Marshall County independent. (Plymouth, Marshall County, Ind.) 1897-1902, 1898-08-26
SCIENTIFIC TOPICS
CURRENT NOTES OF DISCOV-
cry AND INVENTION.
New Signal System-Morse Code of
Visual Telegraphy on Land and Sea-
The Apparatus Is Inexpensive-Ho
1t Is Done.

Many inventions, most Of which have
been impracticable from mechanical
point of view, have been placed before
the public with the object of produc-
ing sensible and accurate method OF
signaling at sea from places on land
that could not be connected by wire
The need of such a system is clearly
shown by the difficulty experienced by
our army in Cuba and our fleet Of war
vessels in those waters Conversation
has been carried on hitherto by means
OF flags representing words and SEN
fences in a code by semaphores and
by Telescopes, wigwagging, etc. The
communication has been necessarily
slow and the exchange of ideas linn
tied. The wigwag is utterly useless at
night and the same objection applies
to nearly every other system that has
been presented
The latest invention, and one that is
so entirely practical and simple that
1t is wonder that it has not been
discovered long ago, is known as Wis
ual telegraph" and was made by Mel
vim d. Compton of New York city. II
is effective ether day or night and
messages can be transmitted between
vessels at sea or between different
places on land any distance that the
eye can reach with the aid of a field
or marine glass. 1t uses a keyboard
containing all the letters of the alpha
bet and numerals, and is so construct
ed that when an electric circuit is
closed at any desired letter or figure
on the board the characters in the
Morse alphabet corresponding to the
letter at once appear on a standard to
be read. These characters can be of
any dimensions.
On ships these may be made to ap-
pear at a masthead or any suitable
height from the deck convenient for
observation from another vessel or
point of land from 10 to 20 miles away.
Vessels equipped with this contrivanCe
can transmit messages of any nature
by use of the ordinary telegraph alpha
bet, and war vessels having their own
private code are enabled to transmit
information from vessel 10 vessel with
absolute secrecy and accuracy 1t is
only necessary to have a telegraph op-
orator.
The apparatus is simple and mex
pensive, and the cost of maintenance
is trif1ing where a dynamo circuit is
obtainable. In isolated places, where
no electric light circuit can be had,
storage batteries may be used The es-
sential features Of the apparatus are
a signal board upon which the signals
are displayed. a keyboard of the ordi-
nary plug switch design and the prop
er electrical connection upon the sur
face of the signal board are arranged
a series of round holes and rectangular
spaces covered with plain Or colored
glass, back of which are lights and
refectOrs. The enclosing glass front
is formed of lenses of such material
and shape as best 10 project to a dis
lance the rays emitted from the
source of light. Each lamp is inclosed
IN separate compartment, and is so
arranged that the rays from one source
do not reflect or interfere with those
from another.
The signal board is arranged in two
rows in the following order: Three
circles, rectangle and five circles on
the upper line and three circles and
two rectangles alternating in the lower
line. With this arrangement every
character in the Morse alphabet can
be displayed in the smallest space.
The operator simply sits at the key
board and closes each circuit required
by inserting a metal plug in such a
way that the circuit is made complete,
and Immediately the characters are
flashed out from the signal board. For
example, if ii is desired to send the
command Advance" the operator in
serts the plug in the hole marked A,
and lights appear on the board behind
a rectangle and an adjacent circle
which the operator reads thus o..
He next withdraws the plug and inserts
it in the hole marked ID and the char
acters on the board-o, will appear.