Abstract: In an accumulating and a splicing apparatus (30), a nearly exhausted tape (31) is advanced at a line speed along a path which extends between two groups (49, 51) of rollers. One of the groups of rollers is moved upwardly to a position above the other group of rollers and a length of the nearly exhausted tape is accumulated in a sinusoidal path just prior to splicing. The nearly exhausted tape is clamped at an input side of the accumulator after which a severing device (104) is moved transversely across that tape to form a trailing end portion. The severing device is allowed to be spring-returned to a position above the nearly exhausted tape and to one side thereof which permits joining facilities to carry a leading end of a tape (35) of a new supply downwardly to be spliced to the trailing end portion of the nearly exhausted tape.

Abstract: A cable which is suitable for use as a riser cable in buildings comprises a plurality of conductors each of which is covered with a composite insulation. The composite insulation comprises an inner layer of an expanded polyethylene material and an outer layer of a polyvinyl chloride material with the percent expansion of the inner layer and the thickness of the outer layer being such as to optimize several cable parameters. The resultant cable is one which has excellent fire-retardant properties such as, for example, an unusually low fuel content. Advantageously, this same cable lends itself to color coding for inside wiring and is capable of having a relatively high pair count density. All these parameters are optimized within the framework of specific transmission requirements.