IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHY, AND IN THE ARRANGEMENT OF APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN
Year: 1874

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Isham Baggs at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 23rd
February 1874.
I, ISHAM BAGGS, of Surbiton, in the County of Surrey, Practical
Chemist and Electrician, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHY, AND IN THE ARRANGEMENT
OF APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN," to be as follows:―
This Invention consists in certain arrangements of apparatus and methods
of operating the same, whereby great force and intensity is given to very
faint currents or impulses of electricity; and further, in giving a
directive force to currents of electricity so as to cause them as may be
desired to traverse one or other of two remote arrangements of apparatus
connected with the same line wire, and without the movement in such
case of a needle, armature, or other analogous mechanical appliance:
This Invention also embraces a method of sending a duplex message
through certain instruments at one and the same time.
Hitherto when relays have been employed to increase the electric or
mechanical effects at a distant station, the object has been accomplished

page_text: by causing the line wire to make contact with a local battery, the result
being the production of a local current.
Under the present Invention the result is obtained by breaking
contact through the agency of the line wire. Suppose a needle instru-
ment of sufficient delicacy is being operated upon the needle is first
moved in a feeble manner through, for example, the ten-thousandth part
of an inch tangentially by the main current. The contact with a
metallic stop, against which the needle rests, and which stop is con-
nected with one pole of the local battery, is thereby broken. The said
stop was previously conveying a local current from a local battery
through the body of the needle itself, and a short metallic circuit of
ample sectional area to ensure the passage of a good current. As soon
however as the contact is thus broken the current is directed solely
through a coil, which is arranged so as to be capable of acting upon the
needle, and which has been previously conveying a portion only of such
current, but which now conveys the whole of it. Such current instantly
acts upon the needle and ensures its deflection with any required force
or velocity. On striking a stop, which is placed opposite that before
mentioned, a fresh contact is made, and the needle rebounds to its
original position from the action of a counter current which is so pro-
duced, and in this way the motions are continued with great facility,
force, and swiftness.
If desired the two stops may be conjointly connected with cither tho
line wire or with the earth wire or conductor in order to quicken the
process of transmitting signals.
It should be observed that the partial influence of the battery, which
passes through the coil when the needle is at rest, is balanced or nearly.
so by any convenient force, such as torsion, gravity, magnetism, or
electricity, in accordance with the principles stated in the Specification
of an Invention for "Improvements in Electric Telegraph Instruments
and Relays," for which Letters Patent bearing date the 20th day of June]
1865, No. 1654, were granted to me, and also that it is only the portion
of the local current which was previously passing through the short
circuit, and which has been diverted by the breaking of contact, as above
described, that really influences the movement of the needle.
It should be understood that the arrangements before described apply
not only to the needle instrument but also to the "Morse" and other

page_text: recording instruments, including such as give their indications by
chemical marks, in accordance with the process described in the Speci-
fication of an Invention for "Improvements in Printing," for which
Letters Patent bearing date the 23rd day of January 1841, No. 8809,
were granted to me.
In order to give a directive force to a current of electricity from a
remote station the line wire is connected with the middle of a local
battery of equal strength or thereabouts to that used at the transmitting
station. It will be clearly understood that under this arrangement a
positive current entering the centre of the battery will pass through the
same in one direction, and a negative current in the other, as being the
lines of least resistance, and in either case will so traverse a separate and
distinct coil provided for that purpose, thus moving two separate needles,
one traversing a right, and the other a left handed motion controlled by
the stops before mentioned.
For the purpose of sending a message in duplicate perforated paper or
any other effective and known substituto thercfor is used for transmission.
The two messages are perforated upon the same slip, coil, or piece of
paper, or otherwise placed in two distinct lines, the blanks or spaces of
cach respectively corresponding with the telegraphic indications of the
other.