US287236A - Metallic insulating-covering for telegraph-wi res - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

, E. CLARK.

METALLIC INSULATING COVERING FOR TELEGRAPH WIRES.

N0. 287,236. Patented Oct. 23, 1883..

m 0 T N E V N I ATTORNEYS.

WITNESSES M 5 m/ UNITE STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EDIVARD CLARK, OF CORNVALL, NEIV YORK.

METALLIC INSULATING-COVERING FOR TELEGRAPH-WIRES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 287,236, dated Cctober 23, 1883. Application filed September 10, 1883. (No model.)

To aZZ whom, it may concern Be it known that I, EDWARD CLARK, of Cornwall, in the county of Orange and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Metallic Insulating- Coverings for Telegraphires and other Electric lVires, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

Figure l is a side view of a piece of my improved wire, showing the various parts. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section of the same. Fig. 3 is a cross-section of the same.

The object of this invention is tov facilitate the handling and laying of electric wires, and promote the durability of such wires, while se curing a perfect insulation.

The invention consists in a metallic covering for electric wires, made by covering the wires with a coating of copper, coating the copper-coated wires with a compound of copper and Babbitt metal, and covering the said compound coating with a coating of lead. The wires thus prepared are covered with rubber or other moisture-excluding material, and iiicased in a metallic tube, to adapt the said wires to be laid under ground and-in water, as will be hereinafter fully described.

In carrying my invention into practical use I melt a quantity of soit copper in a suitable vessel, and in another suitable vessel I melt soft copper and Babbitt metal in equal quantities. The wire, A, to be insulated is drawn through diluted sulphuric acid, and is then immediately drawn through the melted copper one, two, or more times, to insure the coating of the whole surface of the wire with copper, I). The copper-coated wire, when cold, or at any convenient time thereafter, is drawn through the melted copper and Babbitt metal three times, more or less, until a coating, 0, of the desired thickness has been formed upon the wire. \Vhen cold, the coated wire is drawn one or more times through melted lead, to form a thin coating, D, oi'lead over the surface of the said coated wire. As thus prepared, the wire is adapted for use when suspended upon poles or other supports, and when thus used requires no glass or other insulators.

To adapt the wire for use under ground and in water, the wire coated as hereinbefore described is coated with rubber, E, paper-pulp, or other moisture-exchuling material, by any of the processes now in common use; or the wire can be coated with a compound formed of dissolved rubber, ten pounds powdered leather, four pounds; cotton flock, one pound; rosin, four pounds, and palm-oil, one pound. In preparing this compound the rosin is melted in a suitable vessel, the other ingredients are then added, and the whole is stirred until the said ingredients are thoroughly mixed. The wire is then coated with the compound in the manner hereinbefore described, or by any other suitable machinery. The wire thus prepared is then drawn through a tube, F, made sufficiently large to allow the said'wire to be drawn through it readily. This outer tube, F, is formed of lead, ten pounds; soft copper, one pound, and Babbitt metal, two pounds, melted together and thoroughly mixed, and then made into a tube in the ordinary manner. If de sired, the coated wire may be covered witln cloth before being drawn through the tube F, to guard against any possible injury to the coating of the wire while being drawn through the tube. Vith this construction the copper coating B gives a good conductingsurface to the wire A, the compound coating 0 protects the wire from dampness, and at the same time increases the conducting capacity of the wire, and the lead coating D insulates the said wire.

The noirconducting coating E protects the wire from dampness, and the covering-tube F protects the said wirefrom accidental injury. The two coverings E F adapt the wire to be laid in water and under ground.

\Vires thus prepared can belaid side by side and across each other without the escape of any part of the electric currents and without developing inductioncurrents in any of the adjacent wires.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. A metallic covering for electric wires,

made substantially as herein shown and de- 1 of the moisture-excluding covering E and the scribed, and consisting of the copper coating 13, inclosing-tube F, substantially asherein shown 10 applied to the wire, the copper and Babbittand described, whereby the wire is adapted to metal coating 0, applied to the copper-coated be laid under ground and in water, as set forth.

wire, and the lead coating D, as set forth. EDWARD CLARK.

2. The combination, with the wire A, pro- WVitnesses: vided with a copper coating, 13, a copper and JAMES T. GRAHAM,

Babbitt-metal coating, 0, and alead coating, D, O. SEDGWICK.

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