US1895095A - Cable code printer - Google Patents

Description

Jan. 24,1933. A. F. CONNERY Ef AL 5 5 CABLE CODE PRINTER Filed Dec. 15, 1930 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 @[QIEEELEEE EE EZHEIE INVENTORS ALDER E CONNERY MARION H.WOODWARD BY 4 C ATTORNE zmzm E m E 2 E80 g a E 2 .5831 S v N E .Eiwz: E E x wwww E x E w zm E 2 E H o E E I m E a m o h E w E U Q E m E Q m E o E u q a uwm w 3 n N m E m g n N o mfim 20.22528 zhhmwrou Jan. 24; 1933. F CONNERY T AL I 1,895,095

CABLE CODE PRINTER Filed Dec. 15, 1930 v 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 NOE ATTORNEY Patented Jan. 24, 1933 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ALDER F. CONNERY AND MARION H. WOODWARD, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, ASSIGNORS TO INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS LABORATORIES, INC., OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A.

CORPORATION OF NEW YORK CABLE oonn rnin'rnn Application filed December 15, 1930. Serial No. 562,404.

This invention relates to telegraph systems and apparatus.

An object of the invention is the provision of a telegraph system wherein a telegraph printer is operated directly by ,cable code signals or from signals in other codes the characters of which are composed of an unequal number ofimpulses.

Another object of this invention is to provide means for operating a telegraph printer of the kind generally used in connection with the 5-unit or other equal letter codes by means of an unequal letter code.

The characters of the continental cable code are made up of (lot, dash and zero impulses. One of the difficulties met with in the designing of a printer to be operated by cable code signals is the varied length of the unequal code signals for the various letters. The letter E, for example, in the cable code consists of a positive signal of one unit in length and a zero signal of one unit in length, the total length of the signal thus being two units. On the other hand, a figure 5 consists ofa positive signal five units in length followed by a zero or spacing signal one unit in length, thus giving a total length of six units for this character. It has been the practice in the past to operate cable code printers by means of a perforated tape which is prepared by a receiving perforator operated by cable signals. This method has certain disadvantages among them being the delay resulting between the reception of the signals and the actual printing, and furthermore, the cost of the tape is considerable.

This invention provides a novel method of operating five selector magnets of a printer from cable code signals. The arrangement is such that a dot in a cable code combination will cause the actuation of a selector magnet in the printer, thus setting the code bar associated therewith, while a dash does not operate the code bar. Take for example, the letter A. The cable code signal for the letter as shown in Figure 1. consists of a dot and a dash. The first unit of the letter A being a dot, will operate the first code bar in the printer. The second unitof the letter A is a dash and the second code printer will not be operated. In this system, except in the case of the letter T, all the code bars for which there are no corresponding units in the cable code combinations are operated in a reverse manner from the last dot or dash in the cable code combination. Since the last unit in the letter A was a dash which did not operate a. code bar, the code bars 3, 4 and 5 will, therefore, all be operated. In the case of the letter T, the cable code combination which is a dash, only the fifth bar of the printer will be operated. This latter operation will be explainedin detail in a later paragraph.

Fig. 1 shows the cable code, and a corresponding 5-unit printer code together with, the particular type bar selected by each combination.

Fig. 2 is a schematic drawing of the circuits employed herein.

Each type bar of a 5-unit printer which is to be used in connection with this invention,

is equipped with upper and lower case characters and either of which will be printed depending on the position of the printing platen. The normal position of the printing platen 'will be the lower case.

A system of relays associated with the printer is arranged to energize a magnet in the printer, which will put the printer in the upper case whenever a cable signal is received which has five or more dots or dashes in it. But when the printer is put in the upper case, it will remain shifted until the word space is received, which will simultaneously actuate the spacing mechanism and unshift into the lower case. In addition to this, the printer is so arranged that'it will unshift whenever a special unshift combination is transmitted.

