IMPROVEMENTS IN TELEGRAPHY AND IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND ARRANGEMENT OF APPARATUS FOR COMMUNICATING SIGNALS AND. INTELLIGENCE
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Primerose Howard Vaughan, of 54:
Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN TELEGRAPHY AND IN THE CONSTRUCTION
AND ARRANGEMENT OF APPARATUS FOR COMMUNICATING SIGNALS AND.
INTELLIGENCE." A communication from abroad by Lancelot Hope
Everitt, of New Orleans, in the County of New Orleans and State of
Sealed the 17th October 1868, and dated the 27th April 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edward Primerose
Howard Vaughan at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with his Petition, on the 27th April 1868.
I, EDWARD PRIMEROSE HOWARD VAUGHAN, of 54, Chancery Lane, in
the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TELEGRAPHY AND IN THE CON-
STRUCTION AND ARRANGEMENT OF APPARATUS FOR COMMUNICATING SIGNALS AND
INTELLIGENCE," being a communication to me from abroad by Lancelot
Hope Everitt, of New Orleans, in the County of New Orleans and State

page_text: of Louisiana, United States of America, Doctor of Medicine, to be as
follows:-
The said Invention partly consists in evoking different tones of sound
from the atmospheric air by metallic machinery or apparatus, and
dividing such tones into two primary orders of sound, which evoke other
orders, such orders of sound when separated or combined in a certain
way forming symbols of and expressing all the letters of the English
alphabet and all Arabic notations.
The said Invention further consists in collecting, reflecting, and
directly transmitting these symbolic sounds through naked wires free
from insulation, whether the wires be conveyed beneath the earth or
under water, and these sounds are so connected by rapid operation of
the machine or so disjointed by silent intervals of time that they become
symbols of intelligence, which are easily converted into letters and
notations, and these are instantly conveyed and received at the distal or
receiving extremity of the wire connecting the sending and receiving
batteries, the construction and arrangement of which also form a part of
this Invention.
The silent intervals of time which impart sense to phonic symbols
are divided into commas, semicolons, colons, and periods, according to
a space of time necessary to count one; one, two; one, two, three; one,
two, three, four, respectively. The comma is to be observed by the
operator after he has (in manner herein-after mentioned) struck off the
formula of each letter, the symbols for which are to be generated in
quick succession, the semicolon after the symbols for each word have
been sounded, the colon in dividing a sentence, and the period denotes
the completion of a sentence, all of which intervals and differences are
duplicated at the distal extremity in the exact order of their observance
by the operator. In sounding the formula for numbers only the colons
and silent periods are used. After sounding the symbols for the first
nine digits the silent period governs the creation of each one, and com-
pletes the number; but in all compound notations the silent colon
follows each symbol except the last one, when the period finishes the
numeric formula as herein-after mentioned.
I will now proceed to describe the nature, construction, and operation
of the acoustic battery, by means of which the said Invention is carried
into effect, the construction of phonic symbols, the mode of con-
structing letters, words, and figures by means of similar and dissimilar

page_text: orders of sound distinguished in the annexed Drawings by discs, which
for convenience of illustration may be called red and blue coloured
discs. These particulars will be clearly understood by reference to the
annexed Drawings.
Figure 1 in Sheet 1 is an elevation of the battery, and Figure 2 in
Sheet 2 is a vertical section of the same, the same letters of reference
indicating similar parts.
The acoustic battery is mounted on and firmly fixed in the base A, A,
which may be of marble or of any other suitable material; B is a solid
cylinder of bell metal, and is named the incus; its face forms the point
d'appui, upon which the different phonic symbols are evoked into
being from the atoms of the atmospheric air. The body of the incus
conducts them into the nipple I, which inducts them into the acoustic
messenger X, X; C is the malleus, the same being made of brass, and
through the facial surface of which an elliptical opening is drilled from
the front backwards, and called the phonic fossa, which is shewn at D.
This portion of the apparatus is highly polished internally, and painted
black externally (as also the incus should be), to prevent the escape of
sound to the surrounding air. When the facial malleus is softly or
sharply struck upon the facial incus different sounds are produced, which
the fossa collects and reflects them through the incus into the acoustic
messenger, by. which they are transmitted rapidly to the distal extremity
of the communicating wire. E is the chorda tympani, the same being
made of an elongated steel spring curved above, where it is fitted and
fastened into the top of the stapes G, and is curved below to form the
key F, and inserted near the lower third of its length into the head of
the malleus and permanently secured therein; by its action the different
symbolic formulae are expressed when governed by the first and second
bar of the diatonic. staff. G is the stapes, formed of brass, the same being
mounted over the facial incus and securely fastened into the top of the
base by projecting feet; it supports the chorda tympani, malleus, and
key, and gives direction to their varied functions. H, H, H, H, are
rings of brass, which encircle the face and nipple of the incus, both
drilled two-eighths of an inch broad and deep, so as to receive the rings,
which have arms extending on each side, and sunk and screwed into
the base A, so as to secure and hold the incus firmly within the
semicircular excavation on the top of the base, and prevent its move-
ment when the battery is in action. I is the nipple of the incus formed

