Description of the I, nve~tor Edited by the Examiners.
(" C" of the Section's Classification.)
This cable may comprise any number of conductors desired, and of any size required. When a single conductor is used, a bare or cottoncovered wire, insulated in any of tile usual ways, is threaded through small disks or buttons of vitreous material, such as porcelain or glass, so that the conductor throughout its entire length is covered by the incombustible buttons which are about half an inch in length and oneeighth of an inch in thickness. The conductor thus surrounded is passed through a compound of insulating material and through a lead press machine which encloses the whole in a lead covering or pipe, so that, when finished, the cable or conductor is first enclosed in a braided covering saturated with an insulating compound, then surrounded by the incombustible disks or buttons, again covered with an insulating compound which is forced in hot as the lead pipe is formed alound it. The latter filling occupies all the interstices and space between the conductor and the vitreous buttons and between the buttons and the pipe, thus leaving no air spaces aml thereby preventing condensation of mo'isture. The incombustible material separating the conductor ti'om the pipe, renders the transmission of the most powerful currents absolutely safe, since under no circumstances can the conductor come in electrical contact with the pipe. Should the conductor become heated the soluble insulating compound would be united more firmly, closing up any cracks that might have occurred from low temperature or contraction.
When a series of conductors are used they are all threaded through separate holes in the same disk or button, and thus mechanically separated from each other and i~om the pipe in which 'they are enclosed.
This cable is practically indestructible, as its durability is only limited to that of the enclosing pipe, which may be of lead or iron. When lead is used the cable may be constructed in lengths of onequarter or half a mile without splicing, and coiled on a reel, the vitreous disks admitting of flexing to any extent necessary.