Field Telephone and Telegraph Station.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 13th Dec., 1897-Accepted, 22nd Jan., 1898
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Field Telephone and Telegraph Station.
I, MAX BERNSTEIN, Proprietor of the Firm of Joh. Friedr. Wallmann & Co., of
Blumen Strasse, 74, in the City of Berlin, in the German Empire, Patent Agent,
lo hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the follow-
ng statement:-
The object of the present invention is to enable the rapid erection of a field
telephone station in time of war, by which without the conveyance of apparatus
in vehicles of any kind, a connection may be established between outposts and
out-lying pickets or with headquarters.
For this purpose apparatus requisite for the telephone is arranged in the hollow
stock of an ordinary infantry gun, whilst the conducting wire is carried in the
knapsack, and after the connections have been made, the return circuit is made
by planting a bayonet in the ground which serves as return conductor.
On the accompanying drawing one form of carrying out my invention is shown.
Fig. 1 shows in side view the hollow gun-stock with accessories arranged in it.
Fig. 2 is an edge view of the apparatus arranged as station.
Fig. 3 is a detail showing in side view the gun-stock closed by a flap.
Figs. 4 & 5 are edge and plan views respectively of the microphone, and
Fig. 6 shows the general arrangement of the communication between two
stations.
The gun-stock a is hollow and is lined with sheet steel, or is supplied with
recesses of ample dimensions for the various pieces of apparatus. On one side is
a hinged plate or flap (Fig. 3) capable of being rigidly fixed and provided with a
screw-threaded opening c for receiving the bell for the microphone, which even
when the latter is not in use, always remains permanently screwed on.
A knob d serves conveniently for opening and closing the flap.
In the hollow space of the stock a, is a telephone A (box telephone), small dry
plates B, an induction coil D and a key F, so arranged that on closing the flap b,
the microphone G (Figs. 2 & 4) screwed into it, as also the necessary connecting
wires, still have room in the hollow space.
The conductor, of single or double wire, is advantageously carried in the knap-
sack and wound on a bobbin of from 25 to 30 cms. diameter, which is placed parallel
to the side of the knapsack and the wire allowed to run out over a roller at the side.
When the station is to be erected and used, after the conducting wire has been
5 connected to the clamping screw H, the gun is stuck with the bayonet into the
ground (Figs 2 & 6) and the flap opened and secured in horizontal position by a
bracket, whereby the circuit of the dry plates B is simultaneously automatically
closed. The current passes through the key F whereby, in the event of speaking
not being desirable, telegraphic signs may be transmitted through the telephone,
0 after the manner of the telegraphic sounder.
The current induced by speaking at the microphone of the one station, passes
through the connecting wire to the clamp screw H of the other station, from here