The figure shift arrangement disclosed herein. makes it possible to print directly from signals normally adapted to be mann ally transcribed from a siphon recorder tape. Line time is saved by the use of short figures and by the automatic figure shift and release mechanism. Sometimes, due to transmission or line failures,impulses may drop out causing what are known as double spaces. IVhensignals are being copied by an operator from a siphon recorder tape, distorted 100 signals of this kind can be detected by the operator, but when a printer is used a dropout will cause a wrong letter to be printed which makes automatic reception undesirable for messages in code. This invention overcomes this difliculty by printing a special character whenever a double space is received to indicate that the message should be corrected.

Referring to Fig. 1, it will be noted that each letter of the cable code alphabet selects a different combination in the five unit printer, but there is a conflict between certain cable code letters and figures. For example, the printer combination for the letter E and figure 1 are identical. Since the letter E, has less than five dots or dashes, its typebar, will print in the lower case, while the figure 1, being made up of five units, will as previously explained, shift the platen into the upper case position. The selection for the letter E and the figure 1 is, therefore, the same, and both operate the same typebar but one character is printed in the lower case and the other in the upper case. The letter L and the figure 2 have the same printer combination and so have several other letters and figures.

Since the regular cable codecombinations for the figures are made up of five units, it is customary when using a siphon record for reception, for the sending operator to abbreviate certain figures in order to save line time. The following abbreviations for figures are generally used in commercial practice:

Figure 1 is sent as letter A Figure 2 is sent as letter U Figure 5 is sent as letter E Figure 8 is sent as letter 1) Figure 9 is sent as letter N Figure 0 is sent as letter T In transmitting a group of figures, it is customary to transmit the first figure of a group as a long figure and to abbreviate the remainder of the figuresl An arrangement has been provided in the present invention so that when abbreviated figures are sent they will be printed as figures instead of letters proyided that the first figures of a group is a long figure which will serve to shift the printer to the upper case. It has not, however, been possible to do this by simply putting the proper figure on the same typebar as the letter corresponding to that figure, because-some of the type bars are already used for other figures.

It would, for example, be quite possible to put a figure 1 in the upper case of the A type bar so that, providedthe printer is in the upper case, a figure 1"will be printed whenever A is sent. The same thing may be done in the case of letters U, D and N. The E and T type bars, however, are already being used for the long figures 1 and 9 and in order to print the short figure combination it has been necessary to arrange the relay bank associcated with the printer so as to cause the reverse operation of the fifth code bar in the printer when a cable code signal of less than five elements is received while the printer is in the upper case; For example, if the printer is in the upper case and the letter- A is received, this being the short combination for the figure 1, the combination of code bars operated will be 1, 3 and 4 which corresponds to the letter L, and not 1, 3, 4 and 5 which is the lower case combination for the letter A. The type bar for letter L when operated prints figure 1 when the printer is in the upper case.

When the short combination for figure 2 is received, the printer dude bars 1', 2 and 4 will be operated which corresponds to the letter F instead of code bars 1, 2, 4 and 5 which correspond to the letter U, and as in the case with the letter L, the F type bar is arrangd so that in the upper case position figure 2 will be printed. The remaining short figures, with the exception of zero, are printed in the same manner, the type bars which print J, X and Y in the lower case printing 5, 8 and 9 respectively when the platen is shifted. The method "of selecting zero by a short figure willbe described further on.

When the sending operator-makes an error, it is customary to send a rub-out signal, which in a cable' code consists'of dash-dot, dash-dot, dash-dot, dash-dot. Since the rubout signal has more than five units in it, the printer will shift into the upper case and therefore will print the upper case char acter of a certain type bar. The upper case type bar will, print the special character which will indicate a rub-out which has been shown as XX.

The actual operation of the printing circuits will now be explained in detail and reference will be made to Figure 2. It should be understood that the transmission at the distant end of the cable must be automatic so that the signals are sent out at a constant speed. The distributor at the receiving end of the cable is operated in synchronism with the received signals and operates the printing circuits.

