Varley's Patent: England (UK)

England

C. F. Varley was an engineer (electrician at the time) involved in early telegraph work in England and had numerous patents, but one covers the construction of an insulator that was heavily used in England as well as exported to many countries. Here is an excerpt from Scientific American in 1868: "Varley's insulator is that most commonly employed in England. It consists of two separate red-earthen ware cups, cemented together with sulphur. The outer cup is provided with a groove to which the line wire is bound; in the recess of the inner cup a wrought iron bolt is cemented, by which the insulator is attached to the bracket on the post. A further insulation is obtained by coating the stalk with vulcanite. The rim of the outer cupis rounded off inside. The purpose of this is to avoid the sprinkling of the interior with rain-water, when a drop, hanging upon the bottom rim, is blown off by the wind. When a strong current of air separates a drop of water from a sharp corner, the drop is never carried bodily off, but bursts in the direction of the current. With the form given to the rim by Mr. Varley, however, when a drop happens to hang on that side from which the wind comes, it is driven a little way up between the two cups, and does not burst."

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