IMPROVEMENTS IN TELEGRAPHIC APPARATUS
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Ernest John Harling, of Westbourne Road,
Barnsbury, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN TELEGRAPHIC APPARATUS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Ernest John Harling
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 10th January 1872.
I, ERNEST JOHN HARLING, of Westbourne Road, Barnsbury, in the
County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TELEGRAPHIC APPARATUS," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in certain improvements whereby some objec-
tions and disadvantages which arise in the employment of magnetic
needles as ordinarily arranged for telegraphic purposes are avoided. It
is equally applicable to such instruments as those in which a single
reading needle is employed and to those which are known as "clear"
and "block" and "recording" instruments.

page_text: Instead of the magnetic needle mounted and arranged as heretofore,
a soft iron ball, which may be either solid or hollow, is suspended
between the arms of a permanent horse-shoe magnet, such ball being
used for the same purposes as the needle hitherto employed. The ball is
formed with a diaphragm therein of brass or other insulating substance t
therein, the same being placed either vertically or horizontally.
In lieu of the soft iron ball a soft iron ring, constructed with a
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Ernest John Harling in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 9th July 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ERNEST
JOHN HARLING, of Westbourne Road, Barnsbury, in the County of
Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of January, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty-
fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Ernest John Harling, Her special licence
that I, the said Ernest John Harling, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Ernest John Harling, my executors,
administrators, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN TELEGRAPHIC
APPARATUS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Ernest John Harling, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment in 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

page_text: 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 Ernest John Harling, 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 following statement, that is to say :-
My said Invention consists in certain improvements whereby some of
the objections and disadvantages which arise in the employment of
magnetic needles as ordinarily arranged for telegraphic purposes are
avoided. This Invention is cqually applicable to those instruments in
which a single reading needle is employed and to those which are known
as "clear and block" and recording instruments.
Instead of the magnetic needle mounted and arranged as heretofore,
a soft iron ball, which may be either solid or hollow, is suspended
between the arms of a permanent horsc-shoc magnet, such ball being
used for the same purposes as the needle hitherto employed. The ball is
formed with a diaphragm therein of brass or other suitable insulating
substance, the same being placed either vertically or horizontally.
In lieu of the soft iron ball a soft iron ring, constructed with a
diaphragm similar to that before mentioned, may be used.
By means of these arrangements a single needle may be worked for
ringing and signalling purposes.
In the "clear and block" system the needle is kept in its position by
means of two pins, which work in and out of the face of the dial and are
actuated by means of a double lever worked from the front of the instru-
ment, so that when a signal is sent from one station to another the
ncedle is kept at that signal by means of the pins, and the last signal
given can always be ascertained by reference to the instrument, whilst
the signal cannot be altered by the operator at the sending station.
One great advantage which this apparatus possesses in practice is that
it is less subject to be deranged by atmospheric and other disturbing
influences than any of the arrangements previously employed for the
like purposes.
Having thus declared and ascertained the nature of my
said Invention,

page_text: and in what manner the same is to be performed, I would observe in
conclusion that what I consider novel and original, and therefore claim
as constituting the Invention secured to me by the said herein-before in
part recited Letters Patent is, the construction and arrangement of a soft
iron ball or ring, substantially as and for the purposes herein-before
described and set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Ernest John Harling, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Ninth day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.
ERNEST JOHN HARLING. (L.S.)