Magnets 1-5 inclusive represent the five selecting magnets of a printer. The sixth pulse or start magnet and the figure shift magnet are shown by 6 and 7 respectively. The armature of the shift magnet is shown in the lower case position. All the relays in this drawing are of the neutral or non-polarized type .and all are shown in the deenergized position. In tracing the circuits, reference will be made to therelay tongues resting on the marking and spacing positions. It will be understood that the relay tongue moves to its marking position when the relay is operated, and when the relay is deen'ergized the tongue Will move to its spacing position. Dash and dot receiving relays are shown respectively as 9 and 10, and it is to be understood that the dot or dash relays will be operated when the dots or dashes of the cable signal are received. The actual coupling of these dot and dash relays to the cable maybe done in any suitable manner, and since it is well known in the art and forms no part of this invention, there is no need to describe it here in detail. The developed view of the distributor is shown at 11 and the brushes 12 are assumed to be in synchronism and in suitable phase relation with the operation of the dot and dash relays 9 and 10. Methods of maintaining the distributor brushes is synchronism with received signals are well known and any suitable means may be employed with this invention. The segments of the distributor are arranged in groups of three, every third segment being connected together, any suitable number of groups being arranged in the distributor face plate. The brush connects positive battery 40 to the segments as it rotates. The segments of the respective groups are indicated in Figure 2 of the drawings by the letters C, B and A. The arrangement is such that the brush passes over the three segments in the order of C, B and A each time a dot, dash or zero signal is received. The transit time of the brush over the segments is about one-half the duration of each impulse and the segmented ring is so oriented in relation to the incoming signals that the brushespass over a C, B and A group while the cent, ill part of each impulse is being received. -}-,f-

As the brush passes over each C segment, positive battery 40 is connected to the windings of relay 33 tonegative battery 51, operating the relay and opening a locking circuit from battery 45 which releases any relay in that circuit that might have remained locked up from a previous selection.

In some cases, when the brush passes over a B segment at the time when the first impulse of the character is being received and that impulse is a dot, then the first selector magnet 1 will be operated directly from battery 40. After the first impulse of a character has been selected, impulses from the B segment serve to control various relays in a printer selector system.

As the brush passes over an A segment, a circuit is closed from positive battery 40 through tongue 15L of relay '15 and relays 13 or 14 will be operated. If a (lot or dash is being received, relay 13 is operated, and when a zero signal is received relay 14 operates. Either relay 13 or 14 will lock up relay 15 as soon as the brush leaves the A segment.

After the operation of relay 15, relays 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20 lock up progressively, dcpending on the length of the character as the brush passes over the segments indicated by the letter A.

Assume the letters AN are being received and that they are in phase relation with the distributor segments as shown by the curve 41 at the top of Figure 2. Before brush 12 reaches the first groun of segments, the dot relay 10 will close its contacts and relays 34, 26 and will be operated. The circuit may be traced from positive battery 42 to the tongue and contact of relay 10, coils of relay 34, one winding of relay 26, one winding of relay 35 to negative battery 43. lVhen the tongue 2GB of relay 26 leaves its spacing contact, the locking circuit for relay 14 will be interrupted and relays 14 and 15 will be deenergized. As the tongue 14L of relay 14 leaves its marking position, it will cut off the locking circuit from negative battery 47 to all the relays of the counting bank Wlfch may have been operated bv a previous selection and the tongues will fallback to the spacing position. As brush 12 passes over segment C, relay 33 will operate, cutting off positive battery 45, and unlock all the relays connected to its armature-33A. During the time that the brush is .on the B segment a circuit will be completed from positive battery 40 through the tongue 35R of relay 35 and its mark'ng contact, through tongue 34R and the marking contact of relay 34, tongue 15A and spacing contact of relay 15, and through the Wndings of selector magnet 1 of the printer to negative battery 52. Selector magnet 1 will therefore bcoperated. The brush now passes over the A segment which operates reay 13 by a circuit from posit ve battery 40, spacing contact 15L of relay 15, tongue 26L of relay 26 and its marking contact, relay 13 through tongue 26R and its marking contact to negative battery 46. Relay 1:") is locked up when the brush leaves the A segment by a circuit from pos'tive battery 48, relay 15,. tongue 13R and its marking contact.