page_text: out of its solid body. An opening one inch deep and just sufficiently
large to admit the acoustic messenger X is drilled in its centre, and a
screw so fitted as to hold the wire firmly while the operator is sending
his message. O is the posterior cochlea formed out of the solid brass
cylindrical vestibule N; a similar opening is drilled in its centre and
fitted with a thumbscrew for the purpose of holding the end of the
wire firmly while the auditor is receiving the message. M is the anterior
cochlea, also formed out of the vestibule, and in the centre of which a
similar opening is made to receive and permanently hold fast the helix
of brass wire L, which conducts the phonic symbols from the acoustic
messenger and vestibule to the auricular K, which delivers them to the
auditor in the exact order in which they were sent by the operator. P
is the diatonic staff which supports the two metallic bars that regulate
the evolution of the various orders of sound from the atmospheric air;,
it occupies the left-hand side of the battery, and is firmly fastened into
the front of the base at an angle of 60° laterally from the facial incus.
The outer point of the first bar is placed one-sixteenth of an inch from
the face of the incus, and when the face of the malleus is drawn to this
point and allowed softly but suddenly to strike the face of the incus the
soft or vowel order of sound is created. The outer point of the
second bar is three-eighths of an inch distant from the face of the
incus, and from this point the aspirate order of sound is produced,
and thus the two primary orders of sound are generated; but
combined in different ways other orders are formed, giving rise to
symbolic formula representing and expressing all the letters of the
alphabet and all notations, as the following examples will explain,
reference being made to Sheet 3 of the annexed Drawings, in which the
red-coloured discs are denoted by entire lines and the blue-coloured,
discs by broken lines.
Figure 3 in Sheet 2 is a vertical section of the chorda tympani E the

page_text: red discs are associated, the blue symbol being sounded before the red
throughout the order; No. 5 is the valorem order of sound, expressing
valuation, and represented by commingling the red and blue symbols
together, so that in the majority of numerals it would be impossible to
mistake a letter for a number, and when the formula for either the one
or the other is expressed by sound, each composing symbol is sounded.
rapidly one after the other in the plan indicated in the Drawings.
The following particulars specify the mode of acoustic telegraphing
between distant points of communication:-Two batteries are connected
together by brass or other suitable wire thickly galvanized or otherwise
coated, if necessary, to preserve it from oxidation or the action of the
water or soil through which it may pass. The operator at one point
places the acoustic messenger within the nipple of the incus and firmly
secures it therein; the auditor at the distal point places the end of his
wire within the posterior cochlea in direct contact with the vestibule,
where it is firmly fixed by means of the thumbscrew, and the batteries
being thus arranged the operator sends his message to the auditor, who
receives the phonic symbols, whether consisting of sharp or soft sounds,
from the auricular in the order in which they are sent, and interprets
the similar and dissimilar modulations of sound into letters, words,
figures, and sentences. A reply to the message is effected by a reversal
of the end of the communicating wire of cach battery, the same being
indicated by signals agreed upon by the operators.
Sharp and soft sounds travel with equal velocity through metallic
media, such as brass or other wire, when set in motion by the battery
and inducted into the wire in the manner herein-before described, and
although the velocity of sound does not equal that of electricity in
conveying the initial or first symbol, yet all the subsequent symbols are
conveyed as promptly as and are of a more reliable character than
those communicated by electricity, because the transit of sound is not
modified or affected in the slightest degree by storms or meteorological
phenomena, and it travels more rapidly and distinctly through naked
wires than through insulated conductors.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Edward Primerose Howard Vaughan in the Great
+ Seal Patent Office on the 27th October 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
PRIMEROSE HOWARD VAUGHAN, of 54, Chancery Lane, in the County of
Middlesex, Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
first year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Edward Primerose Howard Vaughan, Her
special licence that I, the said Edward Primerose Howard Vaughan, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Edward Primerose Howard Vaughan, 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 TELEGRAPHY AND IN THE
CONSTRUCTION AND ARRANGEMENT OF APPARATUS FOR COMMUNICATING SIGNALS AND
INTELLIGENCE," being a communication to me from abroad by Lancelot
Hope Everitt, of New Orleans, in the County of New Orleans and State
of Louisiana, United States of America, Doctor of Medicine, upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Edward Primerose
Howard Vaughan, 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
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 Edward Primerose Howard
Vaughan, 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, reference being had
to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon, that is to say :-

