The record-union., 1898-05-16
SIGNALS BY TELEPHOTOs.
NEW METHOD OF COMMUNICA-
TION IN THE NAVY.
Red and White Electric Lights
Operated by Keyboard Like
Typewriter's.

A little over two weeks ago in the tel
egraph news from Washington ap-
peared the brief announcement that the
Navy Department had decided to aban-
don the use of the Ardois system of
night signals and equip the ships OF
the American navy with the telephotos
for night communication. What the
telephotos is or how it is operated was
not stated, and it is probable that out
side of the navy and the allied depart
ments few persons know anything
about it.
The telephotos is, as its name implies,
a system of light telegraphy, or tele-
graphing by a system of lights, and 1t
is at once the most powerful accurate
and simple appliance yet devised for the
transmission of orders and signals from
ship to ship at night under any and all
conditions of water, wind and weather.
BY means Of the telephotos any mes
sage, letter, cipher order or code signal
can be sent from a flagship TO any and
all vessels within visual range, and by
another telephotos on another ship can
be repeated or the answer flashed back.
All of this, too can be done by an op-
orator standing before little instru-
ment that looks like the pinnacle of
yacht, and playing a set of keys within
its hood marked with letters like those
of a typewriter, and pressed in almost
the same manner.
The part of the telephotos that dis
plays the message to the other ships
consists of a string of four lanterns
similar in appearance to those that are
set on the rear platforms of railway
trains to warn locomotives behind. This
string hangs vertically from the yard or
mast Of the vessel, the lanterns being
about fourteen feet apart On closer
examination it will be seen, however,
that these lanterns are widely different
in structure from those of the railway
trains. In the first place. each lamp is
double; that is, it has two globes, one
above the other, one white and one red,
and both of the most powerful lens
form Inside of each is separate
group of incandescent electric lamps.
These globes are carried in powerful
brass frames, and each lamp is water,
air and gas tight, that no rain or smoke
or powder gas may penetrate to dim the
light from within. The sailors are re-
sponsible for their outward brilliancy.
The four double lamps are carried by
two strong wire cables, and along one
of these supporting cables runs heav-
lily insulated electric cable, which car
ries the wires that run separately to
each half of the four suspended lamps
BY the wires of this cable it is possible
to light any one of the red or any one of
the white lights all of the red or all of
the white, or any possible combination
of the red and white lights. 1t is by
this combining of red and white lights
that any possible letter, number or
word, or any combination Of letters and
words, in any language or in any ci
pher can be shown, to be read by an
other operator on another ship.
The inventor of the telephotos is c.
Y. Boughton of Buffalo, a man who is
not a sailor and is in no way connected
with marine interests. It occurred him
one evening, when driving where he
could see the harbor lights at Buffalo,
that if a system could be devised so
that powerful red or white light could
be shown at will. by using the white
light as a dot and the red light as a
dash any message that could be sent
by telegraph could be flashed across
the water from ship to ship. That was
the basic principle of the telephotos,
and that is the method of it's operation
to-day, the important notifications be-
ing the combination of the several red
and white lights so that all the dots
and dashes of a letter or figure may be
shown at once and with one touch of
a key.
The keyboard of the telephotos is one
of its most essential features. It is,
first of all, water-tight, so that no rain
or spray from waves flying over the
bridge where the standard is located
can get inside to corrode or make
ross-connections. Each key carries
its letter or figure precisely as type
writer keys do, and the depression of
one of them makes the connections that
display the sign of the letter from the
lamps overhead. Thus, when the key
"a" is touched the top-white-sec-
tions of the two upper lamps send their
glow across the water Touch "B"
and the first. or top lamp, glows white;
the second and third red, and the low
er lamp white Touch CO.. and red,
white, red burns in the air, the colors
counting from the top down. An es-
sential feature of this keyboard is its
simpleness and positiveness. No key
can by any possibility make the wrong
N m n III IN