IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRO- TELEGRAPHIC APPARATUS
Year: 1868

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Alexander Lyttle at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
23rd November 1868.
1, WILLIAM ALEXANDER LYTTLE, of the Grove, Hammersmith, in the
County of Middlesex, Member of the Society of Engineers, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRO-
TELEGRAPHIC APPARATUS," to be as follows:-
I employ in the instrument known as the Morse printer or embosser
two separate levers with an inking roller or embosser to each, one of the
levers being of soft iron, and the other of magnetized steel or iron kept
constantly polarized by the proximity of a permanent magnet, and each
lever having an end adjusted so as to be attracted by the electro-magnet
underneath exactly as at present. When a current in one direction
passes through this electro-magnet, so as to produce the polarity
necessary for attracting the magnetized lever, both the levers will be
attracted together and a double dot or two lines will be imprinted,
whilst if the opposite current is sent the soft iron lever only will be
attracted and a single mark only will be made. By this means dots

page_text: or embosser.
and double dots corresponding precisely to the dots and dashes of the
Morse code will be produced if signals sent by a common single needle
instrument or "Bright's bells" key are received in the Morse printer
If desired the inking roller disc of the Morse printer
may receive its ink by rolling against a larger disc or wheel attached to
the same lever. This larger disc or wheel should alone become immersed
in the ink on the descent of the lever. In order to draw the paper
band, I either employ clockwork as at present or I accomplish the same
result by electro-magnetic means, as follows, using the local battery
power as a relay for the purpose. I cause this local current to pass
through an electro-magnet, upon which rests a lever, one end of which
engages with a ratchet tooth into a ratchet wheel, and on the axis of
this ratchet wheel is coiled a piece of watch spring, the free end of which
engages by friction against or in the inside of the cylinder or drum which
serves to draw the paper band forward. This ratchet lever is fitted with
a regulating spring and the other usual arrangements of a self-acting
make-and-break, so that in making and breaking the local battery
circuit it shall work the ratchet wheel forward. In order to give it
sufficient length of stroke I attach a piece of watch spring to the contact
point against which the lever has to strike, and when the current passes
the lever, becoming magnetized by the induction of the attracting coil,
attracts the piece of spring attached to the contact point and carries it with
it till near the end of its stroke, when a projecting fork or pin breaks off
the contact of the piece of watch spring. The latter instantly flies back
to its former position and is followed by the ratchet lever on its return
stroke to make contact again. So long as the local current is continued
so long will the paper be thus drawn forward; by this means all the
clockwork now used may be discontinued. The local current if not
switched on by hand may be laid on automatically by the line current
electro-magnet attracting a lever contact maker attached to a small
pump working with oil or other liquid, the valves of the pump being
so arranged as to allow ready descent to the piston, but more tardy
ascent, or vice versa. This contact lever may also attract a piece
of watch spring exactly as in the case of the above-mentioned ratchet
lever, and by this means in conjunction with the pump the local current
will not cease immediately with the line current. I prefer to place a
galvanometer needle like that used in the well-known single needle
instrument over or otherwise subject to the attraction of the coils of
the line current electro-magnet, so that it may shew the proper circula-

page_text: tion of the current, and also confer on the Morse printer key all the
other features now peculiar to the single needle.
"
As "dashes are no longer required and momentary currents only
are needed, I propose to 'use in most cases with this instrument only
the secondary current of an induction coil, the local current being laid
on to the primary wire of the coil, either by the key at the sending or
the relay tongue at the translating station. This arrangement of one
soft iron and one magnetized lever affords a ready means of telegraphing
by sound, because by employing the levers as hammers the sounds
produced on bells or other sounding media suitably placed will be double
or single, like the double and single dots above described. If both
levers are magnetized and have opposite poles over the electro-magnets,
only one will be attracted by each kind of current according to the
polarity developed in the electro-magnet. One magnetized lever (or a
soft iron lever deriving polarity from a permanent magnet) placed
between the opposite poles of the electro-magnet, and having the two
bells on opposite sides of its hammer head, will have the same effect if
the lever when not attracted is preserved in an intermediate position,
either by a spring or by the repulsion of permanent magnets. The
electro-magnet of the printer or bell arrangement may also be worked
by a suitable relay laying on the local battery current. In this case
the ratchet wheel of the printer drawing the paper band may be worked
by a ratchet lever attracted by the same electro-magnet, as actuates
the inking levers; or the soft iron inking or embossing lever may be
made to perform this function, and the elasticity of the coiled spring
already described which connects the ratchet wheel with the loose paper
drum on the same axle may be so adjusted as to keep the paper band
advancing after the current has ceased, so as to effect the necessary
spacing of the words. The needle of the common single needle instru-
ment may be used as a relay conductor for the purpose of telegraphing
by sound as well as by sight with or without any of the foregoing
arrangements. In that case the needle carries the current from one
pole of the local battery, and the pins against which it strikes on the
face of its dial are the terminal conductors of the wires of two separate
electro-magnet coils connected with the other pole of the battery. When
the needle strikes one pin the coil and bell connected therewith are
brought into action, whilst when the other pin, is struck the second bell
is sounded. A suitable switch enables the operator to cut off this

