IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRO- MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH PRINTING APPARATUS OR MARKING INSTRUMENTS, AND THE INSTRUMENTS OR APPARATUS TO BE USED IN CONNECTION THEREWITH
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Banks, of No. 19, Salisbury Street, Adelphi,
Electric Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRO-
MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH PRINTING APPARATUS OR MARKING INSTRUMENTS, AND
THE INSTRUMENTS OR APPARATUS TO BE USED IN CONNECTION THEREWITH."
Sealed the 12th September 1862, and dated the 18th March 1862..
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Banks at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 18th
March 1862...
I, JAMES BANKS, of No. 19, Salisbury Street, Adelphi, Electric Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
ELECTRO-MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH PRINTING APPARATUS OR MARKING INSTRUMENTS,
AND THE INSTRUMENTS OR APPARATUS TO BE USED IN CONNECTION THEREWITH," to
be as follows:-
This Invention of improvements in electro-magnetic telegraph printing
apparatus, or marking instruments, and the instruments or apparatus to be
used in connection therewith, consists in employing two helical coils, which I
prefer to place vertically, and use or employ projecting polar terminations, so
that the armature may be attracted upward to the under side thereof when
the polar terminals are applied at the upper ends of the soft iron cores. And
instead of employing a bar armature, one end of which is made to come in
contact with each pole or polar terminal, I employ a circular armature in the

page_text: form of a disc or a ring, and mount it upon a spindle or rod held and guided
parallel to the soft iron cores, with a means of adjustment applied at the step
bearing or pivot. This spindle or rod with the circular armature is free to
rotate, and so present a different part to each polar terminal from time to
time. The spindle or rod is prolonged beyond the armature, and has on its
extremity either a button-shaped striker, or a marker of any convenient shape.
The marking part of the apparatus is carried by the same framing or mounting
as the magnetic coils, and thus if the coils are placed vertically, and the
marking or printing apparatus applied above them, the paper, strip, or ribbon
may be indented from the under side, or inked, or otherwise marked on its
upper face during its passage through the sheath or guide. Instead of
employing a rotating disc mounted on a spindle working in fixed bearings,
such disc being free to revolve in the direction of the paper, or made to
revolve in a contrary direction by means of clockwork, I either employ a roller
similar to a printer's inking. roller, mounted at a short distance above the
paper, and capable of revolving freely. Or I employ a thin cake, strip, or rod
of solid ink, held or contained in a sheath mounted in a carriage, or supported
in any convenient manner above the paper, against the point of which solid
ink marker, or against the printer's ink roller the paper is pressed in contact
during the transmission of the electric current through the helices or coils,
thus on making and breaking contact dots and spaces, or lines and spaces are
formed on the strip of paper or ribbon. The "drawing-off" is effected by
clockwork and friction rollers in the ordinary way.
Instruments for the purposes of "relay" and transmitting are similarly con-
structed, but are without the surmounted printing or marking apparatus,
having the circular disc or ring armature capable of freely revolving, and the
direct action of the spindle or rod effecting the necessary contact during each
current for the purposes of "relay" or transmission.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Banks in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 18th 3
September 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
BANKS, of No. 19, Salisbury Street, Adelphi, Eléctric Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters 3
Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of March, in the year of our

page_text: Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-fifth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said James Banks, Her special licence that I, the said James
Banks, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said James Banks, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN ELECTRO-MAGNETIC, TELEGRAPH PRINTING APPARATUS OR MARKING
INSTRUMENTS, AND THE INSTRUMENTS OR APPARATUS TO BE USED IN CONNEXION
THEREWITH," upon the condition, amongst others, that I, the said James
Banks, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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 James Banks, 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, and accompanying Drawings :-
This Invention of improvements in electro-magnetic telegraph printing
apparatus or marking instruments, and the instruments or apparatus to be
used in connection therewith, relates principally to the improvements herein-
after described in that description of electro-telegraphic instrument employed
for marking upon slips of paper or other material certain arbitrary signs or
marks predetermined as a code for the transmission of letters, words, and
figures in any language by means of the electric current from one place to
another, connected by means of a circuit wire.
In the various kinds of instruments employed for "printing," the transmission
of the current causes a hammer or a lever carrying a tracer, pointer, style, or
indenter to be moved or made to vibrate, and come in contact with the strip
of plain or prepared paper, and so produce the required mark, or series of
marks according to the length of time of contact, and the repetitions thereof,
by which means simple dots or lines of various lengths, and dots and lines
combined are produced, and a readable message according to a pre-arranged.
code is printed or impressed. In such instruments a going movement or train
of clockwork is employed to draw forward at an uniform rate the strip of

