IMPROVEMENTS IN TRANSMITTING ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH MESSAGES AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Peter Piggott, of 16, Argyle Street, in
the County of Middlesex, Electrician, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN TRANSMITTING ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH MESSAGES AND IN
APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN."
Sealed the 18th September 1868, and dated the 25th March 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Peter
Piggott at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 25th March 1868.
I, WILLIAM PETER PIGGOTT, of 16, Argyle Street, in the County of
Middlesex, Electrician, do hereby declare the nature of my said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TRANSMITTING ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH MESSAGES:
AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates, firstly, to an improved mode or method of
and apparatus for using or working the charged land or submarine
wires or cables described in the Specifications of Letters Patent granted
to me, bearing date respectively the 3rd day of December 1860,
No. 2957, and the 28th day of August 1865, No. 2213, whereby electric

page_text: telegraph messages can be transmitted by a cheaper and more simple
arrangement of apparatus then heretofore. According to this part of
my Invention, I propose to connect with one end of the transmitting
wire or wires any number of batteries or "ganglions," each battery
or "ganglion" being connected by a wire or wires with one or more
of the stops, contact points, or "anvils" with which the keys of the
transmitting instrument are brought in contact. Each key may represent
a different letter of the alphabet, and corresponding letters may be
placed upon the dial of the receiving instrument; or if preferred in
lieu of the letters being on the said dial itself a corresponding series
of radial slits may be formed through the dial, which should be so
placed as to enable rays of light to be cast by means of a reflector
through the dial on a screen containing the letters, each separate ray
being directed on to its own letter. The different stops in the trans-
mitting instrument bring into action different tensions, and consequently
the needle of the receiving instrument will describe a greater or less
arc, and by casting its shadow through one or other of the slits in the
dial on to the screen it will indicate the particular letter transmitted,
or the same letter may be pointed out on the dial itself by the needle.
In order to insure the needle of the receiving instrument always re-
turning to zero on the dial, I interpose between the receiving instrument
and the end of the charged wire or cable one or a series of resistance
coils of different lengths, so that by connecting one or more of such
coils any desired amount of resistance can be obtained according to
the degree of induction of the charged wire or wires.
46
When a single wire is used the batteries or ganglions," at one
end of the wire and the receiving, instrument at the other are con-
nected to earth, but if two wires are employed then the earth connections
may be dispensed with.
The second part, of my Invention relates, to land, telegraphs only,
and consists of a simplified, and improved construction and arrange-
ment of the induction or charged cables, described in the Specifications
of the Patents herein-before referred to. According to this part of my
Invention I make one of the elements in the form of a tube or trough,
which may be open along the upper surface for the facility of intro-
ducing the wire or wires of the opposite element therein, such tube
or trough forming at the same time a protective casing and receptacle
for the said wire or wires. These tubes or troughs are made in suitable

page_text: lengths and are connected to each other by any convenient arrange-
ment or form of joints. When the trough shape is adopted or when
a split or open tube is used a suitable covering may be provided. The
elements may be kept charged either by the aid of batteries or " "gang-
lions" at the extremities, or by surrounding or enclosing the internal
wire or wires with gypsom or other suitable earth saturated with any
of the deliquescent salts.
When a number of wires are employed messages can be received
from any point in the length of the outer trough or tube by causing
the internal wires to branch off at the different points required, such
branch wires proceeding to one side of a receiving instrument, whilst
the other side is connected by a wire with the surrounding or outer
tube or trough or with an earth plate.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Peter Piggott in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 25th September 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
PETER PIGOTT, of 16; Argyll Street, in the County of Middlesex,
Electrician, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of March, 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 William Peter Pigott, Her special license
that I, the said William Peter Pigott, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Peter Pigott,
my executors, administrators, or 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 TRANSMITTING ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH MESSAGES AND IN.
APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN," upon the condition (amongst others) that.
I, the said William Peter Pigott, my executors or administrators, by

