IMPROVE- MENTS IN ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Walker, of Glasgow, Merchant, and 'Alexander
McKenzie, also of Glasgow, Mechanist, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Walker and
Alexander McKenzie at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 20th June 1855.
We, ROBERT WALKER, of Glasgow, Merchant, and ALEXANDER MCKENZIE,
also of Glasgow, Mechanist, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists, first, of apparatus to be used when single currents of
electricity are employed in one line wire, whether the recording be by decom-
posing matters on prepared paper or fabric, or for making marks by the aid of
electro-magnets. The apparatus so to be applied is arranged with a view that".
by the simple touch of a key at the distant station, the sign or signs or marks
which go to indicate each letter of the alphabet shall be made. For this
purpose a key board is made with as many keys or instruments as it is desired
the telegraph should have power to communicate letters, each key or instru-
ment representing a letter. On a cylinder or other suitable, form opposite
each key or instrument is fixed one or more pieces of metal, of such length and

page_text: arranged in such order as will, on being made the means, for the time being,
of making up a circuit, indicate the letter represented by the key or instru-
ment; and the requisite use in succession of these pieces of metal may either
be obtained by the simple movement of the keys, or the joint movement
of the keys and the cylinder or surface on which the pieces of metal are
fixed.
The second part of the Invention consists of arranging an electric tele-
graphic apparatus so as to facilitate the introduction of an indicating instru-
ment in any part of the line when it is desired for a temporary purpose to
This part of the Invention is applicable where there is a constant
current of electricity passing through the wire,, except when the circuit is
broken by the working of the indicating instruments. For this purpose,
in suspending the line wire we arrange at intervals, and, by preference, at
the points of suspension along the line, connections of the line wire, which
may be readily separated to receive an indicating instrument, which by making
and breaking the circuit may be the means not only of putting its own indi-
cating instrument into action, but also the other instruments in the line, and
thus give also the power to a person at a distant station to put the temporarily
introduced instruments into action so as to telegraph communications.
SPCEIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Robert Walker and Alexander McKenzie' in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 20th December 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, ROBERT.
WALKER, of Glasgow, Merchant, and ALEXANDER MCKENZIE, also of Glasgow,
Mechanist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said Robert Walker and Alexander McKenzie, Her special licence that we,
the said Robert Walker and Alexander McKenzie, our executors, administra-
tors, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Robert Walker and Alexander
McKenzie, our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the

page_text: ferm 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRIC
TELEGRAPHS," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Robert
Walker and Alexander McKenzie, by an instrument in writing under our
hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us, 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 Robert Walker, on behalf of myself and
the said Alexander McKenzie, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed; to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that is
to say:
1.
This Invention consists, first, of apparatus to be used when single currents'
of electricity are employed in one line wire, whether the recording be by
decomposing matters on prepared paper or fabric, or for making marks by the
aid of electro-magnets. The apparatus so to be applied is arranged with a
view that by the simple touch of a key at the distant station, the sign or signs
or marks which go to indicate each letter of the alphabet shall be made. For
this purpose a key board is made with as many keys or instruments as it is
desired the telegraph should have power to communicate letters, each key or'
instrument representing à letter. On a cylinder or other suitable form opposite
each key or instrument is fixed one or more pieces of metal, of such length
and arranged in such order as will, on being made the means, for the time
being, of making up a circuit, indicate the letter represented by the key or
instrument; and the requisite use in succession of these pieces of metal may
either be obtained by the simple movement of the keys or the joint move-
ment of the keys and the cylinder or surface on which the pieces of metal
are fixed.
.
The second part of the Invention consists of arranging an electric tele-
graphic apparatus so as to facilitate the introduction of an indicating instru-
ment in any part of the line when it is desired for a temporary purpose to do'
so. This part of the Invention is applicable where there is a constant current
of electricity passing through the wire, except when the circuit is broken by
the working of the indicating instruments. For this purpose, in suspending the
line wire we arrange at intervals, and, by preference, at the points of suspen-

