CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
Year: 1847

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FREDERICK
WILLIAM JOWETT, of Burton-upon-Trent, in the County of Stafford, Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date af Westminster, the Twenty-third
day of January, in the tenth year of Her reign, did, för Herself, Her heirs
and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Frederick William Jowett,
my exors, admors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege
and authority, that I, the said Frederick William Jowett, my exors, admors,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Frederick William Jowett, my exors,
admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others; from time
to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales,
and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in all Her Majesty's Colonies
and Plantations abroad, and in the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney,
Sark, and Man, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN TELEGRAPHIC
COMMUNICATION;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I,
the said Frederick William Jowett, shall cause a particular description of the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,

page_text: by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her
said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in
and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that, in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Frederick William Jowett, do hereby declare that the nature of my said
improvements, and in what manner the same are to be performed, aro
fully set forth and described in and by the present Specification thereof,
reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, that is to say :-
My said improvements have for their object the economical and speedy con-
veyance of intelligence to and from places situated at distances more or less
apart from each other, and this I effect by exerting pressure on fluids contained
in pipes laid the whole distance between the said places, and by causing the
movements induced thereby in such fluids to indicate, through the medium of
suitable instruments or machinery connected therewith, letters, words, numbers,
and other like signs and symbols. An exemplification is given, in Figures 1,
2, and 3 of the Drawings annexed, of the application of my Invention to the
communicating of intelligence between any two of three different stations, from
which the manner of applying it to any number of stations whatever may be
readily deduced.
No. 1, No. 2, No. 8, in Figure 1, are the three stations. A', A., and A³
are three dial plates, upon each of which are marked in two concentric circles
two sets of the various letters of the alphabet, or of any other agreed-upon
system of signs or symbols, but in an inverse order; that is to say, for
example, if the letters A to Z in the larger circlo read from right to left,
then the same letters in the smaller circle must read from left to right,
or vice versa. One of these dials is shewn on an enlarged scale in Figure 2,
as also all the parts in immediate connection therewith. B', B'³, B³ are small
metal cylinders placed at the back of the plates A', A2, and As, within which
there are accurately fitted the pistons C, C, and C, the rods of which,
D', D³, D³, have cach at top a fine toothed rack cut upon one side, which gears
into a small pinion E, fixed to the spindle F, to which an index hand G is
affixed. L, L, L., are balanco weights. II is a pipe which connects the three
cylinders B', B, and 133 together, and may be carried in any direction required,
as horizontal, oblique, or vertical, or under or over or around any obstructing
object. This pipe is to be filled with water or any other suitable fluid. Tho
first of the cylinders B' is filled with the fluid employed, until its piston C',
when resting upon the surface of the fluid, stands at the greatest limit of its

page_text: range in an upward direction. The other cylinders B', B', are only filled till
the fluid presses upon their respective pistons when at the lowest limit of
their range. The mode of operation is follows:-Supposing that it is wished
to convey intelligence from the station No. 1 to the station 'No. 3, tlie
communicator of the message at No. 1. first calls the attention of the
attendants upon the two other instruments by depressing the piston C², which,
pressing upon the surface of the fluid contained in the pipe H, causes the fluid
to rise immediately in the other two cylinders of the line, and consequently to
produce corresponding movements of the pistons in the different cylinders,
which movements again cause each a bell to ring, by means of the arrangements
which are represented separately in Figure 3. A' is the back of the dial plate,
F, the index hand spindle, and E, the pinion, before described as being fixed
upon that spindle. E is a second pinion, the axis of which is fixed into a
sliding piece K, so that this pinion E may be allowed to slide forward until
it comes into gear with the pinion E, or be removed therefrom at pleasure.
b, b, is a slot in the pinion E, through which there is passed a stop pin c,
which terminates in and is fixed into the sliding picco K, whereby the extent of
the revolution of the pinions E and E, and the range of the movement of
the piston, are determined.
1
For the sake of farther illustrating the manner in which this part of
my Invention is performed, let us suppose that there are twelve stations
and further,
(instead of three) upon the line of telegraphic communication ;
that all the pistons C of the instruments represented in Figure 2, excepting
that of the instrument placed at No. 1 station, are at the bottom of their
rospective cylinders; and further, that the pinions E and E are put into
gear with each other. If then the person in attendance at No. 1 station
should now wish to communicate with No. 7, he depresses the piston of his
apparatus, which is the only one of the whole set which, as before stated, is at
the top of its cylinder, and causes it to descend through eleven inches, which
Imakes the pistons of all the other eleven to rise just one inch cach, which
distance is the exact limit allowed to them to move by the stop pin c; but the
turning of the pinion E causes the hammer L, which is attached to it, to
come in contact with the bell M, and thereby to give warning to the whole of
the other eleven stations. Now by again raising up the piston at No. 1 station
to the top of its cylinder another stroke is produced at all the other stations
by the depression of the pistons and the reverse action of the hammer L upon
the other side of the bell. A repetition of the same process is continued until
seven strokes have been given, which indicates that station No. 7 is
to be communicated with. When a communication is desired to be trans-

