SborMine ftelegrapbs. 161 



the dial, and the transmitting-crank is ro- 

 ta u-d from left to right, the receiving-pointer 

 will follow it up to the limit of its speed. In 

 Tan-milting a message the sender would turn 

 his crank, or pointer, to the first letter of the 

 word he wished to transmit, making a short 

 pause, and then move on to the next letter, and 

 ,30 on to the end of the message, making a 

 short pause on each letter. The end of a word 

 was indicated by turning the pointer to the 

 space-mark on the dial. The receiving-opera- 

 tor would read by the pauses of the needle on 

 the various letters. This was a system of read- 

 ing by sight. 



There have been many forms of this dial- 

 telegraph worked out by different inventors at 

 different times, and quite a number of them 

 were used in the old days. It was a slow proc- 

 ess of telegraphing, but it was suited to the 

 n which it flourished. One of the diffi- 

 culties of a dial-telegraph consisted in the 

 readiness with which the transmitter and re- 

 cfciver would get out of unison with each 

 other; and when this happened of course a 

 message is unintelligible, and you have to stop 

 and unify again. 



About 1869 the writer invented a dial-tele- 

 graph to obviate this difficulty. In this system 

 n Transmitter and receiver were combined in 

 one instrument, and in-tead <>f a crank there 

 buttons . Miid ihe dial in a 