page_text: The said Invention partly consists in evoking different tones of sound
from the atmospheric air by metallic machinery, or apparatus, and.
dividing such tones into two primary orders of sound, which evoke
other orders, such orders of sound when separated or combined in a
certain way forming symbols of and expressing all the letters of the
English alphabet and all Arabic notations.
The said Invention further consists in collecting, reflecting, and
directly transmitting these symbolic sounds through naked wires free
from insulation, whether the wires be conveyed beneath the earth or
under water, and these sounds are so connected by rapid operation
of the machine or so disjointed by silent intervals of time that they
become symbols of intelligence, which are easily converted into letters
and notations, and these are instantly conveyed and received at the
distal or receiving extremity of the wire connecting the sending and
receiving batteries, the construction and arrangement of which also
form a part of this Invention.
The silent intervals of time which impart sense to phonic symbols
are divided into commas, semicolons, colons, and periods, according to
a space of time necessary to count one; one, two; one, two, three;
one, two, three, four, respectively. The comma is to be observed by
the operator after he has (in manner herein-after mentioned) struck
off the formula of each letter, the symbols for which are to be generated
in quick succession, the semicolon after the symbols for each word
have been sounded, the colon in dividing a sentence, and the period
denotes the completion of a sentence, all of which intervals and
differences are duplicated or repeated at the distal extremity in the
exact order of their observance by the operator. In sounding the
formula for numbers only the colons and silent periods are used.
After sounding the symbols for the first nine digits the silent period
governs the creation of each one, and completes the number; but in
all compound notations the silent colon follows each symbol except
the last one, when the period finishes the numeric formula as herein-
after mentioned.
I will now proceed to describe the nature, construction, and operation.
of the acoustic battery, by means of which the said Invention is carried
into effect, the construction of phonic symbols, the mode of constructing
letters, words, and figures by means of similar and dissimilar orders of

page_text: sound distinguished in the annexed Drawings by what may be described
as red and blue discs. These particulars will be clearly understood by
reference to the annexed Drawings.
Figure 1 in Sheet One is an elevation of the battery, and Figure 2 is a
vertical section of the same, the same letters of reference indicating
similar parts.
The acoustic battery is mounted on and firmly fixed in the base A, A,
which may be of marble or of any other suitable material; B is a solid
cylinder of bell metal, and is named the incus; its face forms the "point
d'appui," upon which the different phonic symbols are evoked into
being from the atoms of the atmospheric air. The body of the incus
conducts them into the nipple I, which inducts them into the acoustic
messenger X, X; C is the malleus, the same being made of brass, and
through the facial surface of which an elliptical opening is drilled from
the front backwards, and called the phonic fossa, which is shewn at D.
This portion of the apparatus is highly polished internally, and painted
black externally (as also the incus should be), to prevent the escape of
sound to the surrounding air. When the facial malleus is softly or
sharply struck upon the facial incus different sounds are produced,
which the fossa collects and reflects them through the incus into the
acoustic messenger, by which they are transmitted rapidly to the distal
extremity of the communicating wire. E is the chorda tympani, the
same being made of an elongated steel spring curved above, where it
is fitted and fastened into the top of the stapes G, and is curved below
to form the key F, and inserted near the lower third of its length into
the head of the malleus and permanently secured therein; by its action
the different symbolic formulæ are expressed when governed by the
first and second bar of the diatonic staff. G is the stapes, formed of
brass, the same being mounted over the facial incus, and securely
fastened into the top of the base by projecting feet; it supports the
chorda tympani, malleus, and key, and gives direction to their varied
functions. H, H, H, H, are rings of brass, which encircle the face and
nipple of the incus, both drilled two-eighths of an inch broad and deep,
so as to receive the rings, which have arms extending on each side,
and sunk and screwed into the base A, so as to secure and hold the
incus firmly within the semicircular excavation on the top of the base,
and prevent its movement when the battery is in action. I is the nipple
of the incus formed out of its solid body. An opening one inch deep.

