US7455A - Improvement in electric telegraphs - Google Patents

Description

Sheds-Sheet 1. G. H. HORN.

Telegraph. v

' Patented June 25, 1850 V UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

one. H. Bonn er BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

'l M PROVEM ENT I'N ELECTRIC TEL EGRAPHS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 7,455, dated June 25, 1850.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, GEORGE H. HORN, of

.Boston, in the county of Sufiolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new or Improved Telegraph, which operates by means of a current of electricity, and which, for the sake of distinguishing it from. various other telegraphs in;'use,1denominate the Electro- Caustic Telegraph; and I do hereby declare thatthe same is fully described and repre- 'Fig. 3, a central,vertical, and longitudinal section of it. Fig. 4 is a front-end view.

For manyyears it has been known that when a current of electricity. is caused to pass through a metallic wire greater than it can readily transmit, such wirev becomes more or less heated, and if a verys'mall or attenuated wire of platina or other poor conductor be ems ployed'it maybe heated to a scorchi'n g or burnin g heat. It is on the application of this wellknown property, principle, or, electrical phe nomenon to the purposes of making signals or marks on or holes through paper,-or some other proper material, that my invention depends; or, in other words, it may be said'to be what constitutes the base of it. y

. One jinode of carrying my invention into practice? I have represented in the drawings above referred to. 4

In Fig. 3 of the said drawings, a denotes a -fine or attenuated platinum or. metallicwire,

stretched over a thin bridge, I), made of glass or other proper non-conductor of electricity, .the said bridge being upheld by a supporting column or post, 0, which is raised upona suitable base or board, 0. The middle part of the wire a is placed on the bridge, the two halves of the wire being bent at a suitable angle to each other and held between and by two'me- .tallic forceps or nippers, A B, arranged on opposite sides of the post a, and respectively supported by posts or standards 0 D, which ex tend upward from thebase-board and are respectively connected to the two telegraphic wires E F, which proceed from the battery or generator of electricity, the connection being made in such manner that the electric current or fluid in its passage from one pole of the bat tery to the other maybe transmitted through the wire a and cause the same to be heated. A transverses ection of the wire at, its bridge I), and the apparatus,isrepresented by Fig. 5. Along, strip -of paper, f, or other suitable combustible material, is caused to rest on and to pass over the top surface of the middle part of the platinum wire a: .In order to properly sustain such strip f, I also cause it to rest upon ahorizontal supporting-plate, g, through which the 'wire a and its bridge are made to extend,

the said plate 9 being made of glass, horn, or some other proper material known to beanonconductor of electricity. This plate g may be supported by an arm,h, extended horizontally from the top of a sustaining-post, 'i. V In order to keep the strip f down upon the top surface of the plate 9 and in contact with the wire a,I make useof a forked-spring or "plate, It, the same being, made with an -open- 'ing or passage, 1, cut through one end of it so that it maystraddle the wire a andrest on the paper on each side ot'it. The other end of the spring k is fastened to aframe or standard, m, raised on the arm h, the said frame having a thumb-screw, 10, applied to it in such manner as to be capable of being screwed down upon the spring, and so as to increase or diminish itspressure on the'strip f or permit it to rise above the same, as occasion may require.

The strip of paper may first be wound upon areel, o, from which it may be led or carried to and over the wire a, and thenceto and between a set of drawing-rollers, q 1', which, by means of suitable mechanism or clock-work apparatus, maybe made to rotate with a regular velocity, such as may be sufihoient to draw the strip of paper endwise, and with aregular or proper velocity, from off the reel 0 and over the wire a.

I do not confine my invention to any partic ular kind of mechanism for producing the motion of the strip f, butv intend to make use of such as is generally. employed in telegraphic machinery, 'or such as may be conveniently ,used'. In fact such apparatus should not be considered as an essential part of myinvention, as the motion of the strip fmay be produced by the hamlet a person applied to it and so acting upon it as to draw or pull it lengthwise.

Durin g the flow of an electric current throu gh the wire a, and. while the paper is resting on and passing in contact with the said wire, the heat produced in the wire will either burn through or into the paper, and if the current is stopped or interrupted the wire will in stantly or immediately become cool or cease to burn the strip f, nor will it again burn until the electric current is again caused to pass through it. It is, therefore, by means, of the heat generated in the wire, the interruptions of the electric current, together with the pas- V I do not confine my invention either to the precise form or arrangement or construction of any or all of the parts or mechanism as above detailed ordes'eribed, as it will be evidentthat the positions of the essentialparts as'well as their construction maybe somewhat or considerably varied, and still they be made toembody my invention and operate substantially in the manner as above described.

What I claim as my invention is- Theabove-described new or improved electro-caustie telegraph, or application to telegraphic purposes, and ,substantially as speci fied, of heat generated by electric apparatus or a current or currents of electricity passed through a-fine platinum wire or other proper conductors or equivalents therefor, as explained, the marks produced in or through the paper or other material used in connection with the heated wire being regulated in their length and number so as to'be characters or expressions of letters, figures, or words indicative of any message which it may be desirable to transmit'from the battery end ot'the telegraph to the other end of the line} all essentially as set forth, or in the manner gener- .ally understood by telegraphic operators. In testimony whereof I have hereto set my signature this 9th day of March," A. D. 1850. G. H; HORN. Witnesses:

R. H. EDDY, FRANCIS'GOULD.

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