AN IMPROVE- MENT IN TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
Year: 1859

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Molesworth at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 18th March
1859. A communication from Frederick Newton Gisborne and Francis
O. J. Smith, of Boston, in the United States of America.
I, JOHN MOLESWORTH, of Rochdale, in the County of Lancaster, Gentle-
man, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVE-
MENT IN TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION," to be as follows:-
First, the Inventors employ an entire metallic conducting circuit in combi-
nation with any known generators of galvanism, electricity, or electro-mag-
netism, and with any known mode of breaking and closing such circuit at.
pleasure, and with or without electro-magnets, according as electro-magnetic
or electro-chemical instruments or machines aro desired to be operated for
telegraphic purposes.
Secondly, one such generator is to be employed at every station for the main
circuit, from which intelligence is to be sent to any other station by means of
the said combination, and the same is to be adjusted to the circuit, and to the
other aforesaid known agencies in the manner herein-aftor described, so as
not to have such generator brought into action except only when intelligence is
being transmitted from such station, whether such station be a terminal or
intermediate station of such metallic circuit.
Thirdly, they employ for such conducting circuit any metallic rod, wire, or
cord of any sufficient conducting capacity, to transmit the current so generated
of the desired intensity and. quantity, the conductor being extended from one

page_text: pole of said generator to each station to be communicated with, and. 'there
adjusted to and combined with the required electro-magnetic or electro-
chemical instruments or machines as herein-after described, and theuce: back
to the other pole of such generator, such conductor being also extended on
supports above ground or buried in the ground, or through any body of water
that may intervene between such stations, and without any of the known or
used modes of insulation in the hitherto constructed electro-galvanic or magnètic
telegraphs, it being a peculiarity of this improvement and combination to wholly
'dispense with all denominations of artificial insulation of the conducting circuit
employed bitherto & deemed essential in the construction and working of
electro-magnetic and electro-chemical telegraph lines. In the improve-
ment the ground and water being alike incapable of use for any part of the
conducting circuit.
Fourthly, any known instrument or machine, or mode of recording, mark-
ing, or printing signs or letters, or of sending or forming magnetic or electric
signals of intelligence, or of deflecting magnetic needles or bars at distant
points or places from the operator, may be employed or used in the circuit
aforesaid, assisted or combined as herein described, and at each and every
station that may be desired.
Fifthly, they refer to the following example for further illustration of the
combination and adjustment of the several parts of a telegraph line constructed
according to their improvement. This illustration supposes three distinct
stations distant from cach other, and in like manner any number of stations
may be included in a circuit. A well-known lever key is applied at each of
the stations for breaking and closing the circuit. To one end of this key,
which is metallic, and forms a section of the main conductor under all circum-
stances, is attached the main conductor, which at that point is formed into a
spiral or other spring of sufficient strength to maintain the key when not
operated upon in a position of contact at its opposite end with a metallic point
beneath the same. The said key has an adjustable metal screw, which, when
the key is pressed downwards by the operator, is brought in contact with a
metal point or anvil, and breaking the previous circuit. From the anvil is
extended a section of the metal conductor to one pole of the generator afore-
said. From the opposite pole of the generator another section of the metal
conductor is extended and joined to the conductor that leads to the current
coils of an electro-magnet when one is required to be used in the combination..
for the purpose of working a local conducting circuit, or any magnetic instru-
ment or machine for telegraphic purposes, or to the electro-chemical instru-
ment or machine. From the metallic point or auvil another section of the
4.
C

page_text: main conductor is extended to and joined with the aforesaid section of con-
ductor that connects the generator with the said current coils or electro-
chemical apparatus. From the opposite extremity of the said current coils
or electro-chemical apparatus, the main conductor is continued to the next
station, when the same combination of key, sectional conductors, generator of
galvanism, electricity, or electro-magnetism, and magnetic or electric instru-
ments or machines is employed in and forms part of the main conducting cir-
cuit, and in like manner to and for as many more stations as may be required
From the foregoing description it will be apparent that with the key's
throughout the circuit at rest upon their respective anvils, the metallic circuit
is complete without any generator in action; and that whenever the key of
any station is pressed downwards, and the metallic points are brought in con-
tact, the aforesaid metallic circuit is broken at that station only, and the circuit'
is reformed through the generator of that station, and the section or conductors'
connected with the opposite poles of that generator, and the current of elec-'
tricity or galvanism acts throughout the entire circuit, and brings into use.
each aforesaid instrument or machine combined therewith at each of the'
stations in the circuit, but leaves every other generator. in the circuit out
of action.
EXPLANATION OF THE LAW OF THE IMPROVEMENT IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF
THE CONDUCTING CIRCUITS.
The nearer the capacity of the wire forming the current coils that may be
used in the main circuit approaches an equality in conducting capacity with
the main conductor, the more perfectly will the current be transmitted or or
maintained in equality of intensity and power throughout the circuit, as the
reduced capacity of any section of the circuit, however short, either by lessening
the size of it or otherwise, reduces in a like degree the capacity of the entire
circuit, and thereby establishes an affinity between it and the interposed con-
ductors of corresponding inferior capacity, and creates through the latter a
short circuit. So long as an equality or uniformity of the capacity of the con-
ductor for the current is maintained, no inferior conductor of a shorter circuit
will divert the current so much as to interfere with the successful working of-
the telegraph line constructed with the improvement herein described, what-
ever may be the extent of its circuit. Hence the ability which is claimed for
such line to work for telegraphic purposes without any artificial insulation

page_text: under the combination of apparatus above described through any distance of
earth, air, or water, the true law being that a current will not leave a supe-
rior conductor, whatever may be its length, for an inferior one of shorter length,
to an extent that will interrupt its use for telegraphic purposes.
The only practicable mode, moreover, of working an insulated metallic
circuit is by the above combination of an independent circuit, or its equivalent,
by which the only generator of a current brought into action at one time on
the line is that immediately under the control (for breaking and closing its
current circuit) of the transmitting operator. As it is impracticable for him to
break or close an entire circuit of a distant generator, for the reason that as
soon as the metallic current of a distant generator is broken, the portion of
current intervening between the operator so breaking the circuit and the
distant generator of electricity is reduced to the capacity of any conductor
which is touched by such intervening portion of the circuit, and a short circuit
is thereby immediately established for such distant generator, and the recording
or telegraphic instruments combined with the generator at such distant point
cannot, in consequence of such short circuit, be worked by such distant
operator, he cannot break and close the shorter circuit which the distant
generator under such circumstances seeks not although it be of an inferior
conducting capacity.