APPLICATION OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 343 



2d. It was very important that the register should not 

 merely secure accuracy, but should also be reduced to a 

 compact and convenient form. 



The first condition, that of uniform motion of the 

 fillet of paper, was very far from being secured with 

 the ordinary telegraph apparatus. .In this apparatus, 

 the only arrangement for producing uniform motion 

 consists of a fly, which, revolving with great rapidity, 

 and meeting resistance from the air, opposes the descent 

 of the moving weight. Now, when in telegraphing, the 

 graver is pressed against the surface of the paper, the 

 friction of the machinery is increased, and by this means 

 the velocity of the paper is diminished, and the press- 

 ure may easily be increased so as to stop the motion 

 entirely. The very operation, therefore, of registering 

 dots on the paper, introduces an irregularity in the 

 motion of the fillet. Now, it is indispensable to the 

 proposed use of the apparatus, that the electric circuit 

 should be closed during the principal part of every 

 second; for, when the circuit is open, it is not in the 

 power of the operator to print a dot on the paper. 

 The result was, that when Dr. Locke's clock came to 

 be used in connection with the Morse registering ap- 

 paratus, the graver was kept pressed against the fillet of 

 paper about nine-tenths of every second, by which means 

 the motion of the fillet was rendered very slow and 

 irregular; but as soon as the circuit was broken, the 

 paper moved forward as by a sudden impulse. The first 

 improvement consisted in reversing the action of the 