During the time the brush is travelling from the A segment to the C segn'ient, incom-. ing signals will change from a dot to a dash and relay 34 w ll be dcenergized. Relays 2t; and will be held in an operated position by relay 9. The brush next passes over a C segment which operates relay 33. and'sinr'e none of the relays which lock up through rclay 33 have been energized, the relay bank is not eliected. Next, the brush passes over a B segment and the circuit is completed from pos'tive batterv 40, brush 12 the B segment, and tongue 35R of relay 35 and its mark ng contact, tongue 34R and spacing contact of relay 34, tongue 15B of relay 15 and its marking contact, tongue 17B of relav 17 and its spacing contact, through relay 27, also tongue 19B and its spacing contact, through the relay 28, operating relays 27 and 28 which lock up by a circu't from negative battery 44, ton guo 27L of relay27 and tongue 28L of relay 28' through the locking coils-of the respective relays, tongue 33A and spacing contact of relay 33 to positive battery 45. A circuit is also completed from the spacing contact of tongue 34R through relay 29 which operates and locks up through battery 44, tongue 29L, locking winding of relay 29, tongue 33A and battery 45. The brush now passes over an A segment and relay 16 will be energized through circuit from battery 40, brush 12, segment A, marking contact 15L, spacing contact 17L, relay 16, tongue 13L and its marking contact to negative battery 47. As soon as the brush passes over the A segment relay -17 will be locked u bv a circuit from POSltLVQ battery 49, tongue 16A and its mark- 1ng contact. During the time the brush is passing from the A segment to the next C segment, the letter space or zero signal will be received and'the armatures of relays 9 and 10 will drop back to unoperated position, openng the circuit from battery 42, thus deenerglzing relays 26,34 and 35. When relay 26 is deenergized, its tongue 26R in movmg from its marking contact to the spacing contact will out ofl momentarilv the negative battery 46 fro'm relay 13, unlocking the relay, and contacts will fall back to the normal spacing position. unlocking any of the counting relays that may have been energized. When relay is deenergized, the tongue 35L of that relay which is connected to positive battery 53 will touch its spacin contact and the circuit will be completed Trom it through right hand tongues and marking contacts 27A, 28A and 29A of relays 27, 28 and 29 respectively, which are already in operated posltion, thus causing current to flow into the printer selecting magnets 3, 4 and 5. It should, be noted here that the operating circuit for the fifth selector leads through the tongue 7A and its spacing contact and the tongue 32A and its spacing contact. Relay 30 will also be operated by a circuit from battery 53, spacing contact of tongue 35L, the

winding of relay 30 to negative battery 44, but this operation has no efiect at the present time since the operation of' relay 30 is only efiective when the printer is sh fted to the upper case position. The selectorbars on the printer which are now operated are 1, 3, 4 and 5 which correspond to the printer combination for the letter A. It will be noted that selector bar 1 was operated directly from the received signals, while selector bars 3, 4 and 5 were operated through relays 27, 28 and 29.

The sixth pulse or start magnet of the printer has not yet been energized. When the brush passes over the C segment, relay 33 will be energized momentarily which will cut oif the locking battery 45, deenergizing relays 27, 28 and 29 and the contacts will fall back to unoperated position. The brush will now pass over the B segment and the circuit will be completed from the B segment through the tongue 35R with its spacing contact, ton ue 15C and its spacing contact through the winding of thesixth pulse magnet 6 to negative battery 52, thus 0 erating the sixth pulse magnet. When t e sixth pulse magnet is operated it will initiate operation' of the printing mechanism, printing the letterA.

