IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING TELEGRAPH APPARATUS
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Robert Lake, of the Firm of Haseltine,
Lake, & Co., Patent Agents, Southampton Buildings, London, for
the Invention of“ IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING TELEGRAPH APPARATUS.”
-A communication from abroad by William Francis Coffee, of the
City and State of New York, United States of America.
Sealed the 14th October 1873, and dated the 29th April 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Robert Lake
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 29th April 1873.
I, WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co.,
Patent Agents, Southampton Buildings, London, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING TELEGRAPH
APPARATUS," a communication, to be as follows:-
The primary object of this Invention is the production of a rapid and
reliable printing telegraph, which shall require but one main circuit and
dispense with local batteries, and which will be found especially useful
for telegraphing or reporting stock exchange quotations and transactions,
also for private lines.

page_text: The said Invention consists,-
First. In the application of an electro-magnetic shunt and its connec-
tions for reducting the resistance of the line and causing the printing to
be done by the force of the main current. The said shunt is applied to
the escapement magnets of the type wheel, so that at the moment of
printing the current is diverted from the said escapement magnets,
thereby rendering the other magnet or magnets in the same main circuit
more powerful.
Secondly. In a unison mechanism, whereby each station is made to
bring the type wheels of all the instruments in the same circuit into
harmony with its transmitting apparatus. This unison mechanism is
composed of a pin in the shaft of the type wheel, a lever held by light
friction on the shaft of one of the wheels of the clockwork of the
receiving instrument for catching said pin, and a lever or levers moved
by electro-magnetism for pushing the first-named lever in a direction
opposite to that in which it is moved by the clockwork.
Thirdly. In a peculiar arrangement for stock exchange quotations of
the characters on the type wheel for the purpose of effecting a rapid
transmission of fractional numbers. The type wheel is made to record
numerical quotations with the odd digits or such of the odd digets as
occur as numerators in the fractions used, placed before a fractional sign
as regards their presentation to the printing roller or pad, and with the
even digits or such of the even digits as are employed in said fractions,
placed on the other side of the said fractional sign.
Fourthly. In a combination of the shunt, the unison mechanism, the
type wheel, the escapement, the clockwork, the printing magnet, and a
lever and roller, the whole composing for the most part the receiving
portion of a printing telegraph, whereby both speed and reliability are
insured.
As
my Invention is designed principally for stock exchange reporting, a
and as the numerators of all fractions used in such reporting are odd
numbers and the denominators even numbers, I employ some character,
as for instance a slanting dash, to denote the usual dividing line in
vulgar fractions, and place all the odd digits before said dash in the order
of the revolution of the type wheel and all the even digits after the
said dash, so that the three elements of the fractions will always be
presented to the printing point in the precise order required without that

page_text: 5
loss of time which would frequently ensue were the digits placed in the
usual numerical order. The fractions used in stock quotations being
,,,,,,, if the type wheel revolves properly, any one of the
said fractions can be made during nine thirty-sixths of a revolution of
the type wheel, thirty-six being the whole number of characters on the
.same.
8
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Robert Lake in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 29th October 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the
thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said William Robert Lake, Her special
licence that I, the said William Robert Lake, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Robert Lake,
my exccutors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter 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
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING TELEGRAPH APPARATUS," a communication to him
from abroad by William Francis Coffee, of the City and State of New
York, United States of America, upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said William Robert Lake, 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.

page_text: . NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Robert Lake, 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, reference being had to the accompanying
Drawing forming a part of this Specification:-
The primary object of this Invention is the production of a rapid and
reliable printing telegraph which shall require but one main circuit and
dispense with local batteries, and which will be found especially useful
for telegraphing or reporting stock exchange quotations and transactions,
also for private lines.

