1 



TELEGRAPH, ELECTRIC. 



TELEGRAPH, ELECTRIC. 



92 



the necessary electrical current* being developed by an ordinary voltaic 

 battery, or, rtill better, by induction from a permanent magnet. Thin 

 telegraph is being rapidly adopted in London, where it forma the 

 London District Telegraph ; and also throughout the country by mer- 

 eh mu and manufacturers, as a means of communication at their office* 

 and establishment* at a distance; also from one portion of a large 

 warehouse to another, between the several heads of departments and 

 the manager's room, through mills and public works, or wherever the 

 constant tranamisaion and receipt of intelligence i of importance. 

 This system has been in use at the London Docks during the last few 

 yean, and also serves to communicate between the Houses of Parlia- 

 ment and her Majesty's printers in Shoe Lane. All we can pretend to 

 do in this place is to give a brief outline of the more important fea- 

 tures of this invention. It is described as Wheatstone'a Automatic 

 Printing Telegraph, and is capable of printing 500 letters per minute. 

 The order and succession of the electric currents are determined by 

 perforated bands of paper, somewhat after the manner of the cards in 

 a Jacquard loom. The different letters are represented by groups of 

 points, y. 16, and these, when arranged for a message, are separated 



He. K. 



A B CDEFC H IJ KLMNOP&R STUVWX Y Z 



by smaller points, .*?;/. 17, so as to prevent any mistake from the 

 coalescence of adjacent letters, and the characters are printed without 

 adding to the weight or causing any resistance in the moving parts of 

 the electro-magnets. The invention consists of a new combination of 

 Fig. 17. 



O O OO O OoO O 



W HEATSTONE'INVENTOR 



mechanism, for the purpose of transmitting messages previously pre- 

 pared through a telegraphic circuit, and causing them to be printed at 

 a distant station. Long strips of paper are perforated by a machine, 

 provided with apertures so grouped as to represent the letters of the 

 alphabet and other signs (fy. 17) : a strip thus prepared is placed in an 

 instrument associated with a source of electric power, which on being 

 set in motion moves it along, and causes it to act on two pins, in such 

 a manner that when one of them is elevated the current is transmitted 

 to the telegraphic circuit in one direction, and when the other is 

 elevated it is transmitted in the reverse direction : the elevations and 

 depressions of these pins are governed by the apertures and intervening 

 intervals. These currents following each other indifferently in these 

 two opposite directions act upon a writing instrument at a distant 

 station in such a manner as to produce corresponding marks on a slip 

 of paper (jvj. 18) moved by appropriate mechanism, 

 fig. 18. 



W H E A T STO N E 



I N V E .N T O R 



Each part of this telegraphic system is stated by the inventor to 

 have its independent originality and to be capable of association 

 with other forms of apparatus already known. The first of these 

 inventions is an instrument called a Perforator for piercing the slips of 

 paper in the order required to form the message. The slip passes 

 through a guiding groove, at the bottom of which is an opening large 

 enough to admit of the to-and-fro motion of the upper end of the 

 frame containing three punches on a level. Each of these, punches, 

 however, may be separately elevated by the pressure of a finger-key, 

 and at the moment of its elevation two different movements are 

 successively produced. 1st, a clip is raised, which holds the paper 

 firmly in its position ; 2nd, the frame containing the three punches 

 advances, by which the punch which is raised carries the ribbon of 

 paper forward the proper distance; during the reaction of the key 

 consequent on the removal of the pressure, the clip first fastens the 

 paper and then the frame falls back to its normal position. The two 

 sternal keys and punches) are employed to make the holes, which 

 grouped together represent letters and other characters, and the middle 

 punch makes the hole* which mark the intervals between the letters. 

 A simple addition to the perforator enables a printed message which 

 has been received to be retransmitted to a more distant station, 

 without any translation or knowledge of the meaning of the message. 

 The printed bud passM between two rollers, one of which is moveable 

 by a finger-screw, so as to cause the characters to pass successively 

 before the eye* of the operator. The keys of the perforator are acted 

 upon with the right-hand and the finger-screw with the left ; as the 

 character, successively appear the keys are pressed down in the order 

 of the points of which the letters consist, an operation which scarcely 

 requires any skill to perform, and which needs no change in the 

 alphabet usually employed, the points at one side representing the 

 sbott dashes, and those at the other side the long dashes, the order 

 usually observed remaining the same. 