The brush now passes over an A segment and since relays 26, 34 and 35 are not operated, relay 14 will lock in and then, as the brush moves off the A segment, relay 15 will be locked up. The circult for operating relay 14 may be traced as follows: from positive battery 40, segment A, tongue 15L and its spacing contact, tongue 26L and its spacing contact, the winding of relay 14, spacing contact and tongue 26R, and negative battery 46. 'hen relay 14 is operated relay 15 is locked by a circuit from negative battery 46, tongue 26R and its spacing contact, windings of relay 14, tongue 14R and its marking contact, windings of relay 15 to positive battery 48.

During the time the brush is passing between the A and C segment, dash of the letter N will be received and relay 9 will operate and this in turn will energize relays 26 and 35. When the tongue 26R of relay 26 moves from its spacing contact, negative battery 46 will be momentarily cut off from relays 14 and 15 and they will unlock and restore to normal. When the brush passes over the C segment, relay 33 will be operated by a circult from positive battery 40, segment C to the windings of relay 33, negative battery 51 to ground. When relay 33 operates it will break the circuit from battery and unlock any relays in circuit therewith, which may have been locked up. When the brush passes over the B segment a circuit will be com pleted from battery 40, segment B through the tongue and marking contact 35R, tongue 34R and its spacing contact and thence to the operating, windingof relay 29, which will lock in through the locking winding by means'of a circuit from negative battery 44, tongue 29L, tongue 33A and its spacing con-. tact to positive battery 45. When the brush passes over the A segment, relays 13 and 15 will be energized and lock up by means of the circuit previously traced. uring the time the brush is passing from the A to the C segment, the incoming signals will change from a dash to a dot and relay 34 will be operated by relay 10 and in addition, relays 35 and 26 will remain operated. The brush will next pass over the C segment which operates relay 33, which in turn breaks the circuit from positive battery 45 and thus unlocks relay 29. The brush nowpasses over the B segment and a circuit is completed from battery 40 through the B segment to the tongue I 35R and its marking contact, tongue 34R and its marking contact, tongue 15A and its mark ing contact, tongue 17A and its spacing contact and thence through the windings of selector magnet 2 to negative battery 52, operating the second selector bar. The brush then asses over the A segment which causes reays 16 and 17 to operate and lock up. This circuit may be traced as follows: from battery 40, segment A, tongue 15L and its marking contact tongue 17L and its spacing contact, coils ofrelay 16, tongue 13L and its marking contact to negative battery 47, and after relay 16 operates, relay 17 will be locked up by a circuit from the marking contact of tongue 16A through the windings of relay 17 to battery 49. Relay 17 operates immediately after the brush passes off the A segment. During the time the brush is passing from the A to the C segment, the incoming signal will change from a dot to azero, and relays 26, and 34 will be deenergized. When relay 26 is deenergized, the tongue 26R will fall back and open the circuit from negative battery 46, unlocking relays 13 and 15. Relay 13 will in turn unlock the rest of the relays in the counting bank when its tongue 13L breaks the circuit from negative battery 47. When tongue 35L of relay 35 moves to its spacing contact as the relay becomes deenergized, a circuit will be completed from positive battery 53, tongue 35L and its spacing contact to the tongues 27A, 28A and 29A of relays 27, 28 and 29 respectively, but since none of these relays are operated there will be no circuits into the selector magnets, and therefore selector magnets 3, 4 and 5 which are associated with these tongues will not be operated.

