Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1858-08-23
The Atlantic TcIegraph-HOw il will
be Worked

mated or perpetual Maintenance Battery ON
account of the one marked popularity which
especially fits it for the employment it is de-
signed for. This battery is made upon the
Since principle. so far as the adoption OF pla-
tiniZed silver and zinc for its plates is con-
cerned; but it differs from every form of COM
| bination that has hitherto been in use, in hav-
| ing the plates of each cell so subdivided into
subordinate portions. that any one of these
| may be taken away from the rest for the pur-
| pose of renewal or repair, without the action
| of the rest of the excited surface of the cell
beign suspended for single moment. The
battery, in fact NAV be entirely renewed a
! hundred times without its operation having
| been troubled with even passing intermission.
| So long as a fair amount of attention is given
| ts the renewal of its zinc element, piece meal,
| ii is indeed literally eXhaustless and perma.
| nent. This very desirable quality is secured
by singularly simple and ingenious con-
| trivance The cell itself is formed of qua
triangular trough of gutta percha, wood
strengthened outside, in which dilute acid is
contained, the proportion of acid to water
being one part in fifteen or sixteen. There
are grooves sin the gutta percha into viii
several metal plates slide in vertical posi-
ton. These plates are silver and zinc alter
nately, but they are not pairs of plates in an
electrical sense. Elch zinc plate rests firmly
at the bottom on a long bar of zinc, which
runs from end to end of the trough. and thus
virtually unites the whole into one continuous
extent of zinc, presenting not less than 1000
square inches of eXcitable surface to the ex-
citing liquid.
Each silver plate hangs in similar way
from metallic bar, which runs from end to
end of the trough above, the whole of the
silver being thus virtually united into one
continuous surface of equal extent 10 the
face of the zinc. The zinc docs not reach
so high as the upper longitudinal bar, and
the silver does not hang down as low as the
inferior longitudinal bar. The battery is thus
composed of single pair OF laminated plates
although to the eye it seems to be made up
of several pairs of plates.
Nature has set the example of arranging
extended surfaces into reduplicating folds
when ii is required that such surface shall be
packed away in narrow space at the same
Time that large acting area is preserved in
the lamnated antenp of the cock-chafer.
autenn@, indeed. are the types of the White
house battery. If any one of these redupli-
Gated scgments of either kind of metal is re-
moved, the remaining portion continues its
action steadily. the effect merely being the
same that would be produced if a fragment of
an ordinary pair of plates were temporarily
cut away. TIE silver lamna are of consider
able thickness. and securely 'platinate" all
OvcT-that is, platinum is thrown down upon
not merely in the black pulverulent state;
consequently they are almost exempt from
wear. Each zinc lamina is withdrawn as soon
as it amalgamatiOn is injuriOusly affected, or
so soon as its own substance is mainly eaten
away by the action OF the chemical menstrum
in which it is emerssd and d freshly amalga-
mated, or new zinc lamina, is inserted into
its own place. The capability of the piece
meal renewal of the cOnsumptive element Of
IL.
mrntary way, is then the cause of its ''perpet-
ual aintaining' power. The intensity of a
vottaic arrangement depends upon the num-
Der of it's pairs of plates, or cells. IT, in the
experiment, the intensity of the electricity
had been increased, without any alteration OF
quantity, merely by multiplying the number
of the cells engaged or by some analogous
modification OF Instrumental agency, the body
which resisted the current of the battery with
such complete effect would have been flashed
through aud burnt up. like fragment of
metal that had inferior powers of resistance.
TRANSMISSION OF THE CURRENT.-The pri-
mary voltaic current procured from this
battery. will he used to stimulate and call
up" energies of those ileeter messengers,
electrical in nature, by the aid of which alone
can the message be expedited. The voltaic
current therefore passed to a siik-covered
wire. in innumerable coils. enveloping a bar
-
pereha.-Several miles of thislfne wire (No
20) are twined about this iron centre; then
comes another coat of gutta-percha, then
another coil of wire, thicker this time, NO.
40 and ii miles in length. The voltaic
current, passing through the wires, and
reaching iron core, converts il into power
tul magnet, exciting current of electricity
which is delivered to the No. 20 coil and
thence to the cable. whence it d parts on its
rs..ag
thus produced in the first instance magnet
ism, and magnetism having reproduced cleo
tricity, "A transmissive power is obtained,
which the original current did not possess
The RECEIVING INsrRUMENr.-The tran
mission current generated in these double in-
duction coils, on reaching the further side of
the Atlantic, will of course have become
somewhat faint and weak from the extent of
the Journey IL has performed. Ii will not,
therefore, be set in this state TO print or to
hard work; but it will be thrown into "a sort
of nursery, known as the receiving instru-
meut where its tagging energies will b.
restored. The conducting strand of the cable
will be here made continuous with coil of
wire surrounding bar OF sofl iron, which
will become a temporary magnet. strong in
proportion To the number of turns in the coil.
Whenever the current passes
This temporary magnet will have its pre-
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 II ruus the opposite way. The appara-
tus relied upon by the Company To effect this
obiect.i il an Improvement upon the relay mag
net. which figured in Messrs. Cooke and
Wheatstone's patent The advantage of il is.
that the temporary magnet has no other work
to do than ID make the small permanent mag
ali -faffn
On account of this peculiarly OF consIruc-
lion, il Possesses the utmost seusibility. IL
may b. put into vigorous action Ivy six
pence, and fragment OF zinc placed on the
moist tongue. When two or three OF these
instruments are scatt red about in the room
where the large double induction coil are at
work, they are commonly heard clicking
backwards and forwards automatically, and
doing n little business on their own account,
although no current of any kind is thrown
upon their coils. They are then merely ira
versing upon their piyots, obedieutly TO the
magnetic ATTRACTIONS OF the great bars. having
their magnetism successfully reversed souns
two or three yards away, and curiously
enough, are alphabetically recording, at
such times, precisely the same Signals and
messages that the great magnets are sending
of through the Transmission eoils-
Tux RECORDING AAeHISERY.--Thc actual
recording work OF the Telegraph viii DE per
formed by the ordinary instrument Of Prot
horse. Ia thss recording Instrument ribbon
Of paper Is enrolled from hollow cylinder OF
drum by lrs.a Of clock work. and as IL l.
unrolled sharp style, magnetieally directed,
indeats q series 81 dots ar lines upon the pa
per. When the style Is thrust down only for
an instant u the paper IL dragged beneath. a
do L. Impressed. whsn IL is kept dawn for =
little msre than aa Instant heightened line
or dasA IL len on the onward moving paper ~
track.
Bai how is the style thas magastieaily
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