Improvements in or relating to Fac-simile Telegraphy.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 24th Jan., 1891
Complete Specification Left, 26th Nov., 1894-Accepted, 24th Apr., 1895
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or relating to Fac-simile Telegraphy.
We HARRY WILLIAM CHARLES Cox 51 Cricketfield Road, London Electrician,
and RICHARD JOSEPH CROWLEY, Telegraph Operator 10 Harbour Row,
Queenstown, Ireland, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:
—
This invention relates to improvements in fac-simile telegraphs, certain improve-
ments herein described being applicable to telegraph lines though the present
Specification deals more particularly with their application to transmit writing,
drawings, shorthand, signatures, maps, plans cipher and other written or printed
matter.
One improvement herein described makes it possible to transmit two distinct and
separate fac-simile messages, drawings, etc. simultaneously over the same wire the
two communications being transmitted and received automatically by means of
primary currents.
By the additional application of induced or secondary currents four or more
fac-simile communications may be telegraphed together.
For instance if two
separate messages, drawings, etc. are received for transmission the two messages, no
matter how different in subject matter, can be despatched together and by one
transmitting instrument while separate and faithful copies will be produced
simultaneously by the instrument at the receiving station.
The subject matter of one message may be in writing while the other may
contain a drawing and each message may consist of any combination of the subject
matter before-mentioned.
The above results are obtained by the following arrangement of batteries in
connection with the instruments and line and in a fac-simile telegraph by the
following described instruments-
Three or more batteries may be used two of these batteries being short circuited
with each other so that a current flows between them, one pole of each battery
running to the earth and its opposite pole to the line wire.
Two electro magnets are connected in the circuit formed by the two batteries
named, the positive pole of one battery being connected with one end of the coil
of one magnet and the negative pole of the other battery being connected to one
end of the coil of the other magnet. The other ends of the coils are connected
to the line wire. Slight modifications in the connections may be made without
interfering with the principle of the invention which consists of a telegraph line
running to the earth through an electric circuit at the receiving station and not
direct to the earth as heretofore.
This arrangement of batteries is designed for the receiving instrument though
by suitable connections and switches the batteries may be alternately used for the
transmitting and receiving instruments.
Two more batteries are connected in the main circuit and the principle of this
novel duplex system may be illustrated by closing the circuit of the main line and
by connecting different poles of a battery alternately to the line wire and earth.
It will thus be ascertained that either electro magnet at the receiving station
may be utilized at will, this effect being produced by the polarization of the
batteries. Two relays may be connected in the circuit at each station.

page_text: In the present application for the purposes of facsimile telegraphy each electro
magnet is caused to operate an armature or pen so that a revolving cylinder or
other suitable device near the magnets comes in contact with the pens when the
pens are operated by the closing of the main circuit. The cylinder as it revolves
may travel in a line with its axis so that each pen describes a spiral line around it
the surface of the cylinder being covered with paper or the substance upon which
the messages are received. Several copies of the messages may be received at
once by using sheets of suitable copying paper with carbonic paper between the
sheets as in the ordinary copying process. This system admits of styles being
used as pens. The messages may also be received on chemical paper or in ordinary
or coloured ink fountain pens being provided for the ink and so arranged that the
ink will not run except when actuated by the electro magnet.
The receiving cylinder need not be in the circuit unless chemical paper be used and
the two pens may be utilized to receive a single message each pen receiving part of
the message the pens being separated so that each covers one half of the cylinder
or space occupied by the message. It is obvious that two separate cylinders may
be used, one for each pen.
The transmitting station may have two cylinders but we may use only one which
may be insulated in the centre as the surface of the transmitting cylinders or
cylinder must be metallic the positive pole of one battery running to one half of
the cylinder and the negative pole of the other battery running to the other
insulated half of the cylinder the remaining poles of the batteries being connected
to the line and earth wires.
Two metallic pens or springs having small wheels on their points are in the
circuit and make or break it by electrical contact through an ink with the metallic
surface of the cylinder this cylinder rotating and travelling along its axis the same
as the receiving cylinder and the movements of each being synchronised by clock-
work or other suitable motive force.
The messages, drawings, etc. for transmission are inserted and secured in any
suitable manner between the surface of the cylinder and the metallic springs or
pens that make and break the circuit the messages being written in a conducting
ink on paper or other insulating material. The ink described below is an electrical
conductor and penetrates paper quickly without spreading.
