IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS OR PROCESSES FOR HOLDING, PROTECTING, AND INSULATING SUBTERRANEOUS TELEGRAPH WIRES
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Fauvin Jaloureau, of Paris, in the French
Empire, Manufacturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS OR
PROCESSES FOR HOLDING, PROTECTING, AND INSULATING SUBTERRANEOUS
TELEGRAPH WIRES."
Sealed the 7th June 1861, and dated the 12th December 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Fauvin Jaloureau
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
12th December 1860.
I, ALFRED FAUVIN JALOUREAU, of Paris, in the French Empire, Manufac-
turer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MEANS OR PROCESSES FOR HOLDING, PROTECTING, AND. INSULATING SUBTERRANEOUS
TELEGRAPH WIRES," to be as follows:-
The process which I use consists in the employment of bitumen introduced
in a hot state into tubes of cylindrical or other suitable form to fix and insulate
the wires. Although these pipes when required may be of earthenware or
other neutral material, yet I prefer to employ the tubes of bituminised paper
for which I obtained Letters Patent dated the Twenty-third day of September
1858, No. 2137,which tubes combine particular advantages from being non-con-
ductors,and endowed with great strength and durability inattackable byinsects
and gnawing animals, and capable of sustaining great pressures without cracks
or fractures. These tubes or coverings are consequently far superior to cisterns

page_text: of wires imbedded in asphalte as well as to the subterranean cables in gutta-
percha envelloped in lead.
In this special application my Invention embraces not only the employment
of bitumen introduced hot into the tubes to fix and insulate the wires, but also
of particular means of joining and of placing the wires by certain tools and ap-
paratus. On or in the surface of a flat table is fixed a slightly conical block
or plug of cast iron; over this is placed.a ring or short tube of glass having as
many grooves on its exterior as the number of wires to be insulated. A tube,
and by preference one of my bituminous paper tubes, is placed over and so as
to inclose the aforesaid glass tube or ferule. If the bituminised paper tube
is sufficiently long a similar glass ferule is placed on the top of it, but if not
two or more tubes are placed one over the other with a sort of double inter-
mediate glass ferule. The wires are laid in the grooves in the glass ferules
and stretched tight. The tubes are then filled with melted bitumen and before
it has quite solidified a plug is driven in at the top to compress it into all parts
of the tube, which plug is afterwards removed. A number of pipes and wires
so prepared are laid in a trench in the ground and connected in the following
manner. A ring or disc is fitted into the ends of two adjoining pipes; this disc
has grooves to receive the wires which are joined by twisting them together or
otherwise. This disc is then surrounded with bitumen, and if necessary a joint
may be covered with bituminised cloth or paper wound round it, or the whole
joint may be covered with a collar of bituminised paper tube fixed on with
melted bitumen. Instead of glass the ferrules may be made of porcelain or
other insulating materials.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alfred Fauvin Jaloureau in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 10th June 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
FAUVIN JALOUREAU, of Paris, in the French Empire, Manufacturer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twelith day of December, in the year of our
Lord, One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-fourth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Alfred Fauvin Jaloureau, Her special licence that I, the said Alfred
Fauvin Jaloureau, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others

page_text: as I, the said Alfred Fauvin Jaloureau, 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
Ievention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS OR PROCESSES FOR HOLDING, PROTECTING
AND INSULATING SUBTERRANEOUS TELEGRAPH WIRES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Alfred Fauvin Jaloureau, myexecutors, 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 Alfred Fauvin Jaloureau, do bereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the fol-
lowing statement thereof, reference being had to the accompanying Drawing,
that is to say :-
The process which I use consists in the employment of bitumen introduced
in a hot state into tubes of cylindrical or other suitable form to fix and insulate.
the wires. Although these pipes when required may be of earthenware or other
neutral material, yet I prefer to employ the tubes of bituminised paper for which
I obtained Letters Patent dated the 23rd day of September 1858, No. 2137,
which tubes combine particular advantages from being non-conductors and
endowed with great strength and durability, inattackable by insects and
gnawing animals, and capable of sustaining great pressures without cracks
or fractures. These tubes or coverings are consequently far superior to systems.
of wires embedded in asphalte as well as to the subterranean cables in gutta.
percha enveloped in lead.
In this special application my Invention embraces not only the employment
of bitumen introduced hot into the tubes to fix and insulate the wires, but also
of particular cans of joining and of placing the wires by certain tools and
apparatus.
In Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawing is represented a vertical section
through one of my tubes in the course of being prepared.
a, a, is a table in which is fixed a slightly conical block or plug of cast
iron b, over this is placed a ring or short tube of glass, porcelain, or earthen-
ware c, shewn separately in elevation and plau in Figures 3 and 3, this ring'or
ferrule has at bottom a slight rim, and is provided with as many grooves c', cl,

