IMPROVEMENTS IN PERFORATED PAPER FOR TELEGRAPHIC PURPOSES, AND IN MEANS FOR RECEIVING AND TRANSMITTING WITH THE SAME.
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Alva Edison, of Newark, in the State
of New Jersey, United States of America, for the Invention of
" IMPROVEMENTS IN PERFORATED PAPER FOR TELEGRAPHIC PURPOSES, AND
IN MEANS FOR RECEIVING AND TRANSMITTING WITH THE SAME.'
"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Alva Edison
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 11th September 1873.
I, THOMAS ALVA EDISON, of Newark, in the State of New Jersey,
United States of America, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PERFORATED PAPER FOR TELEGRAPHIC PUR-
POSES, AND IN MEANS FOR RECEIVING AND TRANSMITTING WITH THE SAME," to be
as follows:-
The paper instead of being perforated in telegraphic characters is
perforated in groups that represent Roman or block letters, or other
characters, and the message is received upon chemical paper in dots
that either touch each other or are sufficiently close to clearly represent

page_text: by their aggregation the letters or characters transmitted, thus making
the automatic telegraph strip as convenient as the printed message, and
obtaining the rapidity of the former, and avoiding the risks of the
inaccuracies of the latter.
The paper is perforated, one letter or character at a time, by an
instrument operated by finger keys substantially similar to that shewn
in English Patent, No. 1751, A.D. 1872, except that the punches are
massed together, preferably in a square, and the connections between
each key and the punches are such as to select and operate such of the
punches as will perforate the paper to represent the letter or character
upon the finger key. It is preferable to employ twenty-five punches in
a square of five each way.
The transmission from the perforated strip may be by as many lines
of telegraph wires as there are rows (five) of perforations, so that there
may be a transmitting stylus to each row of perforations, and also a pen
or wire stylus to mark on the chemical paper, and these pens are to be
sufficiently close together to produce the letter transmitted in conse-
quence of the contiguity of the marks. The message can be made
through one line wire by having the transmitting paper at one end and
the receiving paper at the other, and travelling at proper speed; and a
series of spring fingers upon a shaft at right angles to the shaft of the
roller for the paper, so that these spring fingers draw across the per-
forated paper, and make contact through the perforations, and at the
same instant the chemical paper is marked in the corresponding spot
by the spring, pen, or wire drawn across the same, and moving
synchronously. Of course the revolving spring finger styluses and
pens revolve very rapidly, and the respective strips of paper are drawn
along comparatively slowly, the respective parts moving at the
same speed or nearly so.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of September, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the
thirty-seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Thomas Alva Edison, Her
special licence that I, the said Thomas Alva Edison, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas Alva
Edison, my executors, 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 PERFORATED PAPER FOR TELEGRAPHIC PURPOSES, AND IN
MEANS FOR RECEIVING AND TRANSMITTING WITH THE SAME, upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Thomas Alva Edison, 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 Thomas Alva Edison, 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, reference being made to the Drawing
hereto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is
to say):-
In the Morse system of telegraphy the operator frequently receives
the message by sound, and writes the same out as received.
In the printing telegraph system the printed slip is usually delivered
as received.
In the ordinary automatic system the paper has to be punched or
composed, and at the receiving station the message on the chemical
paper has to be translated and written out by hand, or printed by a key
printing instrument.
Each system has its defects or disadvantages. The Morse system is
slow, and requires a large number of wires. The printing telegraphs

