US579482A - hobbs - Google Patents

Description

(No Model?) J. D. HOBBS.

" TELBPHONIG MESSENGER SERVICE.

No. 579,482. Patented Mar. 23, 1897.:

WITNESSES:

ATTORNEY Nrrn TELEPHONIC MESSENGER SERVICE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 579,482, dated March 23, 1897. Application filed February 18, 1896. serial No. 579,731. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JEFFERSON D. HoBBs, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Telephonic Messenger Service, of which the following description, taken in connection with the drawing herewith accompanying, is a specification.

My invention relates particularly to an improved telephonic messenger service,in which a telephone and messenger-call box may be employed in combination or independently of each other and working on the same circuit, the object of the invention being to provide a cheap, simple, and effective service of such character in which the messenger-call box and telephone will work in the same circuit and the instruments of each of the several subscribers and the central office all be supplied from one battery, whereby the necessity for the use of the usual coils and batteries for each instrument will be avoided and the cost of placing and keepingin order of such service be correspondingly cheapened. This object I secure by the peculiar combination and arrangement of the parts forming my invention, as will hereinafter be set forth in detail, and pointed out in the claim.

The drawing is a diagrammatic view of my invention, illustrating the service as arranged or placed for two subscribers and a central office and showing the wire connections of the same.

To explain in detail, a a represent suitable frames or boards upon each of which the sev-' eral parts embodied in my invention to be located in a subscribers home or other place may be suitably secured, and each of these frames, in the present instance and for the purpose of illustrating my invention, may be considered as being in different subscribers homes or offices. The several parts at the right of the said frames, and to be hereinafter referred to, are supposed to be located in a central station or office. Upon each of these frames 1) represents a messenger-call box, I) a telephone-tramsmitter, and b a telephonereceiver, and in the central office 0 represents a spring-jack; c, a plug for insertion into said spring-jack; 0 a transmitter, and c a receiver. All of these parts are of the usual and well-known construction.

According to my present invention, and referring to the several parts forming the'same according to the manner in which they are used when the service is being operated by a subscriber, CZ represents a spring push-button, which is located in a wire 1 2 in such manner that by pressing said button, which is done by the operator when desiring to call the central office, the wire 2 is grounded through wire 1 at f, and the circuit is completed through said wire 2, binding-post 3, wire 4, battery 6, wire 5, spring 0 contact-piece 0 wire 6, drop g, and office ground-wire 7, which latter is grounded at f. lVhen the circuit is thus completed through the battery, drop, and ground wires by depressing the said pushbutton d, the drop is caused to fall in the usual manner and so notify the central office. After being so notified the central operator inserts the plug 0 into the spring-jack 0, thus cutting out the drop g and office-ground by the raising of the spring (2 from the contactpiece 0 and closing the circuit metallically through the central-ofiice telephone in a manner that will be readily understood. After the circuit has thus been closed metallically the circuit, commencing at the battery 6, normally passes through the wire 4, binding-post 3, and wire 2 as far as a contact-piece h, through which it passes to a metallic springkey h, which latter is normally held in movable engagement with said contact-piece h. From said key the circuit passes through wire 8, call-box Z), which latter is always in circuit, and from thence through wire 9, binding-post 10, and wire 11 to the next succeeding subscribers and through the correspondingly-designated parts there to the return-wire 12, through which the circuit is completed.

It will of course be understood that the number of subscribers is not limited and the circuit passes through the succeeding instruments in the manner as described until it reaches the return-wire.

After, a subscriber has called the central office and the circuit been closed metallically, as described, the subscribers telephone instrument is still out of circuit by reason of its being short-circuited through the contactkey h and wire 8, and in order to bring his instrument in circuit he depresses the key h from contact with the piece h, thus cutting off the circuit through the latter and bringing his instrument into circuit through the Wire 13. The key h is thus kept depressed from contact with the piece h While the telephone is being used, after which pressure upon said keyis removed and the same springs into contact position, thus cutting out the instrument by short-circuiting the same, as will be understood. My improved service, as described, is now particularly adapted for use, whereby the operator or subscriber may transmit to the central messenger-oflice the message to be delivered Without Waiting for a messenger to come from the central oflice to his home, and thus save such unnecessary time.

In combination with my invention, as de scribed, I have arranged and illustrated the ordinary messenger-call box Z7 With the usual station or central office appliances, consisting of the bell i, register 1', relay 7?, and battery 71 all of which are of the usual construction and operation, and will therefore not require a further detailed description herein.

When the central operator inserts the plug 0 into the spring-jack c to cut out the drop 9 and office-ground and complete the circuit metallically, as hereinbefore described, such operation also shuts the main circuit of the relay and opens the local circuit of the same, and thereby cuts the central messenger-box appliances out of service While the telephone is being used. This messenger-call box system, if desired, may be employed for burglaralarm or other similar purposes.

Having thus set forth my invention, What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is-

In a telephonic messenger service, the combination of a circuit having two or more ground-Wires, a battery, a drop or other indicator, and a device, as cl, for adding or cuttin g out one ofsaid ground-Wires, located in said circuit between the latter, the said de vice normally cutting out said Wire, a telephone-receiver and a transmitter placed in said circuit and normally cut out of the same by a short circuit, a contact-piece and key placed in said circuit in a position, whereby, upon depressing or moving said key from the contact piece the telephone receiver and transmitter Will be brought into said circuit, a second telephone receiver and transmitter, and means for placing the latter in said circuit to close the same metallically and cut out the said drop and second ground-Wire, the said one battery being placed in said circuit for supplying the several parts of the system, substantially as described and for the purpose set forth.

I JEFFERSON D. HOBBS. lVitnesses:

CHAs. F. DANE, A. L. HAYES.

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