CHAP. III.] 



ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHY. 



551 



deflections to the right or left are marked by the figures 3 and 1, and 

 are limited on each side by an ivory button. At the bottom is the 

 handle of the manipulator, which the sender turns to the left or to 

 the right according to the direction of the deflection he wishes to 

 produce. By combining the order and number of the deflections of 

 the needle to the right or the left 1, 2, 3 or 4 movements are suffi- 

 cient to represent the letters of the alphabet, the 10 digits, and 

 signs in common use. The following are the signs agreed upon in 

 England : 



The figures are indicated by the number and order of the deflec- 

 tions to right or left of the lower point of the needle. The clerks 



BELGIAN. ENGLISH. 



FIG. 351. Belgian and English vocabularies of the single needle telegraph. 



pass from letters to figures and from figures to letters by a precon- 

 certed signal. We need scarcely say that these combinations of 

 signs are altogether arbitrary thus the signals adopted in Belgium 

 for this system of telegraphy were different to those just described, 

 but the mechanism is not changed on that account. 



