UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE
JOHN L. WAITE, OF BURLINGTON, IOWA.
Letters Patent No. 70,052, dated October 22, 1867.
IMPROVEMENT IN TELEGRAPH-INSULATORS.
The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making part of the same.
TO ALL WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: Be
it known that I, JOHN L. WAITE, of Burlington, in the county of Des
Moines, and State of Iowa, have invented a new and improved Telegraph
Insulator; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear,
end exact description thereof, which will enable others skilled in the
art to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying
drawings, forming a part of this specification. The
principal requirement for an insulator to be used for telegraph poles
and other places along the line of the telegraph is that in its
construction or formation every obstacle shall be provided to prevent
the escape of the electricity from the telegraph wires.
With the common glass insulator its insulating properties were
soon destroyed or overcome by becoming coated with moisture, and more
especially so if the glass were cracked, as the moisture upon the glass
was thus liable to be longer retained. With the "Wade insulator," commonly to known among
telegraph operators, the glass was formed with one or two corrugations
around its mouth or opening, and protected with a wooden shield, thus
producing dry lines of insulation in damp weather, but ascending
moisture would collect in them. In
my improved insulator, which may be termed a double or compound
insulator, as in itself it comprises two separate insulators, as
heretofore used, two distinct lines or means of insulation are employed,
the one through the shank by which the insulator is secured to the
telegraph pole or other place, and the other through the embedment of
the hook of the insulator on which the telegraph wire is hung or secured
within any suitable insulating substance, such as brimstone, gutta
percha, white lead, hardened coal tar, etc., as will be hereinafter
described. In accompanying
plate of drawings my improved telegraph insulator' is illustrated-- Figure
I being an exterior view of the insulator. Figure
2 a central section through the same taken in the direction of its length,
and Figure
3 a view showing the insulator applied to a pole. Similar
letters of reference indicate like parts. A,
in the drawings, represents the cup portion of the insulator, made of
iron, or other suitable metal or material; B, its shank, coated for its
whole length with gutta percha, glass, or other suitable insulating
substance, around which is formed a screw-thread, a, for screwing
it into the cross-bar of the telegraph pole. C the hook on which the
telegraph wire is hung, this hook projecting from the open end of the
iron cup A, in which it is embedded and entirely surrounded with
brimstone, gutta pereha, white lead, hardened coal tar, or other
suitable insulating medium; as shown in section in fig. 2, completely
insulating such hook from the iron cup in which it is thus embedded. From
the above description of my combined insulator, it is obvious that the
electricity in escaping from the telegraph wires may be made to
encounter not only two distinct and separate lines of insulation, but
also two different kinds of insulating substances, such as sulphur and
glass, thus more perfectly adapting the insulator to all variations in
the weather or temperature than were possible in the use of only a
single line of insulation or only one insulating material; and,
furthermore, in case the iron cup should be damaged or cracked, the
insulation is still preserved, as the insulated shank is still intact,
the importance of which is manifest. I
do not wish to limit myself to the use of any particular insulating
medium or substances for my improved insulator, as any of the well-known
materials suitable therefor may be used. I
claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent-- The
combination of the cup A, having shank B and hook C, or its equivalent,
when the latter is insulated from the former, and the shank of the
former, coated with gutta percha or any other suitable insulating medium
or material, substantially as herein described and for the purpose
specified.
JOHN L. WAITE. Witnesses: JNO. C. POWER, JAS. B. ADAMS.
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