File:EB1911 Telegraph - submarine cable - manufacture.jpg

English: Diagram of the manufacture of submarine telegraph cable: the copper strand is passed through a vessel A containing melted Chatterton's compound, then through the cylinder C, in which a quantity of gutta-percha, purified by repeated washing in hot water, by mastication, and by filtering through wire-gauze filters, is kept warm by a steam-jacket. As the wire is pulled through, a coating of gutta-percha, the thickness of which is regulated by the die D, is pressed out of the cylinder by applying the requisite pressure to the piston P. The newly coated wire is passed through a long trough T, containing cold water, until it is sufficiently cold to allow it to be safely wound on a bobbin B′. This operation completed, the wire is wound from the bobbin B′ on to another, and at the same time carefully examined for air-holes or other flaws, all of which are eliminated. The coated wire is treated in the same way as the copper strand—the die D, or another of the same size, being placed at the back of the cylinder and a larger one substituted at the front. A second coating is then laid on, and after it passes through a similar process of examination a third coating is applied, and so on until the requisite number is completed.