page_text: current when necessary and so to read by the needle only. The coils
used for actuating the bells may be covered with a secondary wire so
as to make each available when necessary as an induction coil relay
for sending the momentary induced current to the distant station as
already described. These secondary wires should be so arranged with
reference to the direction of the current in the primary wire that they
shall send respectively opposite currents to line on breaking contact.
For the tongue of any form of relay I prefer a light magnetized needle,
or rather blade of steel or soft iron, suspended by the mere force of
magnetic attraction from one of the poles of a permanent magnet. The
end of this blade should be rather broad and bevelled like a chisel, and
should rest in a transverse groove cut across the pole of the permanent
magnet.
When the cores of the electro-magnet carrying the line current are
brought close enough together, this blade rests against that, which last
attracted it. When the blade is required to rest always on one or other
pole it may be allowed to stand vertically on the pole of the permanent
magnet instead of being suspended therefrom. This double polarized
relay will be rendered more sensitive by placing the cores of the line
current coils in contact with the other pole of the permanent magnet.
When however the cores of these coils are placed far enough apart the
blade will hang between them, when suspended attracted by each, but
kept from both by its own weight, and on the line current passing it
will move with great sensitiveness in its range of action as a single
needle relay, as already described, or as a simple single needle indicator.
In batteries for these and other telegraph purposes I effect the
following improvements:-I construct a bath of any desired size of
copper or other electro-negative element, and in it I place either an
acid or salt with water. Inside this bath, but not in immediate contact
with it, and with or without the intervention of membrane or porous
ware, I place a number of zinc cells having each within it a rod or slip
of electro-negative element with or without the intervention of a porous
cell between it and the zinc and with any desired exciting liquid or
liquids. All these minor cells I arrange in succession for intensity,
whilst their outer zinc surfaces together with the electro-negative
element forming the sides of the bath will form one large voltaic pair
to develope quantity. The last zinc of the minor series will form the
zine or negative pole of the combination, whilst the last copper or other

page_text: negative element of the minor series together with the sides of the bath
will form the copper or positive pole. I also form the series of minor
cells in the ordinary way as an intensity battery, and I combine with
these in the same series one large voltaic pair or more for quantity.
In order to have an improved and cheapened material for insulating
the wires to conduct the voltaic current however developed, I use in
conjunction with any of the present processes for coating the wires, or
as a substitute for pure india-rubber, an application of Frederick Walton's
patent oxidised oil solution, either pure or mixed with india-rubber or
any other suitable resinous solution and with or without vulcanization.
When the several cells of a battery are formed of earthenware pots
I do not glaze the pottery biscuit or I glaze it only on the outside, and
I render it both non-conducting and proof against the chemical action
of the battery liquids by heating the biscuit and filling it with or
immersing it in boiling pitch or other bituminous or resinous substance
or in melted paraffine, or any mixture of paraffine with bituminous,
fatty, or resinous substances; it is then drained and when cold is ready
for use.
In order to free the aërial conducting wires of ice and snow in winter,
1 heat them by passing through them a thermally powerful electric
current, the telegraph instruments being first thrown out of circuit.
A powerful magneto-electric machine mounted on a truck might be
run from point to point wherever needed along a line of railway, and
by placing it in contact with any wire it will heat the wire for a long
distance. The engine of the magneto machine may either be a separate
motive power or may be worked by steam derived from the locomotive
boiler through a branch tube.