IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRIC LETTERS
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Nathaniel John Holmes, Gentleman, of Glasgow,
County Lanark, Scotland, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRIC
LETTERS PATENT to Nathaniel John Holmes, Gentleman, of Glasgow,
County Lanark, Scotland, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRIC
TELEGRAPHS. AND APPARATUS CONNECTED THERE WITH."
TELEGRAPHS. AND APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH."
"
Sealed the 28th October 1859, and dated the 28th April 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Nathaniel John Holmes
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
27th April 1859.
I, NATHANIEL JOHN HOLMES, Gentleman, of Glasgow, County Lanark,
Scotland, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE.
MENTS IN ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS, AND APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH," to be
as follows; and in reference to my Inventions and improvements in signal
apparatus for the receiving or transmission of electric currents for telegraphic
or other purposes, either as regards visible, audible, or printing indications
received from distant stations or from local currents.
Firstly, I claim the use for telegraphic indications of coils constructed in
such a manner as to secure to any transmitted or received current an inductive
influence, always parallel to the axis of motion and polarity of any magnetized
substance placed within the sphere of that influence, either externally or
internally.

page_text: Secondly, I claim the use of such construction of coils whereby the polarity
of the needle or indicators is always preserved at a uniform distance from the
influence of the coil during the motion derived from any transmitted or
received current.
Thirdly, I claim the particular arrangement of conductor and parts necessary
to secure these maximum effects of any current upon any magnetized or indi-
cating needle or apparatus, used either for direct transmission of signals or for
local action, either as a visible, audible, or printing telegraph, or any other
apparatus wherever electric, electro, or magnetic currents are used, either
directly derived, or through induced apparatus, such not being for telegraphic
application.
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Fourthly, I claim the use of two parallel or diverging magnetized needles
or other indicators, used in connection with the parallelism of axis of motion
with the direction of inductive influence of electric currents (as afore-
mentioned). so that each needle is in opposition to the axis of such inductive
influence during any motion derived from any current or currents.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Nathaniel John Holmes in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 28th October 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME. I, NATHANIEL
JOHN HOLMES, Gentleman, of Hampstead, in the County of Middlesex, and of
Glasgow, County Lanark, Scotland, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-second
year of Her reign, did, for Herself. Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Nathaniel John Holmes. Her special licence that I,
the said Nathaniel John Holmes, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Nathaniel John Holmes, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time
to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an
Invention for "IMPROVEMENT IN ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS, AND IN APPARATUS CON-
NECTED THEREWITH," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Nathaniel John Holmes, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in

page_text: writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great
Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Nathaniel John Holmes, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the fol-
lowing statement:-
My Invention consists of a new combination and arrangement of parts and
conductors for the transmission or reception of an electric current or currents,
either transmitted or received through a telegraphic or other circuit,
whereby the inductive influence of the said current or currents shall always
be preserved parallel to the axis of motion and polarity of any magnetized
substance placed within the sphere of that influence, either externally or
internally, and for causing the same to be recorded or printed at a distant
station.
And whereas during the year 1848 I invented and published a brief descrip-
tion of a coil, which I termed a "radial" coil for telegraphic purposes, but
which Invention was never perfected or brought info use; I have now, by
new combinations and arrangement of parts, improved and completed the same,
and will proceed to describe more particularly the several parts of these
improvements, and in what manner the same is to be performed; observing,
however, that each part has its independent originality, and may be combined
or associated with other apparatus already known.
The first improvement consists of the coil and coil frame, by which the
parallelism of the current is preserved in its inductive influence to the axis of
motion of the needle or other magnetized substance within its influence.
Fig. 1 is a front elevation, Fig. 2 a side elevation, Fig. 3 a sectional elevation,
and Fig. 13 a plan in section, of a coil constructed according to this improve-
ment, the detail of parts connected therewith being shown severally in Figs. 4,
5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.
The coil frame, Fig. 1, is constructed of pieces A, A, B, B, in such a
manner that the sides A, A, shall be as radii and parallel to the motion of any
magnetized needle or indicator moving freely round the centre e. The
cheeks B, B, serve to secure the angular position of the sides, and also to
form the hollow segmental core, shown in elevation and section, Figs. 2, 3, and
in plan, Fig. 13, whereby the polarity of the needles or indicators is always
preserved at a uniform distance from the influence of the coil during the motion

