
analogous purposes, but where the wires are to be enclosed in glass for the forma-
tion of insulated electrical conductors which forms an important application of our
invention. the wues instead of being in the form of a net, may be arranged
singly on in groups of parallel wires or cables o in any other desired or suitable
manner.
After the wine has been coated with the insulating material and the latter sub-
Jected to heat to eliminate the gases or vapors, the wire can be enclosed in the glass in
the following maune The wie in the form of a net or in separate strands or in
the form of a cable, is laid flat upon a heated table or other support. Molten glass
is then poured over the wine and by means of a suitable roller or rollers. the glass
is pressed through the interstices of the net when the wire is in the form of a net,
01 over and around the single we or group of wires when it is intended to form an
insulated electric conductor thereby completely covering and enclosing the coated
wire in a solid mass of glass The material so formed is then placed in a lear and
annealed in the usual manne
Another method of enclosing the wire in the glass, 18 to pour the glass into a
hopper so that it will flow from the hopper and be drawn between rollers arranged
at the top of an inclined table. The wire net is fed between the rollos simul-
taneously with the molten glass, and is thus enclosed in a sheet of glass, which is
received on the inclined, table.
Any other method adapted for embedding a metallic net, or a wire, or series of
wires in glass, may be adopted.
In the accompany drawing
Figure 11s a plan view of a piece or strip of the netting made up of wires
covered us described, and woven into a netting,
Figure 2 is a plan view, illustrating a sheet of glass having the covered or
insulated wire netting embedded therein, Figure 3 is a longitudinal sectional view
of the same,
Figure 4 is a vertical, longitudinal sectional view of a glass rolling table;
Figure 5 is a section view of a piece of covered or insulated wire,
Figures 6, 7 and 8 are detail sectional views showing the application of our
invention to insulated electrical conductors composed of a metallic wire coated with
asbestos or other heat resisting material, and contained in a body of glass.
In the several figures of the drawing, A indicates the metallic wire; B the
coating or covering of the same, aud C, the glass in which the coated or insulated
wire is imbedded.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said. inven-
tion, and in what manuer the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim 15.
(1.) The process of manufacturing wire glass consisting in coating or covering
the wire with an insulating, material, beating such insulating material to expel gas or
vapor and then enclosing the covered wire, in glass.
(2.) The process of manufacturing wire glass, consisting in coating or covering
the wie with a non-combustible mineral, heating the mineral and expelling the gas
or vapor which may be generated, and finally coating the wire with glass.
(3.), The process of manufacturing wire glass consisting in covering the wire with
asbestos, heating the asbestos, aud. expelling the gas or vapor generated by the leat,
and finally coating, the asbestos covered wife with molten glass.
an
(4.) As a new article of manufacture, wire glass, that is, slicets of sections of
glass qualosing strands of wire, the said we being encased or enveloped
incombustible and infusible material, from, which the vaporizable elements Have
beenehminated, substantially, as describe(l,

page_text: (5.) As a new article of manufacture wine glass having the wire encased or
enveloped in an incombustible and infusible material devoid of vaporizable
elements.
Dated this 14th day of Oatchor 190E
"
JOHN HENRY CROSKEY,
JOSEPH LOCKE,
By Henry Skerrett,
24 Temple Row, Birmingham, Agent for Applicants..