MENTS IN OBTAINING AND DISTRIBUTING OR APPLYING ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM
Year: 1859

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Andrew-Barclay at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 28th January
1859.
I, ANDREW BARCLAY, of Kilmarnock, in the County of Ayr, North Britain,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE
MENTS IN OBTAINING AND DISTRIBUTING OR APPLYING ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM,"
to be as follows, that is to say:-
This Invention relates to an effective means of obtaining electricity from
the earth in great quantity, and to the intensifying the same, and to the dis-
tribution and application of the electricity, either in quantity or intensity, to
practical use; and it also relates more or less to an Invention of "Improve-
ments in Obtaining and Distributing or Applying Electricity and Magnetism,
and in Obtaining Motive Power therefrom," for which Mr. Barclay has already
obtained Provisional Protection, bearing date on or about the 23rd day of
December 1858. According to the present Invention, instead of connecting
the receiving end of the conducting wire or wires of telegraphic or conducting
cables to any arrangements of metallic receiving surfaces, the said receiving
portions of the wire or wires are connected to similar or other receiving
apparatus or details, composed of coke, charcoal, or other material capable of
electric conduction. Such coke, charcoal, or other receiving surfaces or
details are laid in the earth for the reception therefrom of the electricity, as

page_text: already described in the Provisional Specification of the Invention herein-
before referred to. This arrangement is adopted for the purpose of connecting
the proper extent of the earth to correspond with the quantity of electricity to
be given out or taken up by the galvanic battery or other electric or magnetic
apparatus, and with or without conducting fluids in connection therewith. A
number or series of battery cells are arranged to work in concert, so as to
collect the greatest available quantity of electricity from the earth, and such
cells are again connected to other battery 'cells, so as to secure intensity in the
electricity. In working electric cables or conductors, a battery or other
electric or magnetic apparatus is connected to either one or both ends of the
cable or conductor, thus keeping the conducting wires either positively or
negatively charged as the signals or system of working may require. Another
battery or reservoir of force is connected with the cable or conductor for the
transmission of the actual signals. If the cable is kept charged with positive
electricity, a positive charge is sent along the cable, and the permanent battery
may be kept undisturbed; but when a negative charge is in, the permanent
battery or apparatus may be reversed or connected, so as to assist the second
battery or other apparatus in giving the negative charge. The reverse is
necessary if the cable or conducting line is kept negatively charged.
In constructing electrical or galvanic batteries, the arrangement consists of
a chamber or main reservoir divided off at regular intervals throughout its
length, by vertical porous division pieces or diaphragms, so as to produce
corresponding cells. These cells are filled in alternate order with the two
operating solutions employed in working the battery; the copper and zinc, or
other materials used in developing the action, being, of course, 'similarly
alternated and connected throughout. The sulphate of copper or other
ingredient used in working the battery is supplied from an external chamber
or shelf entirely surrounding the battery chamber, suitable holes being formed
in the chamber opposite each cell to be supplied, so that the solution can get
freely and uniformly into each.
In another modification a similar chamber is used with a series of porous
cells open at the top, set within it at regular intervals asunder. The cells are
all filled with one and the same solution, whilst the other solution is supplied
to the chamber itself, so as to be in contact with the external surfaces of all
the cells. With this arrangement the individual plates of the alternated
metals or materials are alternately in the cells and between them. In both
these arrangements a superior amount of operating surface is gained in a
simple and effective manner. And instead of laying down special cables or
conductors, the present Invention refers to and provides for the use of the rails

page_text: of railways, lines of pipes, railings, and other continuous conducting lines or
bodies as transmitters of electricity or magnetism, such mode of transmission
being worked according to the general non-insulating system already described
in the Provisional Specification of an Invention of "Certain Improvements in
Electric and Magnetic or Electro-magnetic Telegraphs applicable to Sub-
marine and Land Communication," for which Mr. Barclay has already
obtained Provisional Protection bearing date on or about the 2nd day of
November 1858.