page_text: as the number of wires to be insulated. A tube or pipe of any non-conducting
substance, but by preference one of my bituminous paper tubesd,shewn separ-
ately in Figures 4 and 5, is placed over the aforesaid glas, porcelain, or
If the
earthenware tube or ferule c, so that the latter fits into the end of it.
tube d is sufficiently long, another glass, porcelain, or earthenware ring
similar to c, but with the rim at top as in Figure 6 is then fitted into the
upper end of the tube as shewn in Figures 7 and S. If the tube d is too
short a double grooved glass, porcelain, or earthenware ring or ferrule c²,
Figures 1 and 10, is inserted in the upper end so as to project half ont of it.
Over this projecting portion is fixed a second tube, Figure 1, abutting on to
the tube d&e, and a simple grooved glass ring or ferrule c is inserted in
the top of the tube d¹. After fixing these grooved glass rings or ferrules in
the tubes as described the telegraphic wires are introduced into the tube in
the following manner:-The ends of these wires g,g, are attached underneath
the table a, Figurel, and they are then passed each through a separate groove
- in the glass ferrules c, c, and are attached by their upper ends to the plate /,
which is provided with a screw for stretching the wires. Melted bitumen s
is then poured into the tube d, d', so as to fill it entirely, and before it solidifies
a cast iron plug as shewn at i, Figure 11, is forced into the top of the pipe d',
so as to compress the bitumen and to leave a hole in the same when the plug
is removed as shewn in Figure 7. The wires g, g, are then cut leaving a short
length of each projecting from the end of the tube.
A number of such tubes prepared in the manner herein-before described are
placed end to end in a trench of requisite depth in the earth, and are there
joined together in the following manner:-The tubes are placed a short
distance apart as shewn in Figure 12,and a plug of non-conducting materialm
is inserted into the cavities at the end of each tube. The plug m, shewn
separately in Figures 14 and 15,is provided with a projecting rim in the centre
of its length, which rim has grooves formed upon it corresponding with those in
the rings c, c, in the ends of the tubes through which the wires are passed.
Each tube d, d, is brought close up against the rim of the plug m, which is
placed so that the grooves in the same correspond exactly with the grooves in
the rings or ferrules c, c, and consequently also with the projecting ends of the
telegraph wires. The ends of these wires are then joined together in any
convenient manner as shewn in Figures 16, 17, and 18. The wires may also
be covered with india-rubber, and the india-rubber covered with a coating o
copper by galvano-plastic as shewn in Figure 21.
To diminish as much as possible the number of connections to be made ou
the spot, a number of the prepared tubes are joined together previously, as

page_text: before described, and when on the spot the spaces between the ends of the
tubes round the discs m, Figure 12,are filled with liquid bitumen, and thejoints
are covered with bituminised cloth, or the joint is covered with a collarp, as
shewn in Figures 12 and 13.
To avoid a weakening of the electric current in consequence of too frequent
joints in the wires and tubes, the arrangements as shewn in Figures 19, 20,
and 22, may be adopted. Here a core of wood a is provided with a number
of longitudinal grooves for receiving the telegraph wires g, which are in the first
instance covered with a coating of bitumen, and the ends of which are connected
by simple juxtaposition or contact. After placing the wires in the grooves of
the core the whole is covered with a strip of bituminised paper, which is
wrapped round the core in a spiral manner as shewn in Figure 19. This core
thus insulated is placed inside the tubes of bituminized paper d, as shewn
in Figure 22,and melted bitumen is poured into the interstices so as to render
the whole a solid mass. These cylinders so prepared are then placed end to
end, taking care to place the wires in one cylinder respectively in contact with
the corresponding wires in the next cylinder.
Having now described the nature of my Invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed, what I claim is, the formation of subterraneous
telegraphic conductors by fixing and isolating telegraphic wires inside bitumi-
nised paper tubes or tubes of any other non-conducting material, of any shape
or size, specifically as herein-before described with reference to the accom-
panying Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Fauvin Jaloureau, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Sixth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
A. F. JALOUREAU. (L.S.)