page_text: paper or other material. In the present Invention such apparatus is likewise
employed, controlled by a regulating fly and stop. In some descriptions of
instruments a tracing disc rotated by the clockwork is used in connection with
the movement of the lever carrying the tracing instrument, and in some of
such instruments the rotary tracing disc is made to revolve in a direction
contrary to the advance of the paper, whilst by means of a hammer or striker
the paper is pressed in contact. In the present Invention the only purpose
for which the train of clockwork or going movement is used, is for rotating
the drawing-off rollers, and causing the strip of material to move through the
marking apparatus at an uniform speed of travel. The marking or "printing."
apparatus is independent of the going movement.
? In all electro-magnetic printing instruments heretofore employed in practice
an adjustment of the distance between the electro-magnets and their armature
or armatures becomes necessary upon a change from a long to a shorter. circuit,
or vice versa, and from other circumstances connected with the practical
working of electro-magnetic telegraph instruments. Now, one of the objects of
the present Invention is to render unnecessary such adjusting apparatus, and the
arranging or working thereof in all the ordinary cases which at present exist
in practice, as also under the ordinary conditions of things, or where the
instrument has been arranged in proportion to the distance to be worked, and
the battery power to be employed.
:
By the present Invention the number of parts of the printing apparatus
is reduced, the motions of the parts actuated by the electric current are
direct and simple, instead of being compound and indirect; or involving
changes of direction; thus, instead of employing a vibrating. beam or lever,
one end of which is depressed whilst the other is raised, for the purpose of
bringing the tracer, style, or pointer in contact with the strip of paper, or for
the purpose of bringing the hammer or striker mounted thereon actively
against the strip of paper or other material, I so place the armature, and so
form and dispose the polar terminals of my electro-magnets as to produce on
the transmission of each current a direct action, or upward or longitudinal
motion of the armature carrying the striker, by which, in the machine .shown
in the Drawings hereunto annexed, the slip of paper or other material is
brought into contact with the means of marking or producing marks.
Inasmuch as the armature of such an apparatus when mounted at one end
of a longitudinally sliding axis or bar working parallel with the axes of..the
electro-magnetic coils, and always presenting the same parts to the poles or
polar terminals, would soon become unworkable. from being magnetised, I
have by my present Invention provided an arrangement by which. such defect.

page_text: and its consequences are avoided, and the rapidity and certainty with which
such apparatus so constructed according to my present Invention can be
worked under long continued action is very materially increased, as is.
herein-after explained. Instead of placing the electro-magnetic. coils
and the armature at one end of a lever, and the apparatus for making
or converting the more or less prolonged contact or passage of the electric.
current into inked marks, indentations, or other means of conveying signs,
letters, or figures at the other end of such lever, or at a greater or less
distance from the magnetic apparatus, I by my present Invention produce
the required action and the entire operation within the same mounting. The
paper or tape guide and the marker surmounting the magnets.
I construct a "relay" instrument with two electro-magnets and armature
similar to the printing apparatus described, but of suitably reduced dimensions,
each magnet being composed of a sufficiently long length of a finer wire than
that ordinarily employed in the printing instrument used in connection there-
with, and I prefer to enclose such relay instrument in a close fitting case or
tube, providing suitable insulation in the cap thereof, or in any
other' con-
venient part of the apparatus for the metallic connection provided for receiving
the "line" currents, and transmitting local currents to the printing instru
ment; and I provide a sufficient number of metallic terminals around the
base of the relay instrument, or in any convenient position externally, by
which the various lines and connections, local, main line, battery, instrument,
and earth may be coupled.
For a "transmitting "instrument I use the same arrangement of coils and
armature for transmitting through intermediate stations, as in the precedingly
described printing apparatus. This I effect by fixing upon the spindle or rod of
the armature another metallic disc of a diameter sufficient to clear the wire
coils. Fom a suitable "cock" or bracket, and properly insulated therefrom,
I fix two springs or elastic arms, the upper one carrying a metallic point, and
the lower one a metallic roller at its extremity. When the current is trans-
mitted and the armature thereby raised, the lower metallic disc being raised
to a similar extent, comes in contact with and raises the lower spring, or arm
against the metallic point of the upper spring or arm (they being in. their
normal position separated) and thus a circuit is formed by the contact pro-
duced, the effect of which is to call in additional battery power in aid of the
main circuit. In each of the last described instruments, namely the "relay"
and the "transmitting" instrument, a central spindle or rod has mounted upon
it a disc of metal as an armature, by preference circular in form, and the
spindle or rod is free to revolve upon the transmission of each current, the

