US586700A - Electric-line insulator - Google Patents

Description

No Model.) J J TRACY ELEGTRIG LINE INSULATOR.

No. 586,700. Patented July 20, 1897..

UNITED STATES PATENT OEEICE.

JOHN J. TRACY, OF HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT.

ELECTRIC-LINE INSULATOR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 586,700, dated July 20, 1897.

Application filed May 27, 1897. Serial No. 638,338. (No model.)

To Cb whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, JOHN J. TRACY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Hartford, in the county of Hartford and State of Connocticut, have invented certain new and use ful Improvements in Electric-Line Insulators, of which the following is a specification.

The invention relates to the class of overhead electric insulators which are provided forholding telephone, telegraph, signal, light, power, and railway wires.

The object of the invention is the prod uction of a simple and inexpensive insulator for holding such wires which is so constructed that when in use and attached to a flexible, swaying, or somewhat yielding support the wire which it holds will not be subjected to tensile strains by the movements of the support.

The embodiment of the invention illustrated in the accompanying drawings has a base which is adapted to be solidly attached to the support and a bracket with an insulated wire-holding part movably connected with the base, as more particularly hereinafter described, and pointed out in the claims.

Of the views, Figure .l is a front elevation of such an insulator. Fig. 2 is a rear elevation. Fig. 3 is a side elevation, and Fig. 4. is a vertical section of the same. The base or frame 1 is made of any suitable material, preferablya tough cast metal, in any desired outline, and is provided with suitable perforations 2, whereby it may be spiked or otherwise firmly secured to the trunk, limb, or bough of a tree or to a flexible or somewhat yielding pole or other support. Movably connected with this base is a bracket or arm 8. In the form shown this bracket is connected by a pivot at with the base, so that it may have a lateral oscillation. Projecting rearwardly from the back of the bracket, near the end opposite the pivot, into a curved mortise 5 in the base is a lug G. The mortise is formed on the arc of a circle the center of which is the axis of the pivot 4, and the end of the lug is bent behind the edge of a wall of the mortise, so the movable end of the bracket cannot be pulled from the base when it is subjected to strain.

The outer end of the arm of the bracket, which mayextend in any desired direction, is

preferably provided with a screw-thread, and fitted upon this is an insulating-cap 7. The cap 7 may be an ordinary interiorly-threaded glass insulator, having the usual moistureshedding skirts, or it may be a speciallyshaped cap secured to the end of the arm by any othercommon means, or it may be formed of composition and molded onto the end of the arm of the bracket.

The base of this insulator can be nailed, spiked, or otherwise firmly secured to the trunk, limb, or bough of a tree or to any other yielding support and then the wire secured to the insulating-cap in the ordinary manner. hen the trunk, limb, or bough of the tree or other support to which the base is attached moves or sways back and forth, as influenced by wind, the wire held by the insulating-cap is not alternately pulled taut on one side and slackened on the other, and thus is not subjected to tensile strains, which, if they do not break the wire immediately, so impair the strength of the wire that in a short time it gives way, as is the case with the wire held by a common insulator fixed to a swaying support, so as to move with every motion of the support. The wire holds the insulating-cap and bracket-arm of this insulator stationary, and the trunk, limb, bough, or other support is free to move and sway with the base of the insulator without drawing the loosely-connected bracket and insulating-cap, for the base has a free movement with relation to the bracket which it supports except as held by the pivot which connects the parts.

This insulator is simple in construction, inexpensive to manufacture, and easily arranged for use.

A wire held by such an insulator when attached to a tree or swaying support is not subjected to tensile strains incident to the moving of the support, therefore has considerably longer life than a wire held by an insulator that is fixed to a swaying support and is stretched first in one direction and then the other by every movement of the swaying support.

I claim as my invention- V 1. An insulator having a base adapted to be secured to a support that is liable to move, and a bracket with an insulating wire-holdin g part lnovably connected with the base and adapted to be held stationary by the wire that is connected with it when the base moves with its support, substantially as specified.

An insulator having a base adapted to be secured to a support that is liable to move, a bracket inoyably connected to the base, and an insulating-cap secured upon the end of the bracket and adapted to be held stationary by the Wire With which it is connected when the base moves with its support, substantially as specified.

3. An insulator having a base, a bracket connected With the base, at one end by a pivot and at the other end by a lug, and an insusulating-cap connected with the bracket, substantially as specified.

JOHN J. TRACY.

Witnesses:

II. R. Wrnnnms, E. V. Fo'll-rnru'unn.

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