The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1881-11-10
Recent Improvements In Telegraphy.

Recent Improvements In Telegraphy.
The chief patents controlled by the
newly organized Postal Telegraph Com
pany are those known as the Leggo
rapid automatic system. patented this
spring by w. A. Leggo, an Englishman,
who has been in business in this city for
some years; the Leggo fac-simile sys-
tenn; the Gray harmonic multiple system
and the patent compound steel copper
Rapid Telegraph Company. These four
patents are what the new company re-
lies upon to make telegraphy so cheap
q telegraphic dispatch than to send q
written message through the mails.
A reporter of the EUenmg Post found
Mr.. Leggo at his workshop this morn
ing, and obtained from him and from
MI. Matthew Taylor, his partner, q
brief account of all these patents.
Taking the automatic system first,
the reporter was shown slowly re-
volving wheel or drum with diameter
of perhaps three feet and face, or
periphery of the wheel, about foot
and half wide and covered with
brightly polished zinc. Suspended
above this drum and almost in contact
with its cleaning surface was a COM
plicated sort of pen, which came in
contact with the zinc face of the wheel
whenever a current of electricity was
passed through the two magnets to
which it was attached. When the big
wheel turned round the so-called pen
moved slowly on q threaded rod across
the face of the wheel from left to right;
one complete turn of the drum was
sufficient to move the pen half an inch
across its surface. When a current was
sent through the pen it struck the zinc
noiselessly and sufficient aniline ink to
make distinct mark was deposited on
the surface of the wheel or drum. II
the pen was placed at the extreme left
edge of the face of the wheel and the
machine was started with the pen down,
the result would be continuous spiral
line of aniline ink.
If. to illustrate, the uncovered drum
was in a lathe, and person SHOULD,
while the lathe was in motion, place q
pencil against the surface of the drum and
Iaove it slowly from one end of the drum
tC the other, the result would be long
spiral mark. In Leggo's instrument
the pen strikes and leaves the zinc cyl.
inder in obedience to the workings ol
an ordinary Page telegraph key, and
the result on the cylinder is long spi-
raj line running around and around it.
composed of the dashes and dots pc.
culiar to the Morse alphabet, written
out in aniline ink. Now, if the pen is
bearing down upon the zinc surface ID
withdrawn and in its place steel stylus
substituted, it follows that q current
running from this stylus will be
broken just in accordance with the dots
and breaks marked on the cylinder, fol
aniline ink is q nOnconductor. Any
ordinary receiver will transmit these
dots and dashes to a paper tape. II
will be seen by those persons who are
familiar with the Rapid Telegraph
Company's system of using perforated
paper that there is similarity between
the systems, with the advantage of sim
plicity in favor of the new invention
| In this case no perforated stencil of the
message is required.
The working of the instrument is a.
follows: A message of half column i.
brought, say, for Albany. Tht
operator begins playing upon hi.
page clicker. Whenever he presses
the key, down goes the pei
upon the revolving zinc. After the
roller has revolved several times ant
the pen has advanced an inch or tive
from the edge, the ink along the frs
line of dots and dashes is dry enough t.
allow the dispatching stylus to be ap
piled. The operator calls for Alban,
and applies the stylus. A receiving
machine begins revolving in Albany
and every time the stylus in New Yorl
is lifted from the zinc by dash or do
of aniline ink, down goes the pen il
Albany and makes d correspondent!
mark ON the Albany tape. Thus lonI
before the New York man has go
through writing out his message tn
first part is in Albany. the stylus follow
ing after the pen within few lines.
The advantages of such an instrumen
are practically innumerable. In tn
first place the rapidity of the presen
mode of sending messages depend
largely upon the rapidity with whicl
the receiving clerk can interpret tn
clicking of the instrument before hin
and write it out. He will miss word
or get them wrong, and in receiving
message of only few words he is liza
BILE to ask the sender to begin again a
such u word. The new plan obviate
the difficulty, III the message can b
translated at leisure from the tape.
i Another important advantages is in tn
sending of relay messages. A messag
from here to San Francisco, for instance
cannot travel over one wire for NOR
4 h.,, ,;x tcrht
tally if the weather is stormy; it has t
be received AT Buffalo, sent on to Chi
cago, received there, sent on to Oman
and so on. until it gets to San Francisco
having been resent or " relayed' half
dozen times. with opportunities for el
rors at every relay. With the new in
vention the work is not touched fror
New York to San Francisco, except
put the different machines at the rela
stations into operation. Say that Ion
message is to 90 from New York to Sa
Francisco The New York operate
after getting few lines of mixed dot
and dashes on his cylinder, sets th
} stylus in motion; the stylus is connecte
with another pen and cylinder in th
. Buffalo office, which is in turn followe
by a stylus connected with third pc
and cylinder in the Omaha office, an
80 on to San Francisco; the whole wor
is automatic. There are no chance
for error, and nine-tenths of the labe
? needed in sending message in the O.
3 dinary way is rendered unnecessary.
L. The fac-simile system is an adaptatio
of the autom .tic system. Suppose tn,
J., line OF anline ink was drawn frol
. end to end of the cylinder and the st,
! lus put in motion, whenever it came
/ this line it would be lifted off the zir
and the pen of whatever machine
]. |