page_text: derived from any transmitted or received current. The coil frame being con-
structed in one piece, the axis of motion of the needle or other apparatus is
secured by means of the small tube e fixed at right angles to the cheek B, in a
line with the centre of motion, and through which an axle passes from the
interior needle to carry the pointer required for visible or external
indications on the dial plate of the instrument, as shown in Fig. 14.
b, b, are pieces attached to the sides of the coil frame, for receiving the screws
of the external bearing of the axle d, d. The coil frame may be fitted to slide
in and out of the instrument in a vertical position, or it may assume a hori-
zontal position, as shown, Fig. 13, a corresponding slit being cut in the dial
to admit the passage of the external pointer; or the dial may be formed in two
portions, as at D, D, Fig. 11, the upper portion being raised on withdrawing
the coil and needle.
Fig. 1 shows the mode in which I wind the insulated conducting wire round
the frame to form the coil, the dotted lines a, a, a, representing the position
of the strands in one of the several layers of insulated wire that form the coil,
and by which the inductive influence of any current, either transmitted or
received, is preserved parallel to the axis of motion and polarity of any mag-
netized substance placed within the sphere of its influence. The construction
and details of the axle carrying the indicator are shown in Fig. 4
to 11, the interior centre of motion being a point or pivot fixed in a line with
the centre of the tube e, and capable of lateral adjustment by the plate to which
it is attached sliding between the pieces f, f, in the interior of the hollow core.
The exterior bearing is shown in Figs. 2 and 10. A fine-threaded
screw c works through the bridge piece d, d, carrying, for greater
accuracy, a jewel at its extremity, centred also in a line with the axis of the
tube e. The axle g of the needle or indicators is formed with a fine pivot at
the extremity opposed to the screw, the other end being turned with a shoulder
and fine screw, shown enlarged at Fig. 6, of size sufficient to admit
of its passage through the tube e into the centre of the coil, the face or end of
this screw likewise carrying a fine hole or jewel, and working over the adjust-
ing pin f, f, before mentioned. By this means the free motion of the axle is
secured, and any motion transmitted to it by the interior needle is transferred
to the exterior hand or pointer. The pointer is carried by a small nut and
shoulder g¹, Fig. 7, which fits on to the squared end of the axle g, and may be
limited in its motion from right to left by means of stops, as is well understood.
small
The interior magnetized bars or needles are carried upon a
cradle h, Fig. 8, which screwing on to the end of the axle, is brought firmly
into place by the shoulder piece; by such an arrangement the needles can be

page_text: easily removed when required from the coil for readjustment. The combination
which I prefer to use in connection with this coil, as being the most effective,
is that of two magnetized needles or bars with their poles in the same direction,
placed parallel to one another, and retained in this position by passing through
the spring bearings c', c', at each extremity of the cradle h, Fig. 9; by this
means they can be adjusted accurately to a balance on the axle g. Sometimes,
in place of parallel needles. I use them converging at an angle,
which forms an arc of the segment of the coil; or a single mag-
netized bar may be used in connection with this coil or other combinations of
needles or magnetized bars. When very feeble currents are required to be
measured or registered, I sometimes suspend the needle or needles by a cocoon
or silk fibre through the centre of the tube e, the coil being placed in a hori
zontal position to avoid the friction of the several bearings, by which means I
obtain the most delicate indications, with feeble currents over long circuits.
When an exterior pointer is not required, I construct the coil frame without the
axle tube e, the needle arrangement being complete in itself, and inserted or
withdrawn from the centre of the coil without any disarrangement of parts, the
bearings of the needle or needles being adjusting pins or pivots fixed to the
small carrying frame. Fig. 13 is a plan and section, and Fig. 14 an elevation
and section, of the arrangement of conductor and parts by which I secure the
maximum effects of any current upon any magnetized or indicating needle or
apparatus used either for direct transmission of signals, or for local action,
either as a visible, audible, or printing telegraph, such currents being trans-
mitted either directly derived, or through induced apparatus, through long or
short circuits. A is the coil frame, constructed as herein-before mentioned,
and carrying within the centre core one or other of the combination of needles
before described, moving as a radius round the centre C. To the
extremities of one of the needles two small mirrors m, m, are attached, moving
in an arc of a circle with the needle or needles when influenced by the induc-
tion of the coil. m, m³, are two plane mirrors placed at an angle of 45° with
the plane of the mirrors m, m, when they lie in a position parallel to a line
drawn through the centre of the axis of the coil A, A. L, L, are two luminous
points, either electric, solar, or artificial light, enclosed in a chamber, egress
being afforded to a pencil of light through the orifice t; the reflector R may be
arranged to concentrate the light upon this apperture. P, p', is a strip of
paper passing over rollers through a darkened chamber, with a continuous
motion, as is well understood, the paper previously having been prepared or
saturated with one of the most sensitive mediums to the action of light, suit-
able provision being made as is well understood in the practice of photography,