page_text: sion along the line, connections of the line wire, which may be readily sepa-
rated to receive an indicating instrument, which, by making and breaking the
circuit, may be the means not only of putting its own indicating instrument
into action, but also the other instruments in the line, and thus give also
the power to persons at a distant station to put the temporarily introduced
instrument into action so as to telegraph communications.
Having thus stated the nature of our said Invention, we will proceed more
fully to describe the manner of performing the same.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 shows a side view of apparatus according to our Invention;
Figure 2 is a plan thereof. a is a finger key, constantly pressed upwards by
a spring b, so that when the key is not depressed, the spring will, as soon as
the end a¹ is released, depress that end and separate it from contact with the
cylinder c. The cylinder c is composed of the disc c¹ and the projections or
cylindrical portions c. On the surface of the disc c' are fixed or formed a
series of metal or conducting surfaces, which are constantly in contact with
the axis d, and the metal surfaces are separated from each other by intervening
non-conducting substances. The axis d is caused constantly to rotate when in
use by clock-work or otherwise at an uniform rate, and the paper-receiving
surface at a distance is to be moved in a corresponding rate. This apparatus
is suitable when chemically prepared paper is used, or when a marker is
employed actuated by an electro-magnet, both of which means of receiving
and recording electric telegraphic communications are well understood, and in
both the letters, figures, or signs are composed by the use of longer and shorter
marks produced by the contacts being for longer or shorter periods. In the
arrangement of the metal contacts on surfaces c, they are made to consist of
longer or shorter contacts as required. In the one shown, there are four
repetitions of the same sign, letter, or figure, consisting of three short and one
long contact. In a complete apparatus there will be as many finger keys and
cylinders as it is desired there should be letters, figures, and signs communi-
cated by the apparatus. The axis d is by its supports e put in communication
with one pole of the battery, and the other pole of the battery is put in com-
munication with the spring b. In using this apparatus, on putting down one
of the finger keys of the apparatus, the projecting end will be raised in contact
with the projection c of the cylinder, and that end will, on an open space or gap
coming opposite, enter and come in contact with the metal surfaces x, x, on the
disc c', and if the key be held down during a complete revolution of the

page_text: cylinder, the letter, sign, or figure would be repeated four times, but if the key
a be no longer held down after it has entered within the cylinder c, its end.a¹
will on arriving at the end of one of the parts c, pass out from the cylinder.. It
is not essential that there should be more than one set of metal contacts to
each cylinder c, in which case a complete revolution would. be required, to
transmit each sign, letter, or figure..
The form and arrangement of-the-parts may be varied, and. they may be as
shown at Figures 3 and 4, which respectively represent a. plan and side. view
of a finger key and. its apparatus. In this arrangement the axis does not
receive a constant rotary motion; on the contrary,. the motion, of the parts
is derived from putting down the keys, and the reaction of the springs. c is a
cylindrical surface on which is fixed a series of non-conducting substances, so.
as to produce a succession of shorter and longer contacts x. a is a finger, key,
its inner end a¹ is formed into a fork, the upper part being of a non-conducting
substances. d is a spring in. connection with.one pole. of the battery, and.the:
spring is put in connection with the other pole of the battery. In order to
transmit a sign, letter, or figure; a key of the apparatus is to be depressed,
which will cause the metal limb of the fork a¹ to come in contact with the
metal stud c, and thus cause the cylinder c to make a partial rotation, so that
the divided metallic surface a, a, will pass in succession in contact with the
spring d, and the reaction of the spring will reverse the parts of the fork a',
and bring back the cylinder d. In this arrangement there are to be as many
keys a and cylinders c as there are letters, signs, or figures to be transmitted
by the apparatus.
Figure 5 shows a section, and Figure 6 an exterior view, of means of
obtaining a separation of the wires of electric telegraphic apparatus when an
accident happens to a train on a line of railway. This part of our Invention
consists of combining the two parts or ends of a line wire in such manner by
a spring or springs that they may be readily separated so as to break the
circuit, either by so doing to communicate the fact that an accident has hap-
pened on a particular line, in which case it would require a constant current
of electricity in the wire, or by such break being made to receive a portable
instrument, in which case communication might be made from and to such
instrument. In the arrangement shown, the spring is a tube of vulcanized
india-rubber a, connected at its two ends to the ends b and c of a line wire.
So long as the tube is not extended so as to separate the two ends b and c, they
will remain in metallic contact, but so soon as the tube is stretched the metallic
contact will be broken, and such will be the case as long as the tube is kept

page_text: distended, which it may be by any covenient means. The arrangement. and
form of the spring or springs for holding the parts b and c together may be
varied...
What we claim is, the combining apparatus, as described in respect to
Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4
And, secondly, we claim the combining the two ends of a line wire of electric
telegraph apparatus by a spring or springs, as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Walker, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of December, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
Witness,
FREDE HARRIS.
ROB WALKER. (L.S.).