CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS
Year: 1851

page_text: DE FONTAINE MOREAU'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PIERRE
ARMAND le Comte DE FONTAINE MOREAU, of No. 4, South Street, Finsbury,
London, and 24, Boulevart Poissonnière, Paris, Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Third day of May, (One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-one,) in the fourteenth year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Pierre
Armand le Comte de Fontaine Moreau, my exors, admors, and assigns, Her
especial license, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said
Pierre Armand le Comte de Fontaine Moreau, my exors, admors, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Pierre Armand le Comte de Fontaine Moreau,
my exors, admiors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in the Islands of Jersey,
Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and also in all Her said Majesty's
Colonies and Plantations abroad, save and except the provinces of Canada,
Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, and the Island of Prince Edward, in North
America, the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS,"
being a communication from abroad; in which said Letters Patent is con-
tained a proviso, that I, the said Pierre Armand le Comte de Fontaine
Moreau, shall cause a particular description of the nature of the said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in

page_text: writing under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court
of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference
being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Pierre Armand le Comte de Fontaine Moreau, do hereby declare that the
nature of the said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be
performed, are fully described and ascertained in and by the following state-
ment thereof, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and-to
the figures and letters marked thereon, that is to say :—
The Invention consists in the application of electric telegraphic apparatus
of a key board similar to that of a pianoforte, in conjunction with a toothed
cylinder, combined with a ratchet wheel and levers put in motion by keys or
hammers, by means of which it is merely requisite to place the finger upon a
series of keys on which signs, letters, or numbers are written to effect the
transmission of intelligence. The same letters of reference represent in the
several Figures parts which are similar.
Figure 1 is a front view of the mechanism; Figure 2 is a plan of the same;
Figure 3 is a section of the same through the plan M, N.
Figure 4 is a section through the plan. P, Q, T, are the hammers which
move up and down round the centre C, and are provided in the middle
of their length with a small catch S; under the key board is set a steel
cylinder a provided at R with a ratchet wheel, and in its length with the
rods Z equal in number to the keys, and set helixwise to enable each of the
rods during the rotation of the shaft to be stopped by the catch S correspond-
ing with the key which is lowered. A horizontal bar is set at B; it is made to
move up and down parallel to itself; it lowers when a pressure is exerted on
any of the keys, and rises when that pressure is withdrawn. The cylinder a is
put in motion (in the direction of the arrow) by means of clockwork, and its
progress is arrested by a ratchet 6, which catches in the teeth of the wheel R.
When the finger is pressed on one of the keys it lowers and takes with it in
its descending motion the bar B, which liberates the ratchet b, and this motion
enables the shaft a to turn until the rod Z corresponding with the key which
has been lowered, meets the stop S superposed on it. Another key, which is
afterwards lowered, producing a similar effect, allows the axis a to turn an
angle proportioned to the length of the arc of the helix between the two keys,
which successively stop the motion, so that if the cylinder a is provided with
an electric interrupter which opens and shuts the circuit every time one of the
teeth of the ratchet wheel passes through, the effect produced by this mechanism

page_text: on an electric current will be identical to that produced by the rotation of a tele-
graph dial, provided with as many signals as there are keys in this apparatus,
but with considerably greater advantage; the rotation of the axis a being uni-
form and regulated according to the greatest speed that the receiving apparatus
permits of without missing its effect. Communication being once established
between the receiver and the transmitter, it continues to subsist independently
of the variation in the regularity of touching the keys, provided time be given
for the hand to run over the divisions of the dial, which is performed in the
shortest possible time on account of the uniformity of the motion, which
permits the apparatus being regulated to the greatest medium speed of the
receiver, so that any person indifferently chosen, provided he know how to
read, is able to transmit intelligence without the apparatus making any mis-
take. The clockwork is wound up from time to time as in ordinary cases, but
even that trouble may be dispensed with by means of the following me-
chanism: A ratchet wheel with small teeth is fixed to the wheelwork, and
propelled by a ratchet set in motion; when the bar blowers, it raises by
degrees the spring of the wheelwork of an amount which has been ascertained
to be rather greater than the medium force expended. When the spring is
wound up entirely, the ratchet ceases to act, because it is raised up by a lever
disposed on purpose.
And having now described the Invention communicated to me, I wish it to
be understood, that I do not claim as of the said Invention the several com-
-ponent-parts-of-the-mechanism herein described taken separately, nor do I
confine myself to the precise details herein laid down, provided the general
features be preserved; but what I do claim as the Invention communicated to
me and intended to be protected by the said Letters Patent is,―
Firstly, the application to telegraphic apparatus of a key board combined
with a series of stops disposed in the form of an helix around a cylindrical
axis, so as to permit that axis to turn of a proportionate amount to the position
of the key, which is acted upon as herein-before described in reference to the
Figures of the Drawing.
Secondly, the application to telegraphic apparatus of a parallel bar under-
neath the key board for enabling indiscriminately each of the keys to put in
motion the axis of the telegraph.
In witness whereof, I, the said Pierre Armand le Comte de Fontaine
Moreau, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Third day of
November, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
fifty-one.
LE DE FONTAINE (L.S.) MOREAU.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Third day of November, in the
year of our Lord 1851, the aforesaid Pierre Armand le Comte de Fontaine
Moreau came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknow-
ledged the Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained
and specified, in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was
stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Third day of November, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-one.