page_text: extent of such revolution or motion varying according to the duration of contact
and the distance of the armature from the poles when at rest; which is the-
measure of the travel or space passed through by the armature at each
stroke...
The improvements in the arrangement of electro-magnetic telegraph printing
apparatus and transmitters; consists in employing two helical coils, which I.
prefer to place vertically, and use or employ projecting polar terminations, so
that the armature may be attracted upward to the under side thereof, when the
polar terminals are applied at the upper ends of the soft iron: cores; and,
instead of employing a bar armature, one end of which is made to come in
contact with each pole or polar terminal, I employ a circular armature in the
form of a disc or a ring, and mount it upon a spindle or rod held and guided
parallel to the soft iron cores with a means of adjustment applied at the step:
bearing or pivot. This spindle or rod with the circular armature is free to
rotate and so present a different part to each polar terminal from time to time.
The spindle or rod is prolonged beyond the armature and has on its extremity
either a button shaped striker, or a marker of any convenient shape. The
marking part of the apparatus is carried by the same framing or mounting as
the magnetic coils; and thus if the coils are placed vertically and the marking.
or printing apparatus applied above them, the paper strip or ribbon may be
indented from the under side, or inked, or otherwise marked, on its upper face
during its passage through the sheath or guide.
Instead of employing a rotating disc mounted on a spindle working in fixed.
bearings, such disc being free to revolve in the direction of the paper, or made
to revolve in a contrary direction by means of clock, I either employ a roller
similar to a printer's inking roller, mounted at a short distance above the paper
and capable of revolving freely, or I employ a thin cake, strip or rod of solid
ink, held or contained in a sheath. mounted in a carriage or supported in any
convenient manner above the paper, against the point of which solid ink-
marker or against the printer's ink roller, the paper is pressed in contact
during the transmission of the electric currents through the helices or coils;
thus, on making and breaking contact, dots and spaces, or lines and spaces, are
formed on the strip of paper. The "drawing off" is effected by clockwork and.
friction rollers in the ordinary way. Instruments for the purposes of "relay," and
"transmitting" are similarly constructed but are without the surmounted printing
or marking operators, having the circular disc or ring armature capable of freely
revolving; and the direct action of the spindle or rod effecting the necessary'
contact during each current for the purposes of relay or transmission.
I will now proceed to further describe my said Invention by referring to

page_text: the several Figures in the accompanying Drawings, in which I have shewn;
some of the arrangements and dispositions of parts which in practice I prefer:
to adopt; although I wish it to be understood that I do not thereby intend to;
confine myself to the relations therein shewn between the magnets with their
fittings and the "going" movement and its apparatus, nor the disposition of
the key or operating handle in relation to the other parts of the instrument,
neither do I intend thereby to restrict myself to the precise dimensions nor the;
exact form or outline of the several parts of the electro-magnetic apparatus,
so long as they are substantially the same or the mechanically equivalent.
substitutes therefor.
Figure 1 is a plan view of an instrument constructed according to my;
present Invention; Figure 2 is a side elevation of Figure 1; Figure 3 is an,
end view of Figures 1 and 2, omitting the "going" movement or clockwork;
for giving motion to the paper. Figure 4 shews a modification of the printing,
portion of the apparatus shewn at Figure 3, in which a solid ink point is
employed. Figure 5 is another modification in which an endless cord or
ring of india-rubber a¹ passing over two grooved wheels b¹ and 6" is employed.
for making the ink marks,, an inking roller c distributing the ink to the band.
Figure 6 shews another modification in which a circular striker a' is mounted
above the armature spindle and independent thereof. Figures 7 and 8 are
views of a "relay" instrument constructed according to this Invention, in
which the direct vertical action of the armature is made to call into play the
local apparatus as herein-before described. The general construction and
nature of such relay instrument being so well understood by all conversant
with electro-telegraphy as to render unnecessary any detailed description
thereof, as to the parts to be insulated and the mode of working or operating
the same. Figure 9 exhibits a side elevation in section of a "transmitter" or
instrument for transmitting messages through intermediate stations constructed
as herein-before described. The general construction and the mode of working
sucli instruments is now. so well understood as to render unnecessary any
detailed description thereof. It is understood that for the electro-magnetic
printing or marking instrument the going movement or train of clockwork
may be of any convenient and suitable construction, it is therefore not shewn:
in detail in the Drawings hereunto annexed but only indicated as to its position,
&c. The ineans of driving the drawing off rollers is shewn as being wheel
gearing, but any other convenient means may be employed.
"
...In Figures 1 and 2, A is the board to which the apparatus is fixed; B, the
clock train or "going" movement, by which motion is given through the
drum wheel a, and the gearing b and c to the lower, roller d, and by which the

