United States Patent: Antenna Strain Insulator

The invention to be hereinafter described relates to insulators and more particularly to strain insulators for wire antennas. It has long been common practice to use with antenna wires on airplanes the well known porcelain or ceramic insulator, the wire ends being looped through or about the insulator, and brought back and twisted about the wire to tie, anchor or securely attach or fasten the insulator to the antenna. The produces small wire-end surfaces or other small wire surfaces, where the wires are would or twisted, which under certain atmospheric conditions are favorable to corona discharges. When the corona discharge is produced on a place it frequently completely obscures, submerges or, in substance, blanks out the signals of the radio so that the radio set of the plane becomes, practically, useless. The atmospheric conditions conducive to such corona discharge are frequently encountered by airplanes, especially when flying at high altitudes. Obviously, it is extremely important that the radio sets of planes should function well under such adverse conditions. The main objects of the present invention are to overcome the above and other objections and provide a simple, efficient, and compact strain insulator which may be produced in quantity at low cost