page_text: mitted from any of the other stations excepting No. 1, then the attendant
at that station first slides back the piece K, which admits of his raising the
cylinder piston to its highest point, which again causes the piston at No. 1 station
to descend to the bottom of the cylinder, and give warning there, by the
ringing of the bell (it being the only one in the whole set which is capable of
being acted upon, as all the others are at the bottom of their respectivo
cylinders). The attendant at No. 1 station now puts the pinions E and E³ of
his instrument into gear, upon which the instrument at the station from which
it is desired to transmit intelligenco will be in the same position as has just
been described in reference to station No. 1, previous to commencing inter-
course with the station No. 7. The attendants being thus apprised of each
other's readiness, the communication of intelligence is proceeded with in tho
following manner :-The piston of all the other instruments, excepting those
of the two stations between which the communication is to be transmitted, aro
pressed down to their lowest positions in their respective cylinders, and kept in
that situation by means of a catch which is fixed to the back of the dial-plate.
The person transmitting the intelligence now brings the index hand G succes-
sively to such of the letters or other signs markol upon the inner circle of
letters or signs on the dial plate before him as are requisite to express the
message or intelligence desired to be transmitted. (This he accomplishes by
means of a crank handle, which is slipped upon the end of the spindle F.)
Whatever may be the letter or sign to which he thus brings the index hand
on the inner circle of his dial plate, the index hand of the recipient instrument
will point to the same letter or sign upon the outer circle of letters or signs
upon the dial plate of that instrument. By referring to Figure 1 it will be seen
that the index hand of No. 1 is at A upon the inner circle, and that at No. 3
at A upon the outer circle. Should the communication be between any two
contiguous stations, such as No. 2 and No. 3, then the stopcocks a, a, may be
used to shut off all communication with the other stations. The index hand
may be made after the manner of telescope, so as to be lengthened or shortened
at pleasure, and thus applied to either of the circles on the dial plates.
Figure 4 represents an elevation of part of another line of telegraphic
apparatus, which differs from that just described in having two lines of pipe
instead of one, whereby the fluid contained in the one pipe is made to act
above the pistons in the cylinders at the different stations, and the fluid which
is contained in the other line of pipe is made to act below those pistons. The
index is also put in a line parallel with the piston rod of the different cylinders,
which greatly simplifies the apparatus.
Figure 5 is an elevation of a single apparatus, or the plan of that last

