Great Facts: A Popular History and Description of the Most Remarkable Inventions During the Present CenturyBakewell, Frederick C. (Frederick Collier)
History
Great Facts: A Popular History and Description of the Most Remarkable Inventions During the Present Century
Bakewell, Frederick C. (Frederick Collier)
Inventions
As electro-chemical action takes effect much more rapidly than the
mechanical movement of an indenting point, Mr. Bain's telegraph could
work much faster than Mr. Morse's. We have been informed that as many
as 1,000 letters per minute have occasionally been transmitted by
this means from Manchester to London. The disadvantage attending that
mode of transmission arises from the tedious process of punching the
message preparatory to transmission; and though circumstances may arise
in which it would be of great importance to adopt this rapid system
of transmission with a single wire, it has been yet but little used
in this country by the Electric Telegraph Company, who purchased Mr.
Bain's patent for £10,000.
Another modification of Mr. Morse's telegraph, which has been more
extensively adopted in England, consists in merely substituting marks
made on paper by electro-chemical decomposition for those indented
by pressure. It has been found desirable in practice, however, to
introduce an auxiliary electro-magnet, called a "picker," for making
and breaking contact, by which arrangement the dotted marks can be
made by a local battery, and any required amount of electric power be
obtained. The marks produced in this manner are more distinct, and
are more quickly made, than by mechanical pressure. By a more recent
application of Mr. Morse's system, the marks are made on paper with ink
flowing through a glass pen, in the same manner as in the telegraph of
M. Schweigger, already noticed. As the strip of paper is moved along,
a continuous line is thus drawn on the paper. When no signals are
being transmitted the line is straight, but when an electric current
is sent through the wire, it brings into action an electro-magnet,
which attracts the penholder on one side, and alters the direction of
the mark. The transmission is effected by making and breaking contact
with a key, and the continuance of the divergence of the mark from
its normal direction is regulated by the duration of pressure on the
key. The symbols are thus made by deviations from the straight line,
of different lengths and of varied combinations. Practical application
alone can determine whether this mode of making the marks possesses any
advantage over Mr. Morse's original plan. The patent for this telegraph
was granted to Mr. Wilkins in 1854, but a similar instrument, applied
to the notation of astronomical observations, was shown in the American
department of the Great Exhibition of 1851.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account