page_text: and just sufficiently largo to admit the acoustic messenger X is drilled.
in its centre, and a screw so fitted as to hold the wire firmly while the
operator is sending his message. Q is the posterior cochlea formed out
of the solid brass cylindrical vestibule N; a similar opening is drilled.
in its centre and fitted with a thumbscrew for the purpose of holding
the end of the wire firmly while the auditor is receiving his message.
M is the anterior cochlea, also formed out of the vestibule, and in the
centre of which a similar opening is made to receive and permanently
hold fast the helix of brass wire L, which conducts the phonic symbols
from the acoustic messenger and vestibule to the auricular K, which
delivers them to the auditor in the exact order in which they were sent
by the operator. P is the diatonic staff which supports the two metallic
bars that regulate the evolution of the various orders of sound from the
atmospheric air; it occupies the left-hand side of the battery, and is
firmly fastened into the front of the base at an angle of 60° laterally from
the facial incus. The outer point of the first bar is placed one-sixteenth
of an inch from the face of the incus, and when the face of the malleus
is drawn to this point and allowed softly but suddenly to strike the face
of the incus the soft or vowel order of sound is created. The outer point
of the second bar is three-eighths of an inch distant from the face of the
incus,, and from this point the aspirate order of sound is produced, and
thus the two primary orders of sound are generated; but combined in
different ways other orders are formed, giving rise to symbolic formulæ
representing and expressing all the letters of the alphabet and all
notations, as the following examples will explain, reference being made
to Sheet 2 of the annexed Drawings, in which the red-coloured discs are
shewn in entire lines and the blue-coloured discs in broken lines.
Figure 3 in Sheet 1 is a vertical section of the chorda tympani E, the
malleus C, the phonic fossa D, and the key F, by which the battery is
worked in generating phonic. symbols; Figure 4 in Sheet 1 is a detached
view of the diatonic staff P.
No. 1 in Sheet 2 is the vowel order of sound, denoted by red-coloured
discs; No. 2 is the aspirate order of sound, distinguished by blue-
coloured discs; No. 3 is the fulcimen order of sound, in which the
red and blue discs are arranged together, the red preceding the blue in
each instance; No. 4 is the bi-fulcimen order of sound, where the blue
and the red discs are associated, the blue symbol being sounded before
the red throughout the order; No. 5 is the valorem order of sound,

page_text: expressing valuation, and represented by commingling the red and blue
symbols together, so that in the majority of numerals it would be
impossible to mistake a letter for a number, and when the formula for.
either the one or the other is expressed by sound each composing symbol
is sounded rapidly one after the other in the plan indicated in the
Drawing.
The following particulars specify the mode of acoustic telegraphing
between distant points of communication:-Two batterics are connected
together by brass or other suitable wire thickly galvanised or otherwise
coated, if necessary, to preserve it from oxidation or the action of the
water or soil through which it may pass. The operator at one point
places the acoustic messenger within the nipple of the incus and firmly
secures it therein; the auditor at the distal point places the end of his
wire within the posterior cochlea in direct contact with the vestibule,
where it is firmly fixed by means of the thumbscrew; and the batteries
being thus arranged the operator sends his message to the auditor, who
receives the phonic symbols, whether consisting of sharp or soft sounds,
from the auricular in the order in which they are sent, and interprets
the similar and dissimilar modulations of sound into letters, words,
figures, and sentences. A reply to the message is effected by a reversal
of the end of the communicating wire of each battery, the same being
indicated by signals agreed upon by the operators..
Sharp and soft sounds travel with equal velocity through metallic
media, such as brass or other wire, when set in motion by the battery
and inducted into the wire in the manner herein-before described, and
although the velocity of sound does not equal that of electricity in
conveying the initial or first symbol, yet all the subsequent symbols are
conveyed as promptly as and possess a more reliable character than those
communicated by electricity, because the transit of sound is not modified
or affected in the slightest degree by storms or meteorological plic-
nomena, and it travels more rapidly and distinctly through naked wires
than through insulated conductors.
Having thus declared and ascertained the nature of the said Invention,
and the manner in which it 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 are,―

page_text: First. The combination and arrangement of parts and mechanism for
the purpose of communicating signals and intelligence, substantially
as herein-before set forth and described, or any mere modifications
thereof.
And, secondly. The methods of arranging, combining, and trans-
mitting phonic symbols, and of employing the same as signals,
substantially as herein-before set forth and described, or any mere
modifications thereof.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Primerose Howard Vaughan,
have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day
of October, in the year of our Lord One thousand cight hundred
and sixty-eight.
E. P. H. VAUGHAN. (L.S.)