page_text: edge view of the type wheel in part.
sponding parts throughout the Drawing.
Similar letters indicate corre-
A is the main frame for supporting the different magnets, armatures,
levers, adjusting springs, and screws; also the type wheel, its oscape-
ment wheel, and a train of clockwork for putting the said wheels in
motion. This clockwork may be moved either by a weight or spring.
B is the base portion of the instrument. C, C¹, are electro-magnets so
connected in the same circuits that when the one magnet attracts the
other repels a polarized armature a which is connected with the pallet b.
This pallet engages with an escapement wheel D fast to the type wheel,
said pallet 6 and wheel D forming an escapement to allow of the type
wheel being turned step by step as the current is reversed over the line
by the transmitter. Arranged in the same circuit is another electro-
magnet C³, which when charged attracts soft iron armatures a¹, a². These
armatures are of different weight. The lighter one a¹ is attached to'a
shunt lever E, one end of which by the action of the magnet C³ is
brought into contact with an adjustable screw c insulated from the frame
of the instrument. This shunt lever E is moved in its one direction by
a spring d. The heavier armature a² is connected with a printing lever F.
As I lay no claim to this lever, the printing roller, or the device for
drawing the paper, it is only necessary here to state that by the action
of the magnet C³ the paper is pressed against the type wheel, and is
drawn forward by the opposite movement of the lever F, as produced by
a spring d¹.
G is a balanced or nearly balanced lever, which may be hung loosely
upon the shaft of one of the wheels of the clockwork connected with
the instrument, and which is held steady by light friction produced by
the pressure of a spiral spring e arranged to surround the shaft on which
the lever is hung. This lever G consequently revolves in common with
the motion of the clockwork until checked, as herein-after described..
At one end of said lever is a projection f which catches on or against a
ping on the shaft of the type wheel H, by which action the type wheel
is locked at a given point to bring it into harmony with the transmitter..
A small lever I is suspended on the inside of the frame by a screw or
pin h. The motion of the lever I is limited in one direction by the
locking lever G and in the other direction by a pin in the frame, or by a
wire i extending from the printing lever F. The movement of the
lever G is checked in one direction by the lever I and in the opposite

page_text: direction by a pin projecting from the inside of the frame near the paper
guide J. The lever I forms a connecting link between the lever G and
the wire i, so that the motion given to the wire i by the magnet C³ may
push the lever G in a direction opposite to that given it by the shaft on
which it is supported. Instead of the wire i to operate the lever I an
independent lever and armature may be used.
As previously stated all the magnets are in the same circuit. The
arrangement of circuits, magnets, and connections is best seen in
Figure 2. One of the usual binding screws K is connected with the
magnet C²; the other binding screw K¹ is in electrical connection with
the frame. One end of the wire of the magnet C is also connected to
the frame at k. A wire extending from the insulated screw c is connected
with the circuit at 7 between the magnets C¹ and O³. The line wire from
one direction enters K while K' receives the line from the opposite
direction. Thus the route of the current while the shunt is open is from
K¹ to the frame through the frame to k and thence through the magnets
C, C1, C2, to K. When the shunt route is closed the current avoids the
magnets C, C¹, and goes from K₁ to the frame over the arbor of the
lever E along the latter to the screw c, thence to l, and afterwards through
the magnet C to the binding screw K as before.
The operation is as follows:-While the transmitter rapidly reverses
the current over the line the magnets C, C³, alternately attract and repel
the polarized armature a, thus actuating the escapement and allowing
the clockwork to carry around the type wheel step by step with precisely
the rapidity with which the current reverser moves. These electric.
impulses are of so short duration that the magnet C³ does not require
power sufficient to overcome the tractile force of either of the springs d
or d. When however the transmitter halts a moment at any character
to be printed with the current flowing in either direction the magnet C³
becomes sufficiently charged to overpower the delicate spring d, by.
reason of which the shunt lever E is brought into contact with the
screw c, thus forming a shunt to the escapement magnets C, C¹. The
current now avoids these magnets and passes through only the magnet
C² and the connection as herein-before described. Inasmuch as I would
have the wire in the different escapement magnets form from one-half
to two-thirds the total resistance of the entire circuit, the shunting of
the escapement magnets will double or treeble the force of the current
This augmentation will enable the magnet C² to actuate the printing

page_text: me by my foreign correspondent, and the manner of performing the
same, I wish it understood that I claim,-
First. A shunt applied to the escapement magnets of the type wheel
of a printing telegraph for operation so that at the moment of printing
the current is diverted from the said escapement magnets, thereby
rendering the other magnet or magnets in the same main circuit more
powerful.
Second. A unison mechanism for bringing the type wheel of a printing
telegraph into harmony with the transmitter composed of a pin in the
shaft of the type wheel, a lever held by light friction on the shaft of 1
one of the wheels of the clockwork of the receiving instrument for
catching the said pin, and a lever or levers moved by electro-magnetism
for pushing the first named lever in a direction opposite to that in which
it is moved by the clockwork.
Third. A type wheel for recording numerical quotations with the odd 1
digits or such of the odd digits as occur as numerators in the fractions
used, placed before a fractional sign as regards their presentation to the
printing roller or pad, and with the even digits or such of the even digits.
as are employed in said fractions placed on the other side of said frac-
tional sign as herein specified.
Fourth. The receiving portion of a printing telegraph composed in the
main of the shunt, unison mechanism, type wheel, escapement, clockwork,
and printing magnet, lever, and roller, as herein described.
2
In witness whereof, I, the said William Robert Lake, have hereunto
set my hand and scal, this Twenty-ninth day of October, in the 2
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy
three.
Witness,
H. J. NOONE,
8, Southampton Buildings,
London.
W. ROBT. LAKE. (L.S.)