The paper being an insulator and the ink a conductor, the circuit is closed and
the current flows when the wheels or points of the pens touch the conducting ink
and is broken and the current stopped when they touch the insulating paper.
The ink can be manufactured and sold the same as ordinary ink and therefore
messages in writing, shorthand or cipher and signatures, drawings, etc. can be
forwarded from one's residence, place of business, or from any point to the telegraph
office.
This should prove specially useful for reporters, artists, and war correspondents.
In a telegraph office it obviates the necessity of preparing a message for trans-
mission by first transcribing it into the Morse characters as at present when tape
machines are used.
The following ingredients make a good conducting ink :-
Nitric acid
A precipitate of tin, lead and sulphuric acid
-
100 parts by weight
10 parts by weight.
-
This precipitate is obtained by first melting the metal and when melted by
pouring sulphuric acid upor it until a compound resembling an oxide is formed.
This compound gradually becomes a liquid when exposed to the atmosphere but it
can be mixed at once with the nitric acid, a further chemical change then taking
place.
Any suitable colouring matter may be used.
Prussian or other blue imparts a blue colour to the ink, and any suitable
vegetable fibre or preparation may be added to obtain a red colour.

page_text: We would also claim as a transmitting ink for fac-simile and automatic telegraphs
any fluid or preparation capable of conducting electricity.
Dated this 22nd January 1894.
H. W. C. COX.
R. J. CROWLEY.
improvements in or relating to Fac-simile Telegraphy.
We HARRY WILLIAM CHARLES Cox of 51 Cricketfield Road, London
Electrician, and RICHARD JOSEPH CROWLEY of 10 Harbour Road Queenstown,
Ireland, Electrician, do hereby declare the nature of this invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement :—
This invention relates to improvements in facsimile telegraphy, certain improve-
ments herein described being applicable generally to telegraph lines, though the
present Specification deals more particularly with their application to transmit
facsimiles of writing, drawings, shorthand, signatures, maps, plans, cipher, or other
written or printed matter.
This invention consists of an improved method of and means used therein for the
transmission in facsimile of any kind of writing, drawings, or printed matter, and
of a further improvement which makes it possible to transmit two distinct and
separate facsimile messages, drawings, &c. over the same wire, the two com-
munications being transmitted and received automatically by means of primary
currents, and this arrangement is applicable to all facsimile telegraph lines,
whatever the form of message transmitted, and with various forms of the receiving
and transmitting instruments.
And in order that our invention may be the better understood, we now proceed
to describe the same in relation to the drawings annexed hereto, and to the letters
and figures marked thereon.
Fig. 1. is a perspective view of our transmitting and receiving apparatus for
facsimile telegraphy.
Fig. 2. is a diagram of electrical circuits, applicable to facsimile telegraphic
transmission of two distinct messages by primary currents upon the same wire.
To effect our facsimile telegraphy we employ a movable transmitting surface
which carries the writing or drawing, effected on an insulating material such as
paper, in the manner hereinafter more fully described, for facsimile transmission to
a similar movable receiving surface, carrying a suitable material for the reception
of the facsimile message or drawing.
Preferably we make such movable transmitting and receiving apparatus in the
form of a cylinder A on which is secured in any suitable manner, such as by the
spring clips B, the material a such as paper, upon one of which the drawing or
writing to be transmitted in facsimile has been made, by any ordinary or con-
venient. pen, with an ink (hereinafter more fully described) which is capable of
penetrating or permeating the insulating material or paper, without materially
spreading, and which renders such permeated ink line electrically conducting
through the substance of the insulating material such as paper on which the
message or design has been written or drawn.
The said transmitting and receiving cylinder A is mounted in a frame C so that
it is capable of revolution about its axis D in the said frame, and it is uniformly
rotated by any known clock work, electrical motor, weight, or other means, the
movements of the transmitting and receiving cylinders being accurately

page_text: '
synchronized, by any known means, of which many are well known, such as that
in which the pendulums of the motive clock work, or the electrical motors, are
electrically controlled from the transmitting to the receiving cylinders.
The axis D cf the cylinder has also a worm or screw cut upon it, into which
engages a clip E fixed to the frame, which thus acts as a fixed nut, and causes the
cylinder to move laterally in its frame when it rotates.
