372 



Morsels Electro Magnetic Telegraph. 



Vol. VIII. 



as the other. At Washington the return 

 wire is soldered to a slim flattened slip of 

 brass, the one end of which is fastened upon 

 a pedestal, and the other end, with an ivory 

 button upon it, stands over a brass plate of 

 the size of a five cent piece, without touch- 

 ing it. To the under side of the brass plate 

 is soldered a wire, which extends to the 

 other pole of the battery. The battery being 

 now ready for action, you have but to place 

 your finger upon the key and press it until 

 it touches the brass plate below, and in- 

 stantly the galvanic fluid flies its 80 miles. 

 Take oft' the pressure of your finger, and 

 instantly the fluid has ceased to flow. 



We have alluded to the bar of iron bent 

 in the form of a horse-shoe, at Baltimore, 

 around which the main wires are coiled. It 

 is perhaps not generally known, that if a 

 bar of soft iron is encircled with copper wire 

 wound with some insulating substance like 

 bonnet wire, and a current of galvanic fluid 

 passed through the wires thus surrounding 

 the iron, it becomes instantly a magnet. If 

 the current is made to cease, that instant 

 the magnetism of the iron is gone. If over 

 the ends of the two prongs of the bar of iron, 

 where it projects beyond the coils of wire 

 around it, a small flattened straight bar of 

 similar soft iron is placed, being hung upon 

 one end of a lever, and the lever supported 

 delicately upon pivots, so as to rise and fall 

 — it is clear that whenever the bent iron is 

 made a magnet, the iron directly over it, 

 upon the lever, will be attracted down with 

 considerable force. The lever recedes when 

 the magnetism is destroyed by means of a 

 spring. On the other end of this lever are 

 three steel points pointing upwards, and di- 

 rectly over them is a steel roller with grooves 

 turned in it, corresponding to the three points, 

 so that when they strike the roller by the 

 power of the magnet, each of them falls into 

 its own groove. 



Between the three points and the steel rol- 

 ler, the paper passes, at an uniform rate, being 

 drawn along by two rollers, connected with 

 the clock work, which is driven by a weight. 

 The paper is in rolls 14 inches in diameter 

 and one and a half inches wide, forming a 

 ribbon of a continuous length. This roll is 

 placed upon a spool which turns easily upon 

 its axis in front of the pen, as the paper is 

 drawn oft" by the movement of the clock 

 work. The alphabet is as follows: 



AB CDEFGJ H 

 lYKLMNO PQ 

 R SZ T U V W X 



Numerals. 

 12 3 4 







We have now the battery and key at 

 Washington. The wires from Washington 

 to Baltimore, and the magnet and writing' 

 apparatus at Baltimore. At every touch of 

 the key at Washington upon the plate be- 

 low, however rapid, the fluid passes, and 

 ceases to pass, to Baltimore and back. At 

 every passage of the fluid, the pen, by the 

 attraction of the iron bar to the ends of the 

 magnet, is brought up against the paper 

 with such force as to indent it, and instantly 

 recedes — so that the paper moving over the 

 pen, receives a succession of dots, and an 

 intermediate space. By holding the key- 

 down a little longer, a line is marked upon 

 the paper. By this means, at the option of 

 the operator at Washington, dots, spaces, 

 and lines of any combination are made. upon 

 the paper in Baltimore, with perfect ease. 

 At Washington the operator desires to in- 

 form his correspondent at Baltimore, that 

 "The Senate is in Executive Session." Ex- 

 press thus: Sen. Ex. Sess. With the key 

 he makes first eight rapid touches upon the 

 brass plate, which at Baltimore, notifies the 

 attendant that a message is about to be sent, 

 by the ringing of a bell, which motion is 

 produced in the same way as that for mov- 

 ing the pen. He then goes on to make . . . 

 dots in rapid succession, with spaces between 

 them, a longer space, a dot, a longer space, a 

 line, space and dot, thus is written ... . — . 

 Sen.; then follow by the same mode the 

 dots, spaces, longer spaces, and lines to fin- 

 ish the sentence, . . — . . Ex 



. . . sess. After the sentence is completed, 

 m the same rapid succession eight dots are 

 made to signify that it is finished. 



The clock work which moves the paper 

 is started by the writer at Washington, by 

 his removing, through the agency of a lever 

 moved by the magnet, a break falling upon 

 a smooth roller on the little fly of the clock 

 train — and is stopped after the end of the 

 message has run out three inches from the 

 pen, by the break's falling upon the roller 

 through the action of the clock work itself. 



We have now described how messages 

 may be sent from Washington to Baltimore, 

 and it may be asked, hov; is an answer re- 

 turned"? Imagine the same machinery, as 

 has now been described, reversed, with the 

 exception that there is no battery in Balti- 

 more, and the whole is complete tor sending 

 and receiving communications, either way. 



We have said that from one of the poles 



