IN APPARATUS FOR REGISTERING OR RECORDING TELEGRAPHIC OR OTHER SIGNALS."
Year: 1880

page_text: «
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles McGuire Bate at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 31st January 1880.
IMPROVEMENTS
CHARLES MCGUIRE BATE, of Chatham, in the County of Kent.
IN APPARATUS FOR REGISTERING OR RECORDING TELEGRAPHIC OR OTHER SIGNALS."
My Invention relates to apparatus used for registering or recording signals sent
from distant points by telegraphs, and more especially to such signals when sent
by means of flashes of light reflected or directed from the point whence the
message is to be sent, and watched and recorded by an observer at the point
where the message is to be received. In such cases the arbitrary signs representing
letters, words, or sentences, consist of a series of one or more flashes or combinations
of flashes of light in one or other direction or position, or of greater or less
duration, which may be registered or recorded upon paper or other suitable surface
by the receiver in the shape of a series of corresponding dots or marks either above
or below a continuous imaginary centre line.
The apparatus which forms the subject of my present Invention consists of
novel devices by which an observer can register and record such marks corresponding
with the flashes transmitted to him without taking his eyes from the transmitting
station.
I take a hollow cylinder of metal or other suitable material, within which I fix
a central longitudinal screw upon which is fitted an inner cylinder, round which
is wound or coiled a strip of paper or other material upon which the marks are to
be registered or recorded. This cylinder is of less length than the outer one, so
that when it is made to revolve it travels longitudinally from end to end of the
screw.
At or near the centre of the outer cylinder I make an opening of sufficient size
through which passes the point of a pencil or other instrument which can be pressed
when desired the
upon paper.
This pencil is fixed in an adjustable tube or socket which is carried by a
longitudinal spring of steel or other sufficiently elastic and flexible material, the
ends of which are attached to supports at or near the ends of the cylinder and a
short distance from the surface of the latter. At the centre of the spring, arranged
as described, I make or fix a plate of sufficient length and width, and I arrange in
this plate upon each side of the pencil an adjustable screw, the points of which
screws are adjusted so as to be at a short distance from the surface of the
cylinder.

page_text: The action of the apparatus is as follows:-The plate described being pressed
down at or near one of its ends, the point of the pencil is moved by the flexibility
of the spring somewhat toward the other end of the cylinder, and is at the same
time pressed down so as to make a mark upon the paper. Whilst so pressed upon
the paper the side of the plate is also pressed downward, the effect of which is to
move the paper for a short distance laterally by the the pressure of the point of the
pencil against it, and the inner cylinder is thus turned for a short distance round
upon the central screw. The pressure upon the plate being then removed the
spring and pencil return to their normal position, and the operation can be repeated
as often as desired, until the cylinders has traversed along the screw so far that the
surface of the paper is covered with a helical line of dots or marks produced as
described. If the opposite end of the plate to that just described be first pressed
down the point of the pencil is moved by the flexibility of the spring towards the
end of the cylinder opposite to that first described, and the dots or marks formed
by it will be in a line somewhat removed from the line of those first described,
and by properly determining in this way the position and number of the marks a
series of signs will be formed representing the signals which are being received,
and from which the latter can be read. By pressing each end of the spring
alternately a longitudinal mark can be made. I make the roll of paper upon the
inner cylinder in a long strip wound or coiled spirally, and preferably having a
longitudinal line of perforations along one point of its circumference, so that when
the surface has been covered with marks in the way described it can readily be
detached and a fresh surface exposed.
One or both of the edges of the coil may be cemented together. The arrangement
described may be used for other forms of telegraphic apparatus where the messages
are received upon a strip of paper.
I sometimes make the outer cylinder of the apparatus so that the part carrying
the pencil and spring is binged to the remainder, and can be readily opened or
closed to adjust the paper.
Apparatus constructed according to my Invention is very portable and simple,
and may be used for other purposes as well as for recording telegraphic messages.
For instance, notes may be taken with it of any distance traversed by the operator,
or of any observations made by him or information given to him, which can
afterwards be deciphered from the marks made as described upon the paper.