The metallic periphery and axis of the cylinder is connected at F to the main
electrical circuit.
A spring stylus G having a small wheel H, or brush, or pointer, at its point, is
mounted upon a slide bar K, and may be adjusted so that the wheel H presses
upon the surface of the paper upon the cylinder A, and may be fixed in that
position by a set screw L, and the said stylus Ġ is connected also to the main
circuit at M.
Now the paper on which the message or drawing is inscribed, being an insulator,
except where the electrically conducting ink has permeated it the circuit between
the stylus and the transmitting cylinder, remains broken, as the cylinder revolves
and simultaneously moves in a lateral direction, until the wheel H of the stylus G
passes over a portion of the inked lines. At this point the circuit is closed, and is
again broken as the wheel H leaves the ink line. As the wheel H of the stylus
describes a continual spiral of very minute pitch over the whole of the surface of
the paper carrying the inscribed message or drawing, the main circuit is closed in
succession over each minute portion of the inscribed drawing or message.
The receiving cylinder and wheel stylus may be an exact duplicate of the
transmitting cylinder and stylus, with the result that the main circuit is completed
through the receiving stylus and cylinder at the exact moment when the trans-
mitting stylus completes the electrical circuit through the ink lines of the message
or drawing. In this case we apply a chemically prepared paper to the receiving
cylinder, which is an electrically conducting medium, and will discolour or become
decomposed by the passage there-through of the electric current from the receiving
stylus. Thus, an exact facsimile of the original inscribed message or drawing is
reproduced upon the chemically prepared paper at the receiving station.
We may pass a distinctive number of various electrical impulses to the various
receiving instruments through one main circuit on the well known principle of
duplexing or quadruplexing messages through an electric wire or cable, but in
such case the receiving styles, instead of making constant electrical contact through
the receiving paper with the main circuit, will not make contact at all with the
receiving paper until brought into contact therewith by an electric magnet, one of
which controls the movement of each receiving stylus, and thus only makes contact
with the receiving paper when the circuit is closed through the corresponding
transmitting stylus and conducting ink.
In this case the stylus may itself be a fountain pen, so arranged that the ink will
not run except when actuated by the electro-magnet. Any number of copies can
thus also be produced by intermediate layers of carbonized paper, and the
receiving cylinder need not be in the circuit, the circuit being closed through the
coils of the electro-magnets of the receiving styles.
By the following arrangement of circuits two distinct series of impulses effecting
'facsimile reproduction in two magnet-controlled receiving styles, may be
simultaneously effected by means of primary currents in a single line wire.
In Fig. 2 P P represent batteries and QQ represent cylinder instruments with
styles as herein above described the receiving style being operated by au electro-
magnet & armature each pair being a receiving and transmitting instrument
respectively at each end of the line R.
One battery in each station is connected to one instrument by its positive pole
whilst the other battery at that station is connected to the other instrument by its
negative pole and each pair of batteries are short circuited to one another and.
have an earth connection S on that joint circuit.

page_text: The various aniline and other dyes on the market will impart as many as sixteen
different colours to the ink when its ingredients are mixed.
Both pair of instruments may be used simultaneously for the transmission and
receipt of messages along the single line wire R, as the transmitting & receiving
impulses are of opposite polarity, and will effect only the respective instruments.
Relays may be connected if required in the circuits at each station or at the
receiving or transmitting styles.
The arrangement is duplicated at each end in the diagram, so that either station
may be both receiving and transmitting stations, or the same arrangement will
apply to two transmitting instruments at each station transmitting two distinct
messages and two receiving instruments at each station, the receiving instruments
or transmitting instruments being switched in and out of circuit as desired for use.
The ink to be used in the facsimile telegraphy must have a free acid present to
enable it to penetrate or permeate the insulating material, such as paper, and must
be at the same time itself an electrically conducting body.
The following ingredients make a good conducting and permeating ink for the
purpose:-
Nitric acid one hundred parts by weight.
A precipitate of tin or lead and sulphuric acid-10 parts by weight.
The precipitate is obtained by first melting the metal, and when melted by
pouring sulphuric acid upon it-until a compound resembling an oxide is formed.
This compound gradually becomes a liquid when exposed to the atmosphere-but
it can be mixed at once with the nitric acid, a further chemical change then
taking place. Any suitable colouring matter may be added to the ink such as
Prussian blue, aniline dyes, or any suitable vegetable fibre or preparation.
