Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1858-08-12

tion in which the electrical current passes
along the wire. The pole which will be north
when the current passes in one direction, will
be south when the current runs the opposite
way. The apparatus relied upon by the Com
pany to effect this object is an improvement
upon the relay magnet, which figured in
Messrs Cooke and Wheatstone's g patent The
advantage of il is, that the temporary magnet
has no other work to do than to make the small
permanent magnet traverse upon its almost
frletlonless pivot. On account of this pecu-
lIarity Of construction, it possesses the utmost
sensibility. 1t may be put into vigorous &C.
ton by sixpence, and fragment of zinc
placed on the moist tongue. When two or
three OF these instruments are scattered about
IN the room where the large double induction
coils are at work, they are commonly heard
clicking backwards and forwards automati-
caily, and doing little business on their own
account, although no current Of any kind is
thrown upon theircoils. They are then merely
traversing upon their pivots, Obediently to the
magnetic attraction Of the great bars having
their magnetism successfully reversed some
two or three yards away, and, curiously
enough, are sympathetically recording, at
such times, precisely the same signals and
messages that the great magnets are sending
OF through the Transmission coils.
THE RECORDING MACHINERY.
The actual recording work of the telegraph
will be performed by the ordinary instrument
of Professor More In this recording instru-
ment, ribbon Of paper is enrolled from
hollow cylinder or drum by a train of clock
work, and as it is unrolled, sharp style, mag
netically directed indents a series of dots or
lines upon the paper.
When the style is thrust down oply for an
instant, as the paper is dragged beneath. a dot
is impressed. When it is kept down a little
more than an instant, a heightened line or dash
Is left on the onward moving paper as a track
But how is the style thus magnetically con-
troiled 1t is held up by a strong spring. Be-
meath 1t there is strong iron bar, which be-
comes a magnet whenever a ycltaic current ia
turned on from the local battery along a coil
surrounding it. Whenever the soft iron bar
becomes magnet, 1T is stronger than the spring,
and drags down the style to make its dot or
dash, as the case may be, When it ceases to
be magnet, the spring comes into play and
lifts the style up, so that the paper trayerses
on beneath, traceless and free. The styIe is
held down an instant, or more than an instant
accordingly as an instantaneous or as a pro-
longed current is sent from the transmission
coil, and therefore from the local recording
battery through the short circuit, for as il has
been seen the two will be in magnetic and eIec-
trical rapport, although severed by the Allan
tics breadth.
laid down in the Atlantic, but yet enough dis
tinct signals can be tran mitted by this one
wire to accommodate all the letters of the al
phabet and the several numerals When a
message is sent across the Atlantic, the crank
handle Of the mighty battery will be worked
backward and forward, making its contacts
instantaneous or prolonged. When they are
instantaneous dots will be formed on the paper
ribben by the recording style at the other side
OF the Atlantic; when they are protracted,
dashes will be traced there. Words will be
sPelt according to the way in which instanta.
neOus and protracted contacts, and therefore
dots and dashes, are caused to succeed each
other. The trace on the paper in America will
correspond TO the movement of the hand in
Great Britain, or Vice UsrSa. The clerks who
attend at the recording instrument become so
expert in their curious hieroglyphics that they
do not need to look at the printed record to
know what the message under reception ia; the
recording instrument has for them an intelligi-
bic articulate language. They understand its
speech. They can close their eyes and listen
to the strange clicking that is going on close to
their ear, while the printing is in progress and
at once say what ii all means