"goo" inside cable insolation?

the other day i came across some kind of cable (coiled up against a tree in some local woods - seriously!) and it was made like this: 1" thick total... a plastic or poly shell - then some goo which binded light copper to another layer of plastic shell - then a ton more goo all over about 20 individually insulated pieces of small gauge copper wire.... so my question is what the hell was that goo/slime all over the inside??? have been scrapping wire for like 6 years, never seen it before, and it got all over everything, heh... also never seen cable insolated with a layer of copper sheeting either.... what kind of cable was that??
$26 #1 copper, $18 insolated copper wire.

semiconductor and shielding. I've only put in new cable, and the semiconductor looks more like a semihard foam, but maybe after aging and being exposed to too much water it turns to goo, dunno. When being installed, they are very careful to not let moisture get into the wire. One one job, we were not allowed to terminate the wire if the humidity was too high. It is used a lot in the larger high voltage cables that are insulated.

Most likely telephone line. 20 lines is called 20 pair telephone line. We mainly dig up 200-1200 pair at my construction job. The goo will not deter from the price that much. We got $1.00 per pound last year and $1.90 per pound this last fall. Don't try stripping it, it sucks.

The goo means that the cable was for direct underground burial (typically). If there are 20 wires in it, then it is a ten pair phone line.

thanks guys, was curious. someone at a yard said it was underground tv cable...so i guess that slime, which looks like vasoline with a more chemical smell, has something to do with it being underground.... they didnt care about the slime, got my usual $1.25 for insulated

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Originally Posted by parrothead

The goo means that the cable was for direct underground burial (typically). If there are 20 wires in it, then it is a ten pair phone line.

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That's exactly right. It's called flooded cable and it's rated to be buried. That's all.

Yep! That's the word. I can't believe that I did not recall that term. I retired from CATV.