The brush now passes over the C segment which energizes relay 33 momentarily. The brush then passes over the B segment which completes the circuit from battery 40, segment B tongue 35R and its spacing contact, tongue 15C and its spacing contact, through the printer sixth pulse magnet 6, to negative battery 52. This operates the sixth pulse magnet which in turn initiates the operation of the printing mechanism, printing the letter N which has for its selecting combination the operation of selector magnet 2. Other letter combinations may be traced through the circuit in a similar manner to the above. The selecting combinations for the various letters are given in Figure 1.

A word space consists of three no-current or zero intervals. One of these zero units really belongs to the last letter received and" and the dot and dash relays 9 and 10 have restored to their unoperated positionanid the brush is passing between the A and C segments. With this condition, all the relays of the counting bank will be in their unoperated positions. When the brush passes over the 0 segment, relay 33 will be momentarily energized. This will have no effect on the relay bank, as at this time no relay is locked up. When the brush passes over the B segment, a circuit will'be completed from positive battery 40 through segment B, tongue 35R, and its spacing contact of relay 35, tongue 15C and its spacing contact, and through the windings of the sixth pulse magnet 6 which will initiate the printing of the letter A previously selected. The brush now passes over the A segment and energizes relays 14 and 15 which look up in a manner previously described. When the brush passes .over the C segment relay 33 is energized momentarily. When the brush passes over the B segment the circuit will be completed from battery 40 through the B segment through the tongue 35R and its spacing contact of relay 35, tongue 15C and its marking contact, tongue 17 (land its spacing contact through the winding of selector magnet 4 which will be energized. Another circuit also goes from the tongue 15C and its marking contact to tongue 17D and its spacing contact, through the operating winding of relay 31, through the tongue 28L and its spacing contact to negative battery 44. This will operate relay 31 which will lock up by a circuit from positive battery 45 through its tongue 31L and marking contact to negative battery 44. When the brush passes over the A segment,

relays 16 and 17 will lock up in the same manner as previously described. When the brush passes over the next C segment relay 33 will momentarily be energized and will unlock relay 31. The function ofrelay 31 will-be described later. \Vhen the brush passes over the next B segment a circuit will be com- 1 pleted from battery 40 through the tongue 35R and its spacing contact, tongue 15C and 4 ing contact, and thence through the windings of the sixth pulse magnet which will operate and initiate the operation of the printer.

Since only the fourth selecting magnet has been energized, which is the code combination for the word space, the type bar corrresponding to the word space will tend to print, but this .type bar is not equipped with type and therefore the'printer will space but no character will be printed. In the operation of .the word space circuit,,it will be noted that relay 31' was locked up during a portion of the time. The purpose of relay 31 is to cause a special character to be printed in the event that there are only two spacing or zero units received over the cable. Ifa dot or dash had been received after only two units of no-cur- I v rent or zero signals, relay 3-1 will be in an enthe received signal has five or more dots orergized position at the time the dot or dash was received. In this case, when the left hand tongue of relay35L of relay35 which operates whenever a dot or dash is received, touched its marking contact a circuit would be completed from positive battery 53 through tongue 35L, through the tongues 31A, 31B, 31C and 31D of relay 31, through the selector magnets 1, 2, 3 and 5 to negative batter 52, thus operating'their res ective-selector ars.- The selector magnet 4 as already been operated and therefore all the selector bars will be in an operated position and the next character printed will be the combination corresponding to 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 which is printed by the figure 5 type bar in its lower case position.

Referring nowto the Figure 1, it will be noticed that the type bar for the figure 5 .has in its lower case a plus sign and when this plus sign is rinted it will indicate an incoming signal ilure..

The printer combination for-the letter T .as shown in Figure 1', requires that only the fifth selector magnet be operated. Referring now to Figure 2, it will be noticed that when relay 15 is unoperated, the operating circuit of relays 27 and 28 is open at tongue 15B and therefore any single unit dash cable signal will have only the fifth pluse filled in instead of' filling in impulses 2, 3 and 4 in addition. The letter T is the only letter in which an impulse is filled in in this manner. After the fifth selector has been operated, the sixth pulse magnet is operated in the same way as it is done with other selections, and when the printing mechanism prints, it prints in the same manner.

