The American Electro Magnetic Telegraph: With the Reports of Congress, and a Description of All Telegraphs Known, Employing Electricity or GalvanismVail, Alfred
History
The American Electro Magnetic Telegraph: With the Reports of Congress, and a Description of All Telegraphs Known, Employing Electricity or Galvanism
Vail, Alfred
Telegraph -- History
There is an advantage in dispensing
with the use of the metallic wedge, which is liable to be forgotten by
the operator. Third. The attendant may occasionally leave the room, and
is not required to be in constant waiting, as the clock work is put in
motion and stopped by the operator at the other end, and the message
written without his presence. But in the first and second arrangement,
the apparatus for putting in motion and stopping the clock work, is
entirely useless. The attendant being obliged to put it in motion and
stop it himself.
We will now proceed to describe the modus operandi of transmitting
intelligence from one station to another; the arrangement being as
in figure 14; _k_ is the key of the operator at Baltimore, and _m′_
represents his register, or writing desk, at Washington; _k′_ is the
key of the operator at Washington, and _m_ his register, or writing
desk, at Baltimore. Each has the entire control of his respective
register, excepting, only, that each operator winds up the other’s
instrument, and keeps it supplied with paper. It will also be borne
in mind, that each circuit is complete, and everywhere continuous,
except at the keys, which are open. If, then, the hammer is brought in
sudden contact with the anvil, and permitted as quickly as possible to
break its contact by the action of the spring, and resume its former
position, the galvanic fluid, generated at the battery, flies its round
upon the circuit, no matter how quick that contact has been made and
broken. It has made the iron of the electro magnet a magnet; which
has attracted to it the armature of the pen lever; the pen lever, by
its steel pen points, has indented the paper, and the pen lever has,
also, by the connecting wire with the break; taken it from the friction
wheel; this has released the clock work, which, through the agency of
the weight, has commenced running, and the two rollers have supplied
the pen with paper. But, as only one touch of the key has been made,
the clock work soon stops again, if no other touches are made, by the
action of the break upon the friction wheel.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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