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.