page_text: an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 William Peter Pigott, 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 accompanying
Drawings, and to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is
to say:-
Each
My said Invention relates, firstly, to an improved mode or method
of and apparatus for using or working the electrically statically charged
or induced land or submarine wires or cables described in the Specifi-
cations of Letters Patent granted to me, bearing date respectively the
Third day of December One thousand eight hundred and sixty, No. 2957,
and the Twenty-eighth day of August One thousand eight hundred
and sixty-five, No. 2213, whereby electric telegraph messages can be
transmitted by a cheaper and more simple arrangement of apparatus than
heretofore. According to this part of my Invention I propose to connect
with one end of the said statically charged or induced transmitting wire
or wires or modification thereof any number of batteries or "ganglions,"
each battery or ganglion being connected by a wire or wires with one
or more of the stops, contact points, or "anvils" with which the
keys of the transmitting instrument are brought in contact.
key may represent a different letter of the alphabet, and corresponding
letters are placed upon the dial or face plate of the receiving instru-
ment; or if preferred in lieu of the letters being on the said dial or
face plate itself a corresponding series of radial slits may be formed
through the dial or face plate, which should be so placed as to enable
rays of light to be cast by means of a reflector through the dial or
face plate on to a screen containing the letters, each separate ray being
directed on to its own letter. The different stops or keys in the
transmitting instrument bring into action different tensions, or in other
words effect a greater or less disturbance of the electrical charge in
the statically charged cable or wire, and consequently the indicator
or indicators of the receiving instrument will describe a greater or less
arc, and by casting a shadow through one or other of the slits in the

page_text: dial or face plate on to the screen will indicate the particular letter,
sign, or numeral transmitted, or the same letter, sign, or numeral may
be pointed out directly on the dial or face plate itself by the indicator
or indicators. In order to ensure the indicator or indicators of the
receiving instrument always returning to zero or the arresting stop
on the dial or face plate, I interpose between the receiving instrument
and the end of the charged wire or cable one or a series of resistance
coils of different lengths, or other suitable resisting medium, so that
by connecting one or more of such coils any desired amount of resistance
can be obtained according to the degree of the charge in the wire or
wires.
When a single wire is used the batteries or "ganglions" at one end of
the wire and the receiving instrument at the other are connected to
earth, but if two wires are employed, then the earth connections may be
dispensed with.
The second part of my Invention relates to land telegraphs only,
and consists of a simplified and improved construction and arrangement
of the induction or statically charged cables or wires described in the
Specifications of the Patents herein-before referred to. According
to this part of my Invention I make one of the elements in the form
of a tube or trough, which may be open along the upper surface for
the facility of introducing the wire or wires of the opposite element
therein, such tube or trough forming at the same time a protective
casing and receptacle for the said wire or wires. I propose to make
the trough or tube of iron, and to place copper wires inside it, or iron
wires may be placed inside such iron tube or trough, in which case
the said iron wires will be connected to ganglions or batteries, thus
rendering the iron wires either statically positive or negative, whilst
the iron tube or trough is in the opposite electrical condition. These
tubes or troughs are made in suitable lengths, and are connected to
each other by any convenient arrangement or form of joints. When the
trough shape is adopted or when a split or open tube is used a suitable
covering may be provided if desired, but it is not absolutely requisite.
The elements may be kept charged either by the aid of batteries .or
ganglions" at the extremities, as before described, or by surrounding
or enclosing the internal wire or wires with gypsum or other suitable
earth saturated with any of the well-known deliquescent salts suitable
for the purpose.
"

