US158157A - Improvement in transmitters for automatic telegraphs - Google Patents

Description

c; WHEATSTGNE.

Transmitters for Automatic Telegraphs. NoLl'5'8,l5 7

Patented Dec. 22,1874.

I FIG 2.

WITNESSES.

.INVENTO R 'ATENT GFFIGE.

CHARLES W'HEATSTONE, OF LONDON, ENGLAND.

IMPROVEMENT IN TRANSMlTTERS FOR AUTOMATiC TELE GRAPHS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. E58,,157, dated December 22, 1874; application filed a November 13, 1874.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, Sir CHARLES WHEAT- STONE, Knight, of 19 Park Crescent, Portland Place, London, England, have invented certain Improvements in the Transmitter of Automatic or Fast-Speed Electric Telegraphs, of which the following is a specification:

The automatic or fast-speed electric telegraph formerly invented by me comprises three distinct apparatuses indispensable to each other: First, a perforating-machine for preparing the messages to be sent on strips of paper or other suitable material. Second, a transmitter or apparatus for receiving the strips of paper so prepared, and for transmitting the currents produced"by a voltaic battery, magneto-electric machine, or other rheomotor, in the order corresponding to the holes perforated in the strip, the direction and sequence of these currents being governed by pins disposed so as to enter the perforations, and operating in manner analogous to that in the mechanism of a jacquard loom, and the strip being advanced intermittingly by the action of the pins 5 and, third, of a recording or printing apparatus adapted to print orimpress marks on a strip of paper, such marks corresponding in their arrangement with the currents transmitted to the telegraphic line and with the apertures in the perforated paper.

On the 28th of January, 1867, a patent for Great Britain and Ireland was granted to me for various improvements in the constituent parts of this system, the object of which was to effect the printing of the dot-and-dash alphabet by means of positive and negative currents, which are transmitted alternately in opposite directions, the arrangement being such that the current, whether positive or negative, produces a mark of which the length varies according to the time that elapses before the current is reversed, such reversal producing an interval or blank space, the length of which continues to increase until the current in the first direction is renewed. In this system no reacting springs, and consequently no adjustments, are required in the printing apparatus, as the alternate opposite currents produce the to-and-fro motions of the marker, and lines of various lengths may be printed even when instantaneous currents are employed.

The invention, to which in the present specification I limit my claim, is the transmitter suitable to this system, and which I will proceed to describe.

After the strip of paper has been prepared by means of the perforator belonging to this system it is placed in the transmitter shown in the accompanying drawings, of which Figure 1 represents, in elevation, the main features of the transmitter; Fig. 2, a plan of the plate 0, shown in Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 some of the details.

The transmitter regulates the passage of the electric currents along the telegraphic line from a voltaic battery or magneto electric machine, in accordance with the arrangement of the perforations in the paper strip. The rotation of the axis, which may be efl'ected by means of a weight, or any other motive power, actuates the mechanism that gives motion to the paper strip, and that makes the contacts according to the perforations on the paper. It has a rocking piece, M, with a groove, Q, to receive the paper strip, a spring-clip, W, which holds the paper firmly during the recession of the rocking piece, and three wires or pins, my 2 placed transversely to thepaper strip, which, by entering the external apertures thereof,or by being prevented from entering the paper by the absence of, apertures, regulate the succession, frequency, and direction of the electric currents sent into the telegraphic circuit.

In order to insure the due retention of the paper each time the rocking-frame recedes, and yet allow the cross-sections of the heads of the vertical pins so 31 2, Fig. 2, to be of smaller diameter than the perforations in the paper, so that slight irregularities and imperfections in the punching of the perforations may not afiect the due working of the apparatus, a fourth vertical needle or rod, W, is introduced solely to nip the paper. The driving-wheel B gears with the pinion F, on the axis f of which is mounted the double eccentric I with horizontal and vertical arms R K. The end of the arm R is connected by the rod L to the rocking frame M pivoted at 0 0, the head of which, as before, enters the transverse aperture in the groove Q. The vertical arm K of the eccentric I is attached to ends of the horizontal beam S, the other end of which carries movement of the contact-stud i.

the rod W, the head of which enters through the lower plate 0 into the groove Q. Whenever the end 8 of the vibrating beam S is elevated, the rod W presses against the upper plate at, nipping the paper and retaining it while the rocking frame M recedes, and releasing the paper as the rocking frame ad vances. The rod W is made of two parts, so that, by means of the helical spring w, the pressure against the paper may yield and adjust itself. At b, on the beam S, is centered the lever T, carrying at its extremity the center vertical pin y, the head of which enters the apertures in the rocking frame M. At opposite sides of the insulating ebonite slab q are mounted, on fulcrums g h, the two levers a l, carrying at their extremities the "ertical pins 00 z. The head of the pin or enters an aperture in the plates 0 (1, while the head of the pin 2 enters the head of the rocking frame M. The reacting springs n e tend to keep the heads of the vertical pins as z pressing upward. The beam S also carries a connectingrod, X, attached to one end of the ebonite beam Y working on the center 2. The other end of this beam carries a contact-stud, i, to which is, attached the wire leading to one pole of the battery. By the movement of the beam Y this contactstud is caused to oscillate between the springs 0 and 19, respectively attached to the insulated pieces of metal 1" 1", one of which is in conducting communication with the line-wire, and the other with the earth wire. Another insulated contact-stud, i, which is fixed between 0 and p, unattached to the beam, is connected with the wire leading to the other pole of the battery. One of the springs, therefore, rests upon this stud whenever the other is pressed away by the By this ar-- ran gement, if a strip of perforated paper be inserted in the groove Q, upon giving motion to the machine, the action of the double eccentric I efl'ects the oscillation of the rocking frame M, and causes the central pin y to enter the central perforations in the paper, and carry it with it during the advance of the rocking frame M at the same time the rod W nips the paper upon the withdrawal of the pin 3 and recession of the rocking frame. The outside perforations in the paper determine the rise of the vertical pins 00 and z, and by this means the inversion and order of the succession of alternate currents flowing into the line-wire.

The action of the pins w y z, in conjunction with the paper strip, is as follows: The only means of propulsion of the paper is the motion forward of the central pin y. During the recession of the rocking frame M the paper strip stands still. While the rocking frame advances the exterior rocking pin z enters an aperture in the paper, or is free to do so if an aperture presents itself. The vertically'moving pin x acts only during the recession of the rocking piece, and, therefore, while the paper is stationary. This arrangement enables the time during the return or recession of the rocking piece to be used, for, during that period, the vertically-movin g pin 00 is free to cause the transmission of an electric current or not, according to whether a perforation of the paper is presented to the said vertical pin or not.

Having now described the nature of my said invention, and the mode in which I carry the same into effect, I would have it understood that what I claim as constituting the peculiar character of the present invention, is

The transmitter, constructed with contactpoints and actuating-levers, controlled by the passage of perforated paper thereover, in manner and for the purpose substantially as herein shown and described, to send into the telegraphic circuit short currents of equal duration at various intervals and alternately in opposite directions, so as to determine the occurrence of printed lines and intervals of various lengths in the receiving instrument.

6. WHEATSTONE. WVitncsses FREDK. HARRIS, B. J. B. MrLLs.

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