page_text: mentioned adapted to the end of a line of telegraphic communication. A is
the cylinder; B, the piston; C, the piston rod; D; a stuffing box, to prevent
the escape of water; E, the index hand; F, F, index plates; G (Figure 6),
a lever handle, by which the attendant raises or presses down the piston to the
desired spot. This handle is joined at H to the piston rod C by two connecting
links H, H; and at H it is jointed to somo fixed point as a fulcrum.
1, 1, are the two water pipes, the one entering at the bottom of the cylinder,
the other at the top. K³, K, are stopcocks.
Figure 7 shews the way in which an apparatus at an intermediate station
is attached to the pipes I, I. The manner of calling the attention of
the attendants on the different instruments, in the first instance, may be
accomplished by an adaptation of the machinery and bell, which have been
already described as applied for this purpose to the telegraphic appa-
ratus represented in Figures 1, 2, and 3. The station attendants, being
apprised of the intention to communicate intelligence, must all (excepting
the two between which the communication is to be maintained) shut the stop-
cocks K', K. Then every motion of the piston that is made by the commu-
nicator at the one station will be followed by a corresponding movement of the
piston at the other or recipient station, so that whatever letter the index hand
may be brought opposite to upon the right-hand index of the one instrument
will be pointed to by the index hand upon the left-hand index of the other
instrument. As it is necessary that the attendants at those stations which are
not actually engaged in transmitting or receiving the intelligence should
know when the communication which has been going on has been completed,
so that they may not put their apparatus again in connection with the pipes
I' and I before that is done, and so derange the proper action of the recipient
instrument, there is fixed at the side of one of the pipes I' a small upright
glass tubo N, which is open at its lower end to the tube upon which it is
fixed but closed at top. The water contained in the pipo I' rises a short
distance within the glass tube N at overy movement of the water in the
tubes I, I, which necessarily takes place in bringing the pistons to the various
letters or signs upon the index, and thus produces a pulsation or rise of the
surface of the water in the glass tube, occasioned by a slight compression of
the air in the upper portion of it. When this censes, then the attendants at the
various stations know that they may open the communication between tho
water pipes I, I, and their respective apparatus, and so be in readiness for any
renewed call upon their nse.
Another arrangement of apparatus to be used at intermediate stations of a
line of telegraphic communication such as that last hercin-before described, is

page_text: represented in Figure 8. A1, A2, are a pair of cylinders similar to those
represented and described in reference to Figure 4. B', B, and B, B³, arc
pipes containing the fluid through the agency of which the transmission
of intelligence is maintained, of which pipes those marked B', B', connect the
cylinder A¹ of this apparatus with the apparatus at the next station, which
may be situated at the left-hand side, and those marked B, B³, connect the
cylinder A with the apparatus which is similarly placed on the right of it.
C', Care the piston rods which are connected to an oscillating beam or lever
D by the parallel movements E', E', and E, E. F', F, are index plates,
the letters or symbols on the one being in the inverse order to those on the
other. Whatever motion may be communicated to the piston in the cylinder
A', by the action of the fluid contained in the line of pipe B', with which it is
immediately connected, it will be transmitted through the intervention of the
piston rod C¹, the beam D, and parallel motions E¹, E³, to the piston rod C³,
which will then in its turn press upon the fluid contained in the line of pipe
B, the movement of which last fluid will actuate the apparatus at the next
station in the order of communication, and so on through any number of
stations or apparatuses, the signals being conveyed as it were by a succession of
steps or bounds from the one end of the line to the other. Any one of the
two index plates represented in Figure 6 may be used, as whatever letter is
pointed to upon the one by the index hand a¹ will be marked out by the
other index hand a³ upon the opposite plate. It is however proper that both
should be retained upon the instrument, because if it should be found desirablo
to intercept the subject matter of a communication at any particular point, and
prevent it from being transmitted further in any one direction, all that would
then be necessary to be done would be to disconnect one of the piston rods C¹
or C² from the link of the parallel motion to which it is attached.
And having now described the different improvements which constitute my
said Invention, I declare that what I claim is, the transmitting of telegraphic
communications to and from places situated at distances moro or less apart
from each other by means of pressure on water or any other suitable fluid
contained in a pipe or pipes laid between such places, and made to act on tele-
graphic instruments or machinery according to tho modes herein-before
described, all or any of them.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederick William Jowett, have hereunto
set my hand and scal, this Twenty-third day of July, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-seven.
(L.) FRED W™ JOWETT.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-third day of July, in
the year of our Lord 1847, the aforesaid Frederick William Jowett came
before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the
Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified,
in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped
according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Twenty-third day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-seven.