page_text: When a number of wires are employed messages can be received from
any point in the length of the outer trough or tube by causing the
internal wires to branch off at the different points required, such branch
wires proceeding to one side of the receiving instrument, whilst the
other side of such instrument is connected by a wire with the surround-
ing or outer tube or trough or with an earth plate.
And in order that my said Invention may be fully understood I
shall now proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for
that purpose shall refer to the several Figures on the annexed Sheet
of Drawings, the same letters of reference indicating corresponding
parts in all the Figures.
Figure 1 of my Drawings represents a front elevation of one form of
a receiving instrument constructed with a view to carrying out my
said Invention, and Figure 2 is a corresponding plan of the same;
Figure 3 is a side or end elevation of one form of transmitting
instrument which may be employed in transmitting messages by
means of my statically charged cable or wires, and Figure 4 is a plan
of the same.
In my Drawings I have shewn the transmitting and receiving
instruments lettered T and R respectively in connection with my
improved form of statically charged cable or line wire lettered W,
but I would here observe that statically charged cables or conductors
such as are described in the Specifications of the Patents herein-
before referred to may be substituted therefor and worked in the
manner herein-after fully described.
The transmitting instrument T may consist of any well-known
arrangement of keys or stops and anvils, such, for example, as those
known as Hughes' or Bains' instruments, but the arrangement I
have shewn on my Drawing will serve to indicate clearly the mode
It consists of a
of carrying out the first part of my Invention.
stand A carrying a number of keys B, each key being provided with
a contact point at a which is brought in contact with an anvil 6 by
depressing the front end of the key. c is a spring for maintaining
the keys elevated, and d is an adjusting screw for regulating the
movement of each key.
In my Drawings I have marked the letters on the keys in the same
order in which they appear on the dial or face plate C of the

page_text: receiving instrument in order to render the mode of marking more
casily understood, but in practice I should prefer to arrange the
letters on the keys in alphabetical order.
In Figure 1 two separate indicators D, D', each working over its
own series of letters, are shewn, and in the transmitting instrument,
Figures 3 and 4, two rows of keys are shewn, the one serving to
actuate the indicator D and the other the indicator D¹, as hercin-after
explained.
In lieu of having two indicators, one only may be used, in which
case it will be convenient to dispose one-half of the alphabet or other
series of signs on one side of the zero point and the other on the
opposite side, as shewn in Figure 5.
In the first-mentioned arrangement the indicators are maintained
when at rest against the stops e, e', by the action of the helices E, E¹,
upon their respective needles, such helices being wound in opposite
directions. In the single-needle arrangement (Figure 5) the indicator
D remains vertical with its point at zero without the intervention of
stops. This Figure illustrates also a mode of indicating the letters
or signs required to be read by having a corresponding number of
radial slits ff, formed in the face plate C, and causing rays of light
obtained from a lamp or reflector to be directed through such slits
on to a screen containing the letters or signs. As the "indicator D
when operated upon describes an arc of a circle and then remains
for a moment stationary over one or other of the slits according to
the letter or sign to be indicated, it follows that the ray or pencil of
light and its spectrum upon the screen will be obscured by the
shadow of the indicator, and hence the particular letter or sign
where such shadow is cast is the one to be read off. It will be
observed that the indicator on the receiving instrument when
signalling must describe a greater or less are according to. the
position of the letter or its distance from zero, and in order to
accomplish this I create a greater or less electrical disturbance of
cable either by super-
the static charge induced in the wire or
charging the said wire or cable or by diminishing the charge in the
same. When super-charging the wire or cable the front row of keys
in the transmitting instrument are employed, this row corresponding
in my Drawings to the letters or signs pointed out by the right-hand
indicator D, and when diminishing the charge in the cable or

page_text: wire I employ the second row of keys, the letters or signs on which
correspond in my Drawings to those under the left-hand indicator D'.
F, F, are two series of small batteries or "ganglions" composed
of carbon and zinc or any other suitable pair of elements capable of
sustaining a uniform power for a considerable period. These ganglions
are each connected with a separate anvil in the transmitting instrument,
and with the next adjoining "ganglion "of the series. The zinc of
the first ganglion of one series F is connected with the positive element
of the cable or wire, as shewn by the binding screw G, whilst the
carbon of the first one of the second series F¹ of ganglions is similarly
connected to the positive element of the statically charged cable or
wire, as shewn. The anvils of the front row of keys are all separately
connected with the carbons of the several corresponding ganglions,
whilst the anvils of the second row of keys all communicate with the
zinc of their respective ganglions. His a central terminal to which
the several wires from both series of anvils converge, and to which is
connected the signalling wire for that station. As the carbon of one
ganglion is connected with the zinc of its neighbour in each series it
follows that all these ganglions which interpose between the anvil
and earth or between the anvil and the positive element of the statically
charged cable or wire will be brought into action, and will consequently
super-charge the already statically charged cable or wire, or partially
discharge the same, the amount of electrical disturbance depending
upon the number of ganglions brought into circuit. For example, if
the letter E be wanted one ganglion only (No. 1) will be brought into
connection with the statically charged cable or wire; and as a verly
slight clectrical disturbance will take place in the cable the indicator
of the receiving instrument will only move through a very small are
sufficient to point out the letter E. If the key A be pressed down,
then two ganglions (1, 2,) will be brought into action, and the indicator
will move to the extent of one letter further, and so on with each
series or row of keys till by depressing the keys K or Q the full
series of one or the other set of ganglions, as the case may be, will
operate, and the indicator will describe its greatest are; or in lieu of
using several distinct ganglions of equal power a single ganglion or
battery may be employed, using different tensions of it by bringing
one, two, or more plates into action according to the amount of dis-
turbance in the statically charged cable or transmitting apparatus required.