The second apparatus is the Trammilltr, which receives the strips of 

 paper as prepared by the perforator Mid transmit* the currents pro- 



duced by the electro-motor in the order and direction corresponding to 

 the holes perforated in the slip. This it effects by mechanism some- 

 what similar to that of the perforator. An eccentric produces and 

 regulates three distinct movements. 1st, the to-and-fro movement of 

 a small frame which contains a groove to receive the strip of , 

 and carry it forward; 2nd, the rising and falling of a spring -flip, 

 which holds the paper firmly during the receding motion, but 

 it to move freely during the advancing motion ; Sraly, the simultaneous 

 elevation of three wires placed parallel to each other, resting at one of 

 their ends over the axis of the eccentric, and their free ends entering 

 corresponding holes in the grooved frame. These three wires are not 

 fixed to the axis of the eccentric, but each of them rests against it by 

 the upward pressure of a spring, so that when a light presr. 

 exerted on the free ends of either of them it is capable of 

 separately depressed. When the slip of paper is not inserted, and the 

 eccentric is in action, a pin attached to each of the external wires 

 touches, during the advancing and receding motions of the frame, a 

 different spring, and an arrangement is adopted by means of insulation 

 and contacts properly applied, by which, while one of the wires is 

 elevated and the other remains depressed, the current passes from the 

 voltaic battery to the telegraphic circuit ill one direction, and passes 

 in the other direction when the wire before elevated is depressed, and 

 rite vend ; but while both wires are elevated or depressed the passing 

 of the current is interrupted. When the prepared slip of paper is 

 inserted in the groove and moved forward, whenever the end of one of 

 the wires enters an aperture in its corresponding row, the current 

 passes in one direction, and when the end of the other wire enters an 

 aperture in the other row it passes in the other direction. By this 

 means the currents are made to succeed each other automatically in 

 their proper order and direction, to give the requisite variety of signals. 

 The middle wire only acts as a guide during the operation of the cur- 

 rent. The wheel which drives the eccentric may be moved by the 

 hand or by any motive power. Were the movements of the trans- 

 mitter effected by machinery, then any number might be attended to 

 by one or two assistants. Instead of a voltaic battery, a magneto- 

 electric, or an electro-magnetic machine may be used as the source of 

 electric power, in which case the transmitter and the magneto-electric, 

 or electro-magnetic machine form a single apparatus, moved by the 

 same power, and so adapted to each other that the currents are pro- 

 duced at the moments when the pins of the transmitter enter the 

 apertures of the perforated paper. The transmitter requires only a 

 single telegraphic wire. 



The third apparatus is the Recording or Printin;/ ajifxtratutt, which 

 prints or impresses legible marks on a strip of paper corresponding in 

 their arrangement with the apertures in the perforated paper. The pens 

 or styles are elevated and depressed by their connection with the mov- 

 ing parts of electro-magnets. The pens are entirely independent of 

 each other in their action, and are so arranged that when the current 

 passes through the coils of the electro-magnet in one direction, one of 

 the pens is depressed, and when it passes in the contrary direction the 

 other pen is depressed ; when the currents cease, light springs restore 

 the pens to their usual elevated positions. The method of supplying 

 the pens with ink depends on the principle that a liquid will not flow 

 from a capillary opening unless it be electrified. Accordingly a shallow 

 reservoir is made in a piece of metal, gilt within, and at the bottom of 

 this reservoir are two capillary holes ; the ends of the pens are placed 

 immediately above these small holes, which they enter when the 

 electro-magnets act upon them, carrying with them a sufficient charge 

 of ink to make a legible mark on the strip of paper which passes 

 beneath them. The motion of the strip is produced and regulated by 

 apparatus similar to that employed in other register or printing tele- 

 graphs. Among the auxiliary improvements is a Trandnlur, for 

 converting the points or marks into the ordinary alphabetic characters. 

 In this instrument there are nine finger-stops in two parallel rows of 

 four each and the remaining one is placed separately. There is also a 

 wheel on the circumference of which are placed at equal distances 

 thirty types, representing the letters of the alphabet and other 

 characters. Other mechanism is so disposed and connected thereto, 

 that when the keys of the upper row ore depressed the wheel is made to- 

 advance one, two, four, or eight steps or letters, and when the keys of 

 the lower row are depressed the wheel advances two, four, eight, or 

 sixteen steps respectively. By this arrangement, when the stops are 

 touched successively in the order in which the points are printed on 

 the paper, touching the first stop for one point, the first and second 

 for two points, Ac., and selecting the stops of the upper or lower row, 

 according as the point is in the upper or lower row of the printed 

 ribbon, the type wheel will be brought into the proper position for 

 placing the letter corresponding to the succession of points over a 

 ribbon of paper. The ninth stop, when it is pressed down, acts BO as 

 to impress the type on the paper, to cause the advance of the paper, in 

 order to bring a fresh place beneath the typo wheel, and subsequently 

 to restore the type wheel to its initial position. 



Professor Wheatstone remarks, that for the profitable workin 

 telegraph" line, the operator should manipulate as rapidly on : 

 sistent with the correct transmission of the message ; but this n 

 skill, even when the language of the despatch is known, but in a 

 language unknown to the operator, or in cipher, he must proceed with 

 caution and slowness. Under the new system the prepared messages 