page_text: are expensive, liable to inaccuracies and injury, and limited in speed to
the fingering of the keys. The automatic system is rapid on the line,
but the composing of the message and the writing of it out at the
receiving station are comparatively slow operations.
The object I have in view is to print the message chemically, thereby
the message, as received upon a strip of paper, is ready to be folded and
sent to its destination, and the rapidity is equal to any automatic
transmission.
I accomplish this object by perforating the strip of paper used for
transmitting with groups of holes, representing by each group a letter
or character, the perforations being arranged to produce as nearly as
possible the block or Roman letters or characters.
The transmission of the message by the line wires may be in the
usual manner by a roller or stylus, and a line wire to each row of per-
forations, so that if there are five rows of perforations there will be five
stylus points or rollers, each connected to a line wire, and at the
receiving instrument there will be five pens or stylus points near
together; and the letter received will be in dots corresponding to the
position of the perforations in the transmitting paper, and by their
aggregation in groups the letters will be clearly delineated, and formed
almost as perfect as printed characters, so that the strip of chemical
paper can be delivered, and the re-writing or printing of the message
dispensed with.
The message as received being the counterpart of that transmitted the
perforated paper at the transmitting station becomes a perfect record of
the message, and the line can be worked up to its utmost capacity,
because the paper can be perforated for transmitting about as rapidly as
an ordinary printing telegraph can be operated, and as many perforating
operators and machines can be used as are necessary for the work that is
to be done on the lines.
I have herein indicated the mode of using this improvement with five
line wires, but I contemplate to use the transmitting paper, perforated
as herein described, with transmitting and receiving mechanism that
will operate with only one line wire.
In the Drawing Fig. 1 represents a piece of paper with perforations,
and adapted to use in transmitting.

page_text: upon by the dots running together, or being sufficiently close to each
other, to show the respective letters.
Fig. 3 is a plan of a portion of the perforating machine.
Fig. 4 is an elevation endwise of the punches, and Fig. 5 is a partial
section longitudinally.
I find that five lines of perforations are the most convenient for pro-
ducing perforations in imitation of block letters or characters, and have
shown and described such, but I am not limited in that respect.
Reference is hereby made to Letters Patent, No. 1751, granted in
Great Britain, June 10th, A.D. 1872, for a machine for perforating
paper for telegraphic purposes, which, with the modifications herein set
forth, is adapted to punching the characters in the strip of transmitting
paper.
Instead of having two lines of punches i, i, as in aforesaid Patent,
these punches i, i, are twenty-five in number positioned in a square of
five each way, and as close together as convenient. Each punch is
connected with its slide plate k, and these slide plates are side by side,
and supported in the frame of the machine, so that they can be moved
endwise with facility, and actuate the punches to which they are con-
nected respectively. The punches slide in the plate m, and n is the die
plate, as in said Patent.
.
There might be a spring to each slide plate / and punch i, but I have
shown a lever k¹ passing through mortices in the plates k, and provided
with a spring to draw all the punches and slide plates back to their
normal position after they have been actuated. If the punches are
separate from the slide plates each row may be provided with a lever
and spring o to return or draw back the punches, and said levers / act
within notches in the punches, as shown.
The shoulders or projections 8 are provided upon the slide plates con-
tiguous to the respective pressers e, and these projections 8 are only
upon such of the slide plates that require to be moved by the presser to
which they are adjacent to operate the punches required to perforate the
letter corresponding to the one on the finger key a, that is, connected to
the particular presser e, as in aforesaid Patent; and I remark that the
slide bars c and connecting cams for forks to move the pressers e by

page_text: the finger keys a may be similar to those shown in said Patent; and the
lever u³, feeding clamp t, pawl u, rack bar v, and pawl 10 are similar to
the parts shown, and operate in the manner described in the aforesaid
Patent, and therefore do not require further description.
From the illustration given in Fig. 1 the general character of the
groups of perforations will be apparent, and in the square of twenty-five
punches the proper ones can easily be selected to perforate any given
letter or character sufficiently like block letters to be reliably read at
the receiving station on the chemical paper.
First. A strip of paper containing groups of perforations representing
letters or characters for use in transmitting telegraphic messages to be
received upon chemical paper in imitation of printed characters.
Second. Mechanism for making groups of perforations in a strip of
paper in imitation of letters or characters, the same consisting of
punches massed together in a square or nearly so, and mechanism inter-
vening between such punches and the finger keys for selecting from
such mass of punches those that are required for perforating characters
corresponding with the characters upon the respective finger keys, sub-
stantially as set forth.