AN IMPROVED METHOD OF COVERING TELEGRAPH WIRES, WIRES FOR ELECTRODES, ELECTRO-MAGNETS, GALVANOSCOPES, AND OTHERS, AND ALSO WEBS OF FIBROUS MATERIALS AND METALS
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Henry Conradi at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 25th February 1878. A communication from
abroad by Robert Wiebe, of Wolgaste, in Prussia.
HENRY CONRADI, of 8, Lower James Street, Golden Square, in the County of
Middlesex. "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF COVERING TELEGRAPH WIRES, WIRES
FOR ELECTRODES, ELECTRO-MAGNETS, GALVANOSCOPES, AND OTHERS, AND ALSO
WEBS OF FIBROUS MATERIALS AND METALS." [A communication from abroad by
Robert Wiebe, of Wolgast, in Prussia.]
The cover is manufactured from india-rubber or caoutchouc dissolved by throwing
or pouring bisulphuret of carbon (CS) over it, and is prepared in bottles with large
necks well or tightly stopped or corked. The so-produced solution of a clear yellow
liquid is poured out in a large basin, and then made still lighter by an addition of
bisulphuret of carbon. The metals or respectively the wires are then sponged over
with this solution. A short time, about one hour after, those metals or wires are
re-covered in the same way with a second solution, which is composed of gutta
percha, wood tar, and rosin. This so-called compound, "Chatterton," is again
poured over with bisulphuret of carbon. The so-produced solution, which is of a
dark brown colour, and thick like syrup, is then mixed with the yellow india-rubber
solution in the ratio of four to one (4:1), and again re-mixed with bisulphuret of
carbon till it becomes a light liquid, and is then ready to be used as cover or layer.
The second solution is laid or sponged over the metals, wires, or fibrous webs as
often as the required thickness of the layers is obtained.
Wires laid in buildings, halls, rooms, or such places require only a few layers to
become perfectly isolated, while underground telegraph wires and submarine cables
have to be covered at short intervals by repeated layers until the most sensible
galvanoscope set in the open chain of the isolated wire laying in the water proves
that a complete and perfect isolation is obtained. This result has been obtained
when the wires have been covered with five or six (5 or 6) layers.
Metals, as for example machinery in the open air, require only to be covered with
two or three (2 or 3) layers to be secured against oxydation.

page_text: In the places where electrodes, respectively kathodes, do not require to be gilded
or silvered, two layers need only be applied.
To secure webs or twists of cotton or hemp against dampness or moisture they
are treated like the metals, and covered by the same number of layers.
If metals, respectively electrodes or telegraph wires, shall become perfectly and
also in the quickest way isolated for an almost instantaneous use, as for example in
time of war, only a thick syrup-like solution of the above, called "Chatterton,"
mixed with bisulphuret of carbon is used. This solution dries very quickly, and a
cover of two layers is sufficient to produce an isolation of the wires laid down on
the ground or carried across marshes.
For the use of the wires in buildings, halls, rooms, or such places, as also for
electrodes, kathodes, electro-magnets, and galvanoscopes, the solution can be mixed
with some fine aetheric oils, as its strong smell may not be agreeable to every one.
In this case, before preparing the composition of the covering material, the bi-
sulphuret of carbon is mixed beforehand in the ratio of forty to fifty (40 to 50) drops
of fine aetheric oil to one kilogram (1 kilogr.) of bisulphuret of carbon. These fine
aetheric oils may be violet, cavendel, rose oils, etc.
This cover is applicable to telegraph wires laid above or under the ground, as
also for submarine cables, further for wires used for electrodes, electro-magnets, and
galvanoscopes, also for webs of fibrous materials. The manufacture of this kind of
cover is cheap, and of an easy and quick make.
.
The improvements upon which the claims are principally based consists,-
1. In covering wires and fibrous webs by means of layers of a compound solution
of india-rubber or caoutchouc dissolved in bisulphuret of carbon (C S₂).
2. In covering the wires and fibrous webs by means of a compound solution of
the so-called "Chatterton," mixed with bisulphuret of carbon, as above described
and designated; which is used either separately or in combination with the com-
pound solution designated under No. 1, both having as object to isolate the wires
destined for electrical purposes, or to conduct electricity, as also to make the fibrous
web water-tight in the way and manner above described; further, to obtain a perfect
isolation as well as a perfect protection against oxydation and destruction by water.