page_text: for the fixing or retention of the image or marks thrown upon the surface o
the paper by the combined action of the mirrors, the uniform advance of the
paper, at such times when the inductive effects of the current are in operation
being regulated by any one of the methods known and in common application
for such a purpose.
When the needles are in their quiescent position N, S
and stationary, the luminous rays passing through the orifices t, t
will strike the mirrors m³, m³, at an angle of 45°, and be reflected
in the line m, m, which, impinging upon the mirrors m. m, attached to the
extremities of the needle or needles, will, in its turn, be reflected in the direc-
tion m, m, perpendicular to the plane of the needles upon the prepared
paper p, p, and register a double continuous mark as the paper passes through
the chamber. When any motion is imparted to the needles N, S, by the induc-
tive influence of a current in one direction, as N', S", the angle of deflection
is registered upon an enlarged scale, according to the distance of the paper,
by the luminous point m", reflected from one of the mirrors m, the other mirror
being thrown out of the field, the angle of reflection s, s', falling within the
coil. In the same manner any motion of the needles in an opposite direction,
as NS, will be registered upon the paper p, p, at m", the
former mirror being in its turn withdrawn from the field of external reflection.
Thus it will be seen that the two spots of light can only be thrown upon the
field at the same time when the needles lie at rest in their dormant position;
and that, whatever deflections are assumed by the needles, either to the right
or left of this point, the angle of such motions will be registered, and always
fall within the field m", m", the photographic printing or marks upon the
paper being after the manner represented in Fig. 12; those caused by the
motion of the needles to the right of the dormant position, and those in an
opposite direction being severally shown at a, a, a, and a', a¹, each divergence
of line indicating a distinct beat of the needle, by which means signals; either
of equal or unequal duration, may be read off in the manner well known and
in common use.
I thus secure a self-adjusting compensation for earth or variable currents,
independent of the motion obtained by the transmission or reception of currents,
and that without interruption or interference with the signals obtained by such
transmitted or received currents.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same may be performed, I would have it understood that I do not confine
myself to the exact details described, as the mechanical arrangements may be
much varied without departing from my Invention; what I claim is,-
First, the use for telegraphic or other purposes of coils constructed as

page_text: described, in such a manner as to secure to any transmitted or received current
an inductive influence, always parallel to the axis of motion and polarity of
any magnetized substance placed within the sphere of that influence, either
externally or internally.
Secondly, the use of such construction of coils whereby the polarity of the
needle or indicators is always preserved at a uniform distance from the influence
of the coil during the motion derived from any transmitted or received
current.
Thirdly, the particular arrangement of conductors and parts necessary to
secure these maximum effects of any current upon any magnetized or indicating
needle or apparatus used either for direct transmission of signals, or for local
action, either as a visible, audible, or printing telegraph, as herein described.
or for any other apparatus where ever electric, electro, or magnetic currents
are used, either directly derived, or through induced apparatus, such not being
for telegraphic application.
Fourthly, the use of two parallel or diverging magnetized needles or other
indicators, used in combination with the parallelism of axis of motion with the
direction of inductive influence of electric currents, as before described, so that
each needle is in opposition to the axis of such inductive influence during any
motion derived from any current or currents.
In witness whereof, I, the said Nathaniel John Holmes, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this the Twenty-eighth day of October, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
Witness,
DUNCAN M. WEST.
NATH". J. HOLMES. (L.S.)
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