page_text: 1 represents one of a series of resistance cous of diferent lengths,
which may if required be interposed between the charged wire and
the receiving instrument in order to obtain any amount of resistance
according to the degree of charge in the wire or cable.
.
I may here observe that whatever may be the form or construction
of receiving instrument used in this system of electro-telegraphy, whis
is by very slight modifications readily understood by electricians
applicable to all the ordinary galvanometers or relay instruments at
present in use, the system employed is based upon that described in
the Specifications of the two Patents herein-before referred to, the
essential object being to obtain signals by the disturbance of the
electrical equilibrium, or of the induced electricity in the cable or
wires.
Figures 6 and 7 illustrate in elevation and plan one mode of carrying
out the second part of this Invention, which consists in making one
of the elements of the statically charged pair constituting the cable
or transmitting appliance in the form of a tube or trough of opposite
electrical condition to the wires enclosed inside it. In this arrangement
the insulated copper or other wires shewn in red lines, are enclosed
in an iron, tube K, which tube is connected at one end with one side
of the receiving instrument, and at the other end with one side of the
transmitting instrument or with ganglions or batteries, as shewn in
my Drawings. Each copper wire is connected at one end with the
opposite side of its receiving instrument to that to which the outer
tube is connected at that particular station, whilst the other end of such
wire is carried to the central terminal H of the transmitting instrument
of the said station. The internal wires may branch off at any desired
part of the iron tube, as shewn at L, in order to enable signals to be
received at various places along the line, the tube containing as many
wires as there are signalling stations. This tube will be made in
convenient lengths for the insertion of the wires through it, and the
several lengths of tubes will be subsequently joined together in any
well-known manner.
In Figure 8 I have shewn a split or open tube whereby greater
facility is afforded for introducing the wires, which may be simply
deposited therein through the longitudinal opening or slit in the
tube.

page_text: Figures 9 and 10' réprésent à transverse and longitudinal section of
a cast-iron trough or series of troughs for containing the wires, such
troughs being joined together end to end in any well-known manner,
and provided with removeable lids or covers M if desired. In all cases
I connect the outer tube or trough either directly with the instruments
or with one or more ganglions or batteries in order to ensure the said
combined tube or trough and enclosed wires being always charged
with induced electricity.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used
or carried into effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I
consider to be novel' and original, and therefore claim as the Inven-
tion secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent
is,-
First. The combination with an electrically statically charged or
induced cable or wire of any number of separate batteries or ganglions,
or any number of parts or plates of a single battery or ganglion, for
the purpose of creating a greater or less disturbance of the electrical
equilibrium or the induced electricity in such cable or wire whereby
the transmission of signals is effected, substantially in the manner
herein-before described.
Second. The making of one of the pair of elements of a statically
charged or induced cable or combination of elements of opposite
.electrical condition in the form of a metal tube or trough, which serves
to protect and enclose the wire or wires constituting the opposite
element of such combination.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Peter Piggott, have to
this my Specification set my hand and seal, the Twenty-fifth
day of September, One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
eight.
WILLIAM PETER PIGGOTT (L.S.)