IMPROVEMENTS IN CONDUCTORS OF ELECTRICITY
Year: 1883

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John George Parker. of Plymouth in the county of
Devon, Civil Engineer for an Invention of IMPROVEMENTS IN CONDUCTORS
OF ELECTRICITY
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John George Parker at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 9th October 1883.
JOHN GEORGE PARKER. of Plymouth in the county of Devon. Civil Engineer.
IMPROVEMENTS IN CONDUCTORS OF ELECTRICITY
My invention has for its object to reduce the resistance encountered by an electric
current while following a metallic conductor, and the loss of current resulting from
such resistance.
For this purpose I give to the core of the insulated conductor such a cross section.
that the insulating cover touches the core or conductor proper only at the points
along a number of ridges or wings instead of being in contact with the same on its
entire circumference, & that the metallic surface of the conductor is greatly increased.
as compared with the ordinary circular cross section.
A simple way of carrying out this principle is to compose the metallic core of
any suitable number of strips or wings radiating from a common centre & running
parallel along the entire length of the conductor, each strip or wing which thus
forms part of the entire conducting area being in contact with the insulating cover
at its extremity only. The insulating medium may be a cylindrical insulating tube
of the ordinary insulating material or otherwise.
Or the conductor may be made of a core of any insulating material with any
number of V shaped strips of copper or other conducting material arranged parallel
to each other along its entire length.
The conductor may be made of any suitable metal or combination of metals or
alloys usually employed for conveying electric currents or partly of conducting &
partly of non conducting material. The wings of the core may be flat or of any
other suitable shape, they may either be parallel to the axis of the conductor or
twisted so as to form helical surfaces. The open spaces or sectors between the
wings may be used for placing other insulated conducting wires of smaller diameter.
which are thus protected by the same insulating tube as the main conductor.
A vacuum may be produced in the open spaces left between the wings or ridges
of the core.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said John George Parker in the Patent Office on the 4th April
1884.
JOHN GEORGE PARKER of Plymouth in the County of Devon Civil Engineer
IMPROVEMENTS IN CONDUCTORS OF ELECTRICITY
My invention is based on the principle that the electric current passes along the
surface of the wire or other conductor and not through its substance; and further.
that the insulating material with which it is usual and generally necessary to cover
the surface of the conductor operates, by its contact with such surface, to impede
and diminish the force of the electric current in its passage along such surface.
The object of my invention therefore is to obviate, or minimise, the impediment
or resistance thus encountered by an electric current in its passage along an
insulated metallic conductor, and the loss of force resulting from such resistance,
and at the same time to maximise the conducting surface of the conductor in
proportion to its bulk
For this purpose I substitute for the ordinary solid wire conductor a special
metallic wire or rod conductor so constructed that a section of it shews a central
point with a number (varying according to the calibre of the conductor and to all
other practical considerations) of metallic spokes or rays radiating therefrom in the
form of a conventional star or a wheel. The longitudinal surface of the conductor
thus presents a series of parallel and alternate ridges and grooves or channels
throughout its length. The insulating cover of the conductor thus formed is so
wound round or placed over it as to be in contact only with the apices of these
ridges leaving the intervening grooves or channels untouched and unencumbered
throughout the whole length of the conductor Thus the aggregate metallic surface
of the conductor available for the passage of electric currents is composed of the
sum of the surfaces of both sides of all these channels or grooves, and is thus
very greatly in excess of the surface of an ordinary solid wire of equal calibre or
even of the combined internal and external surfaces of a tubular conductor of equal
calibre
The radiating ridges are, I believe, best in the shape (in section) of direct
conventional star-rays, so as to form (as already stated) straight parallel alternate
ridges and grooves throughout the length of the conductor; but they may be
modified in shape; and particularly they may be curved so as to increase the
conducting surfaces of each of them.
At each or either end of my conductor there may be inserted into each of the
open interstices grooves or channels thereof an ordinary conducting wire, conveying
an electric current into or out of the respective grooves or channels of the main-
conductor, or any number of currants may be concentrated in the receiving
extremity of my conductor so as to pass through its several channels indis-
criminately. When my conductor has been properly covered (as above explained)
with an impervious insulating cover or envelope of adequate resisting power, a
vacuum may be created in the several channels throughout its length, thus further
facilitating the passage of the electric current along the internal channels of the
conductor
My metallic conductor as above described may within practicable limits as
regards calibre, be manufactured by the process of wire-drawing; or if a larger
calibre be required, a conductor on the same general principle may be constructed
by juxta-posing and combining together any number of bars of angled or V shaped
metal coinciding at their apices. These may usefully be made to radiate from a

page_text: central non-conducting core and may be separated from each other by non conducting
material, the object being that the channels or grooves of the angled metal may
form the conducting routes of the electric currents
The foregoing descriptions as to an insulating envelope, as to the insertion of
separate wires in the ends of the several grooves or channels or the concentration
therein of several currents and as to creating a vacuum, are equally applicable to
my conductor whether manufactured by the process of wire-drawing or constructed
in the manner last described
I claim as my invention the peculiarly shaped metallic conductor as above
described presenting for the passage of the electric current a series of parallel grooves
or channels, of each of which the surface is unencumbered, but which can be
protected by a general insulating envelope as described.
In witness whereof I the said John George Parker have hereunto set my hand
and seal this third day of April in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and eighty four.
Signed Sealed and Delivered by the above"
named John George Parker in the
presence of
W. F. NOKES
57 Basinghall St E C
J G PARKER (L.S.)