page_text: upon a
strip of paper or other material e is drawn forward between the lower roller d
and the upper or pressure roller f. The key or handle C, by which circuit is
made and broken alternately, does not possess any feature of novelty, but is of
the most simple and ordinary construction. The position of the guard piece g
is placed near to the non-conducting knob or handle h. The proper connec
tion by means of conducting wires is effected in the ordinary manner. D, D,
are the two electro-magnets placed side by side, the length and size of the
wire composing the coils being proportioned to the nature of the instrument,
and the purpose for which it is intended. The polar terminals h¹, h", are made
to project or overhang inwards or approach each other, so that by placing
the armature on the under side it is attracted upwards upon the electric
current being passed through the coils. This armature i is mounted
rod or spindle working vertically in guides k attached to cross pieces at the
top and bottom of the magnets. The upper end is terminated by a striker, by
which the strip of paper or other material is pressed against the freely revolving
marker m. The striker instead of being a pointer or style, or of the ordinary
form, is a button-shaped piece terminating the armature, spindle, or rod, so
that the surface presented to the under side of the strip to be printed or
marked is a thin rim or edge, and performs another function, besides pressing
the strip in contact with the marker or roller, which in these views is shewn
as mounted upon the forked end of a lever, and is made to revolve by the
drawing through of the paper or other strip to be printed. The lever o is
adjustable by means of the adjusting screw o'; and instead of the marker being
placed immediately over the centre of the vertical spindle or rod j, carrying the
armature i, the marker, marking roller or cylinder m, is placed a little to the
one side thereof, so that each time contact is made between the striker l, the
paper e, and the marker m, the armature i and its vertical spindle or rod j are
caused to revolve and change their position with respect to the poles of the
magnets, and thus prevent the magnetising of the armature i, which would
otherwise take place from the repeated contacts of the poles of the same
surfaces of the armature, if there did not exist a tendency to revolve at each
stroke. I provide a means of adjusting the travel of the vertical spindle or
rod j, carrying the armature i by means of a set screw p, shewn in Figure 3;
but in addition thereto, the armature i is capable of adjustment upon the
vertical spindle or rod j by means of set nuts, or instead thereof the spindle
or rod j may be hollow, and the shank of the striker made to slide up and
down therein, being held fast and adjusted by means of a set screw, or the
shank of the striker may be hollow and fit on to the rod.
Instead of making the armature i a solid disc, I prefer to drill or otherwise

page_text: form a series of holes therein, by which I am enabled to secure a more rapid
and uniform action, and at the same time reduce the weight of the armature
in proportion to its diameter, or the armature may be made as a ring.
The strip of paper or other material being mounted upon a flanged wheel or
roller in a line with the drawing-off rollers d, f, and the printing or marking
apparatus; it is carried along through a slot in the guide piece s, and through
the guide sheath t, between the striker and the marker m, and so between
the rollers d, f, actuated by the clockwork or going movement, and by which
the strip of material after it has been printed or marked is drawn forward at a
regular speed. The upper drawing-off roller is shewn as held in its place by
springs u, u; w, w, w, w, are terminals or binding screws for connecting up
the batteries and other parts of the circuit arrangement, and a relay instrument
as herein-before described, may be introduced in connection with the printing
apparatus constructed according to the present Invention.
As before stated, I construct "relay" and "transmitting" instruments upon
the same principle as that which I have already described, or I apply the
same principle of construction as that already described for the purpose of
effecting a relay, or the calling into action of intermediate battery power.
Having now described my said Invention of improvements in electro-magnetic
telegraph printing apparatus or marking instruments, and the instruments or
apparatus to be used in connection therewith; what I claim is,-
First, the construction, arrangement of parts, and mode of working electro-
magnetic printing or marking apparatus, as herein described.
Second, the revolving armature and the mode of mounting and working the
same in electro-magnetic telegraph apparatus, as herein-described.
Third, the combination of a marker, marking roller, or cylinder, as herein
described, when such is employed with the direct-acting striker, for the purpose
and in the manner herein described and set forth.
the
Fourth, the adaptation of the direct-acting and freely revolving armature for
purposes of "relay" and "transmission," as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Banks, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of September, One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-two.