When the received signal consists of five 0r more dots or dashes, it is necessary that the printer shift magnet 7 be operated. If

dashes, all the relays of the counting bank will be operated and lock up, and after this has taken place and the brush passes over a B segment, a circuit will be completed from battery 40 through the B segment through tongue 35R and its marking contact, thence to tongue 20B of relay 20 and its marking contact, through the operating winding of relay. 32 to negative battery 44. This will operate relay 32 and it will lock up throu h its tongue 32L and its marking contact, an at the same time it will operate shift magnet over circuit from positive battery i5, tongue 32L and its marking contact, windings of shift ma et 7 to negative battery 52. This will shift the printing platen so that the upper case characters are printed. -Relay 32 remains locked up by a circuit from positive battery 45 through its tongue 32L and its marking contact to negative battery 44. At the time the printer shifted into-the upper case position, the tongue 7A associated with the shift magnet 7 moved from its spacing contact to its markin contact. It will now be seen that circuit t rough tongue 29A of relay 29 can only be com leted through its spacing contact instead 0 its marking contact, and therefore the operation of the fifth selector magnet 5 of the printer will be just the reverse from normal as far as the operation of relay 29 is concerned. The purpose of this is to permit the use of abbreviated figures.

The purpose of relay 30 is to make it impossible to get too long an impulse into selector magnet 5. Relay 30 is adjusted so that its armature pulls up slowly. This reversing of the action of the selector magnet 5 when the printer is in the upper case must only occur on cable signals having less than five dots or dashes. In case the signal has more than five dots or dashes, relay 32 will be energized and in addition to locking up and shifting the platen through its tongue 32L and its markmg contact, it will open up the circuit from tongue 29A of relay 29 into selector magnet 5. Relay 32 is unlocked by relay 33 each time the brush passes over the C segment.

The restoring of the printing platen to the lower case position is accomplished mech'anically in the printer whenever the word space type bar is operated. This method of un-shifting the printer mechanically is well known in the art and need not be described and dashes may be handled satisfactorily by this invention,'although the cable signal impulses in excess of five will have no effect on the printing unless some of the impulses in excess of five are dots. In this case, the fifth selector magnet of the printer will be operated, if it has not already been operated, by the fifth cable impulse. Referring to Figure 1, it will be noted that the rub-out signal consists of eight impulses made up of dashes and dots arranged alternately. The printer combination for the query signal is also shown.

In order to reduce the number of type bars in the printer, it has been found possible to have the same type bars operate on two different combinations when these two combinations differ only by the character of one impulse. For example, the selecting combination in the printer for the letter G which is dash, dash, dot, dash, dash, and that of the prints the query signal in the upper case.

l/Ve claim: 1. In a telegraph. system wherein signals are recelvcd according to a code 1n which the characters are not of uniform length, a printer having selector magnets operable by signal combinations of a code in'whichthe charactors are of equal length, and relay means responsive to said signals and producing s1gnal combinations suitable for operating a plurality of said printer magnets in varlous combinations. v

2. The method of operating a telegraph printen from a code having characters formedof unequal numbers of impulses of ditferent kinds which comprises operating the selecting mechanism of said printer by impulses of like kind, and operating by impulses of another kind a series of relays variably according to the character to be selected, and thereafter initiating the printing operation of said printer by impulses of a third kind.

3. In a telegraph system wherein signals composed of combinations of dot, dash and zero elements are receiwd, relay means for recevingsaid characters, a distributor c0- operating with said relay means to control recording means comprising a telegraph printsignals of a code in which characters are'represented by permutations of equal numbers of impulses.

In a telegraph system wherein signals composed of combinations of dot, dash and zero elements are received, relay means for receiving said characters, a distributor cooperating with said relay means, said relay means and said distributor being arranged to control a recording means comprising a telegraph printer having a selectingmechanism adapted to be controlled by signals formed of marking and spacing intervals.

