The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1848-05-12
Houses Printing telegraph.

IRe line between this city and Philadelphia Is now In
complete working order. The received by the
steamer Britannia on the morning Of the Sth May in
slant, embracing 2227 words transmitted to Phla
delpha in the short space Of hour and fifty min
ute being about 20 words, 123 letters per minute
and even this hardly be considered fair test of
the capabilities of the machine for during expert
mental trial short time since, repeating simple
tence of some 80 more letters, there printed
40 letters minute the impressions being clear dis
tinct md legibe.
The great advance in rapid telegraphing which Mr..
House has made beyond his competitors is, among
other ingenious contrvances due to his invention of
the OBTAINING key board, to be more explicit, the
invention of set of keys which will arrest the motion
of the machinery employed to break and close the cleo
trio circuit and enable the operator to maintain the
circuit broken closed at his pleasure. But impor-
tant as this rapid Of Is its va
lue is still further increased by the circumstance that
the message is recorded printed, the name given
to the invention indicates in the ordinary letters of
the alphabet This and the novel key board in its
culiar contrvances which make it necessary to use
but single wire to form the Geographic line may per-
aps be- considered the most important features Of the
invention.
The following brief description will to give
better idea Of the construction and operation OF the
telegraph.
part of the machinery consists Of a wheel, upon
the periphery of which % types 26 Of these are
the letters of the alphabet Is dot or period, and
the other hyphen This wheel is caused to revolve
by mechanical force; but its motion is controlled by
broken closed. it can be stopped by the operator
who is sending the message from the other end of the
line. Near the type wheel is cylinder, with paper
round it, and when the type wheel stops, the cylin-
der being moved by a mechanical force, which s regu
lated by the motion of the type wheel, is brought
against it, and the paper receives impression from
one of the types. The magnet controls the type
wheel by moving very ingeniously arranged valve,
and admitting the atmosphere to press upon piston,
on the other side of which is partial vacuum This
piston in turn gives motion to dead heat escapement,
working against pins upon the side of the type Wheel
that at each motion Of the magnet up down, Us
the circuit may happen to be broken or closed the
escapement liberates the type wheel, and allows
1t to make LIS of revolution that is, the
periphery through space equal to the
distance from one type to the next The ope-
key board having twentyeight ivory faced keys, not
unlike those Of pianoforte Twentysix of these re-
present the letters of the alphabet the dot Pc
rod before spoken Of and the other the hyphen Be-
meath the key board, is horizontal shaft extending
the length Of the board and leaving twenty eight small
pins projecting from its face These pins are placed
beneath each key and form spiral line about the
shaft, making o single turn from end to end. Upon
end of the shaft is wheel having fourteen teeth
its periphery these teeth with the fourteen spaces
between them correspond to the pins the shaft and
to break Close the may be- the electric
circuit in the following manner: Of the poles of
the battery generator of electricity the negative say
is in continual contact with the side of the Wheel the
other positive pole rests the end of the
teeth Of the shaft and consequently the whole set
in motion by mechanical force; and as the wheel re-
wolves the circuit is closed whenever the positive pole
passes over TOOTH and is broken whenever it passes
over space.
The motion Of the shaft controlled by the operator
thus from the under side Of each key, projects fat
pin against which, when the key is pressed down. the
corresponding pin on the shaft will catch it comes
around in its revolution and the shaft to stop
Then in order to transmit particular letter to the
other end Of the line is only for the opera
torthe parts Of the machine at the two ends Of the
line having been put in concidence-to press down
the key representing that letter stop the key shaft
maintain the circuit broken or closed as the positive
pole may happen to be the space tooth indicating
the lester on the circuit wheel when the type wheel
will be stopped, the paper cylinder brought up to 1t,
and the paper receive impression of the letter
presented by the key pressed down. REPORTER.