IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH APPARATUS
Year: 1856

page_text: by the Act.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Roger Bolam Ellison at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 23rd July
1856.
I, ROGER BOLAM ELLISON, of No. 9, Brook Street, London Road, Carlisle,
in the County of Cumberland, Locomotive Engine Driver, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH
APPARATUS," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates, first, to an improved construction of coils; second, to
an improved construction and arrangement of manipulator or apparatus for
changing the direction of the currents.
The improvements in the coils consist in the substitution of a short coil
round a piece or pieces of soft iron for the long coils usually made use of round
the needle itself. The needle works either vertically or horizontally between
the poles of the magnet. The coil, being shorter than ordinary, offers less
resistance to the electric fluid, and admits of a much thicker wire being
used, thereby obviating the danger of destruction by lightning, so frequent
with the ordinary coil composed of a great length of very fine wire.
The manipulator or apparatus for changing the direction of the currents is
greatly simplified, and is therefore much cheaper than the ordinary manipulator.
It consists of an oblong trough or box of non-conducting material, from which
one end is wanting, and in which a flat piece or tongue of non-conducting
material is fixed, so as to be capable of moving from side to side upon pivots,

page_text: which fasten one end of the tongue to the closed end of the trough when motion
is given by means of a handle fixed to the other end of the tongue and
projecting through the open end of the trough, which handle is carried through
an opening in the face of the telegraphic apparatus and is the handle by which
the apparatus is worked. Upon the sides of the trough are a series of studs
and springs, and upon the sides of the tongue are a series of studs, by the joint
action of which communications are maintained or changed in their direction
between the battery and the coil as the tongue is moved from side to side by
the projecting handle. The telegraphic wires are fastened to studs on the
outside of the trough, communicating both through the substance of the same
to similar studs inside, and by metallic bands passed round the outside to other
studs outside, which, in their turn, communicate to studs inside, the inside
studs being affected by the action of the tongue when moved from side to side,
so that the communication with certain studs is broken and formed with others
during each motion of the tongue. There are ten of these studs altogether
outside, two at the ends, and four on each side. There are also four studs on
the tongue, two on each side, while the two pivots or hinges, by which the
tongue is fastened to the end of the trough, form communications with the two
external end studs. Metallic communications are made along the upper and
under edges of the tongue by strips of metal fastened thereto, which severally
communicate with a pair of the studs fixed to the sides of the tongue by a
band of metal, carried in the one case over the upper edge of the tongue, in the
other beneath the under edge from stud to stud, and which, therefore, com-
municate in each case with the end studs by means of the strips of metal
which they cross, such strips being used to form part of the hinges on which
the tongue moves. The two upper studs on the sides of the tongue are there-
fore continually in metallic communication with each other and with the upper
stud in the end of the trough, while the two lower studs are likewise in mutual
connexion and in connexion with the lower stud at the end of the trough.
The upper studs on the tongue approximate, also, to a contact with two
springs, respectively attached to the inner ends of the first pair of studs on the
sides of the trough; which studs are connected exteriorly by metallic bands with
a second pair of studs on the outside of the trough, each of the studs of the first
pair being in metallic connexion with that stud of the second pair which is on
the opposite side of the trough from itself, which connexion is made in the one
case by a strip passing above the trough to the other side, and in the other case
by a strip passing underneath to the opposite side. Each of this second pair
of studs on the outside communicates by a pin, through the side of the trough,
with an inner stud, towards which approximates one of the lower pair of studs

page_text: of the tongue; which last-mentioned studs are made to project further than
the upper studs of the tongue, in order that by a slight motion of the handle
contact with one or other of the studs on the side of the trough may be formed.
When the tongue is in a state of rest, there is no metallic communication by
means of the tongue, there being no contact between its studs and those on the
sides of the trough; but when the handle is moved a short distance to either
side, there is contact between both the upper and lower studs and the cor-
responding studs on that side of the trough towards which the handle is moved.
If, therefore, the positive pole of the battery be connected by a wire with the
right hand stud on the outside of the trough, next the end farthest from the
operator, at the handle of the tongue, and the negative pole with the corre-
sponding external stud on the left hand side of the trough, while to the upper
stud at the end of the trough a wire is fixed so as to form metallic com-
munication with the coil, the communicating wire from which, being attached
to the lower stud at the end of the trough, a circuit will be formed if the
handle be moved to one side, and the direction of the electric current may be
changed simply by moving the handle from one side to another.
It now remains to be shewn how the instrument in its passive state is fitted
to receive signals, and it has already been mentioned that, while in this state,
the general connexion between the metallic portions of the tongue and those
of the sides of the trough is broken. The coil wires are continued past their
first attachment to the studs at the end of the trough to a third pair of
studs on the exterior of the trough, whence they communicate by pins through
the sides of the same to inner studs, which meet a pair of lever springs, one on
each side of the trough, one end of each of the levers being pressed by the
spring against the sides of the tongue, while the other end rests on the two
studs with which the telegraphic wires communicate. The fulcra, being the
fourth pair of studs, communicate with each other by a metallic band passed
over the top of the trough, and thus, through the levers, a metallic com-
munication is made which is broken whenever the handle of the tongue is
being used in the transmission of messages, a side pressure of the same always
withdrawing one end of one or other lever from contact with its corresponding
stud.