5. In a telegraph system wherein signals composed of combinations of dot, dash and zero elements are received, relay means for receiving said characters, a distributor cooperating with said relay means, said relay means and said distributor being arranged to control a recording means comprising a telegraph printer having a selecting mechanism adapted to be. operated by signal combinations of equal length composed of permutations of marking and spacing intervals.

(3. In a telegraph system wherein the s g nals received are composed of dot, dash and Zero elements arranged in various combinations according to a code in which the char acters are not of uniform length, receiving means comprising relays and a distributor associated therewith, said receiving means being arranged to control a telegraph printer having a selecting system adapted to be operated by impulse combinations of a code in which the characters are of uniform length.

7. In a telegraph system wherein combinations of various numbers of dot, dash and zero elements are variously arranged according to the characters in a telegraph code, relay means and a distributor for receiving said elemenis, recording means operated thereby comprising a printer having a selecting system being arranged to be operated by 1111- pulse. per-mutated according to a code in which all characters are of equal length.

8. In a telegraph system, a code in which various characters comprising positive and negative impulses are not of uniform length, relay in ans and a distributor for receiving said characters, recording means operaled thereby comprising a printer having a selecting system arranged to be operated by impulses per-mutated according to a code in which the characters are of equal length, said relay means being elt'ective to operate said printer selecting system when said character received has fewer impulses than the corresponding character in said -equal letter code.

9. In a telegraph system wherein combinations of various numbers of dot, dash and zero elements are variously ar 'anged according to s the characters in a telegraph code, relay means and a distributorfor receiving said elements,

recording meansoperated thereby comprisor having selecting mechanism operableby ing a printer a ing a selecting system arranged to be" operated by impulses permutated according to a code in which the characters are of equal length, said relay means being effective to operate said printer selecting system when said character received has fewer impulses than the corresponding char acter in said equal letter code.

10. In a telegraph system wherein the signal combinations for the various characters are of unequal lengths, printing means having a shift mechanism said shift mechanism automatically operable by signal combinanations. which exceed a predetermined length.

11. In a telegraph system wherein the signal combinations for the various characters are of different lengths, printing means having a shift mechanism said shift mechanism automatically operable by signal combinations which exceed a certain length, and means for printing characters selected by said signal combinations.

12. In a telegraph system wherein the signal combinations for the various characters are of different lengths, printing means having ashift mechanism arranged to be automatically actuatedbysignal combinations rao nations, and means :for printing characters selected by shorter signal combinations while said shift mechanism is still in operated position.

13. In a telegraph system wherein a plurality of diflerent signals may represent the same character, selectable means arranged to be set according to said signals, and means I for printing a character according to the setting of said selector means.

14. In a telegraph system having code symbols representing certain characters and other code symbols representing abbreviations of said characters, means comprising a printing device and a selector therefor for printing a character when said selector is actuated either according to the symbols representing the character or the abbreviation therefor.-

15. In a telegraph system, the combination of means for receiving signals composed of characters which are not of uniform length, a plurality of characters to be recorded, a plurality of printer magnets less in number than the number of characters to be recorded, and means comprising signals which are of equal length for operating said magnets in various combinations for causing the recording of said characters.

16. In a telegraph system, the combination of means comprising a distributor for receiving signals composed of characters which are not of uniform length, recording means having a plurality of selectable printer magnets, and means for operating a plurality of said magnets in various combinations from signals of equal length.

17 In a telegraph system wherein signals are received according to a code in which the characters are not of uniform length, a printer having magnets operable by signal combinations of a code in which the characters are of equal length, and means responsive to said signals and producing signal combinations suitable for operating a plurality of said magnets in various combinations.

In witness whereof, we hereunto subscribe our names this 13th day of December 1930.

ALDER F. CONNERY. MARION H. WOODWARD.

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