Or any other suitable metallic base may be used in place of the above metals.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion and the manner in which it is to be performed we declare that what we
claim is
First. The method of electrically transmitting facsimile writing designs, plans,
or printing, by the completion of the transmitting circuit through the paper, only
where saturated by the ink, by which the matter to be transmitted has been
inscribed, the said ink being an electrical conductor and penetrating through the
insulating material, such as paper, on which the message or design has been
inscribed.
Second. The method of effecting facsimile telegraphy, by completing a transmitting
electrical circuit from a stylus, in constant contact with an insulating material upon
a metallic surface, (such surface having combined motions at right angles to one
another, relatively to the said stylus); through an electrically-conducting ink,
forming the inscribed matter and penetrating the said insulating material, to
the metallic surface aforesaid; such transmitting electrical impulses being carried
through a line wire to a receiving stylus in constant contact with a chemically
prepared conducting paper, upon a receiving metallic surface (synchronously
moved with the transmitting surface, and carrying an electrically conducting
material, capable of being discolored or decomposed by a passing electrical
current) the current passing through the said chemical paper and receiving
surface by earth return to the transmitting station substantially as described.
Third. In a facsimile telegraph, the arrangement of circuits, including a battery
or batteries, from a transmitting stylus, through an electrically conducting ink
penetrating an insulating material, to the metallic supporting surface beneath;
thence by line wire to a receiving stylus, through a chemically prepared conducting
receiving paper to the metallic supporting surface underneath; and thence, by
earth return, to the transmitting station, substantially as described.
Fourth. In a facsimile telegraph, the arrangement of circuits, including a
battery or batteries, from a transmitting stylus, through an electrically conducting
ink penetrating an insulating material, to the metallic supporting surface beneath,

page_text: thence by line wire to an electro-magnet, (operating by an armature the
pressure of a receiving stylus or fountain-pen upon a receiving material of any
kind); and thence from the pen-electro-magnet, by earth return, to the transmitting
station, substantially as described.
Fifth. An apparatus for carrying into effect the method of facsimile telegraphy,
consisting of, in combination, a transmitting metallic surface, having a combined
motion in two directions at right angles to one another; an insulating material,
such as paper, carried thereon, on which the message or plan is inscribed in
electrically-conducting ink, penetrating the paper to complete a circuit there-
through; a fixed spring stylus adapted to constantly press on said surface; a
receiving metallic surface, synchronized to have exactly the same combined
movements as the transmitting surface, carrying a receiving material; and a stylus
adapted to press thereon, either constantly, or intermittently, by the action of an
electro-magnet and armature substantially as described.
Sixth. In a facsimile telegraph a transmitting cylinder A, on screwed axle D,
clips B, for attachment of paper thereto, a paper a prepared with message for
transmission by inscription with penetrating conducting ink thereon; a spring
stylus G, adjustable on slide K, pressing uniformly on said paper; in combination
with a duplicate receiving cylinder and stylus, and chemically conducting paper
thereon, the rotary movements of said cylinders being synchronized to one another
in any known manner, substantially as described.
Seventh. In a method of facsimile telegraphy, the preparation of a message for
transmission upon an insulating substance, such as paper, by an electrically-
conducting fluid or ink in a suitable pen; the ink being adapted to penetrate the
insulating substance, such as paper, without materially spreading, as and for the
purposes, substantially as described.
Eighth. In facsimile telegraphs the composition of an electrically conducting
fluid or ink, which will penetrate an insulating substance, such as paper, without
materially spreading; consisting of an excess of free acid, with an electrically
conducting metallic salt as base, and an aniline or any convenient colouring matter
substantially as described.
Ninth. The composition of an electrically conducting ink, consisting of nitric
acid one hundred parts by weight; and a precipitate of tin or lead, and sulphuric
acid, ten parts by weight;-prepared substantially as described.
Tenth. A method for the simultaneous transmissions of two distinct series of
electrical impulses upon a single conductor, by means of primary currents,
consisting of the telegraph line running through a closed electric circuit between
batteries at any receiving stations, the receiving styles being operated to make
contact with the receiving paper by electro magnets and armatures substantially as
described.
Dated this 24th day of November 1894.
FELL & WILDING,
1, Queen Victoria Street, E.C., Agents for the Applicants.