HISTORY AND PROGRESS. 



85 



the coils of the electro-magnet M, whose armature is 

 employed to mark the paper and record the signals given 

 from the distant station. On pressing down the key K, 

 for example, the contact between the lever and the point 2 

 is interrupted and that at 1 established, the current of the 

 battery B goes from c through the contact point 1 and front 



tine, 



Fig. 44. 



part of the lever to 3, where it enters the line L. Arriving 

 by L' the current passes over K', from the middle 3, to the 

 back contact point 2, and from this, the key being at rest, 

 it traverses the coils of the electro-magnet M', and then 

 goes through the earth back again to the battery B. 



59. In construction, the Morse instruments are very 

 various, nearly every maker having peculiar arrangements 

 of his own. The earlier apparatus in America and England 

 were homespun, and of little mechanical merit as specimens 

 of art, nor did they advance very considerably beyond 

 this until within the last few years. In the hands of the 

 French and Germans mechanicians, however, the instrument 

 reached a high degree of completeness, and has secured for 



