IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PRINTING ELECTRO-TELEGRAPHIC DISPATCHES
Year: 1856

page_text: (This Invention received Provisional Protection, out notice to proceed with the
application for Letters Patent was not given within the time prescribed
by the Act.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Henry Johnson at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 10th November
1856. A communication: . .
I, JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of
Middlesex, and of 166, Buchanan Street, in the City of Glasgow, North
Britain, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PRINTING ELECTRO-TELEGRAPHIC DISPATCHES,'
a communication from Louis Francois Clement Bregnet, of Paris, in the
Empire of France, to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a simple construction and arrangement of printing
apparatus, which may be attached to any ordinary arrangement of recording
mechanism, but is more particularly applicable to dial indicating or recording
instruments. The dial should contain all the letters and signs which may
be required for the transmission of despatches. The needle or indicator is
actuated or moved by the make and break of contact in the ordinary manner.
A local battery is employed for working the printing mechanism. On the
arbor of the escapement wheel of the clockwork for working the dial
indicating mechanism is fitted a type wheel having its letters and signs raised
upon its periphery. Two electro-magnets or coils are employed for working
a lever, which presses the strip of paper upon which the despatch is to be

page_text: printed on to the surface or periphery of the type wheel. On the armature of
the magnets which actuate the dial mechanism are fitted two springs, which
move with it, and serve to establish the circuit when requisite from the local
battery through the magnets which work the printing mechanism. It is well
understood that each time the indicator passes in front of a letter on the dial
there is a certain amount of attraction exerted upon the armature by the
magnets of the dial mechanism; as the two springs are attached to this
armature they of course move with it, that is, to say, at each oscillation of the
armature the spring No. 1 will come in contact with a stop or screw carried
by a fixed piece between the coils. The spring No. 2, which establishes tho
circuit of the local battery, when it comes in contact with its own particular
stop, has the same movement as the spring No. 1, only that the first-mentioned
spring No. 1 by striking its stop prevents the spring No. 2 from coming into
contact with its own stop, when the manipulator who works the apparatus
does not stop the indicator in front of the letter which is to be printed, since
there is not sufficient tine requisite to magnetize the coils; but when the
indicator is stopped, magnetic attraction is effected, and spring No. 2 comes
into contact with its stop, thereby establishing the circuit of the local battery.
One peculiar feature in this system is the arrangement of the two springs and
the magnetizing of the supplementary coils of the printing mechanism.
these coils are of considerably larger diameter than those of the dial mechanism
they naturally require a longer time to become excited. Thus, when the
indicator passes rapidly in front of a letter the smaller coils of the dial
mechanism may be excited, whilst the larger ones of the printing mechanism
will remain passive. A catch on the impressing lever turns a feed wheel for
moving the strip of paper forward at each stroke of the lever.
As