IMPROVEMENTS IN TRANSMITTING AND PRINTING TELEGRAPHIC MESSAGES AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR.
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Peter Jensen, of 89, Chancery Lane, in the
County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
TRANSMITTING AND PRINTING TELEGRAPHIC MESSAGES AND IN APPARATUS
THEREFOR. ."-A communication from abroad by Paul la Cour, of
Copenhagen, in the Kingdom of Denmark.
Bealed the 23rd February 1875, and dated the 2nd September 1874.
.
"
:
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Peter Jensen at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
2nd September 1874.
:
I, PETER JENSEN, of 89, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex,.
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
TRANSMITTING AND PRINTING TELEGRAPHIC MESSAGES AND IN APPARATUS THERE-
FOB," (a communication to me from abroad by Paul La Cour, of
Copenhagen, in the Kingdom of Denmark,) to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to transmit and if desired to print
telegraphic messages by means of apparatus working with or by
▾

page_text: .
-
isochronously vibrating currents, all as hereafter described. For this
purpose a set of tuning forks are employed or other instruments or
appliances partaking of the nature of tuning forks, such as vibrating
rods, plates, chords, strings, or pendula, the said appliances being of
various lengths, thickness, or configuration so as to give each a certain
number of vibrations per second, answering to a certain musical note.
Supposing that an electric current enters a tuning fork from the root
end or stem, and passes off through one of the legs and through a
contact piece to a closed conducting wire. If the contact piece be
removed a short distance from the leg of the tuning fork the current
will be broken, and if the tuning fork is then caused to vibrate a series
of contacts and broken contacts will be produced, the leg of the tuning
fork alternately touching the contact piece at each out stroke or
vibration, and receding from it during each back vibration. A number
of isochronous currents the same in number per second as the number
of vibrations of the tuning fork is thus produced; if the fork gives for
instance the musical note a, then the conductor will be traversed by 435
currents per second. If now an electro-magnet be placed in connection
with the conductor, the said electro-magnet will become magnetized and
demagnetized a number of times corresponding with the number of
currents passing through it per second, and if between the poles of the
electro-magnet be applied the legs of another tuning fork so magnetized
as that its north pole is next to the south pole of the electro-magnet and
vice versa, but so that the poles do not touch one another, then the legs
of this tuning fork will be extended each time the electro-magnet is
magnetized, and will be let go each time the electro-magnet is demag-
netized, and if this tuning fork is made to give the same note as that of
the transmitting tuning fork, hence also making the same number of
· vibrations per second, then its vibrations will be those naturally due to
it and it will be put into strong vibrations; but if on the other hand this
second tuning fork answers to or corresponds with another note than
that of the first-named tuning fork, then it will not vibrate, that is,
although the first current or first few currents will commence to cause
it to vibrate, the next following currents will counteract and neutralize
the vibrations which have thus been commenced.
One mode of carrying out this Invention is as follows:-On the trans-
mitting station is placed an apparatus having a number of tuning forks
(or equivalent means as aforesaid) of different notes (but without

page_text: forming simple harmonies), each corresponding with a certain letter of
the alphabet, or number, or sign; there are also a number of contact
pieces each at a slight distance from one leg of each tuning fork, the
contact pieces being connected to a current conductor.
By means of a keyboard any one of the tuning forks on this apparatus
can be played on, and a corresponding number of currents sent through
the conductor, which is carried to the receiving station where the wire
is coiled round a series of electro-magnets, between the poles of
which the legs of a series of magnetized tuning forks (or equivalent
means as aforesaid) are arranged, all tuned in accordance with the
tuning forks at the transmitting station. Any one series of vibrating
currents passing on from the transmitting station to the receiving
station will then put in motion that tuning fork at the receiving station,
which corresponds to or has the same number of vibrations per second.
In order to print the messages thus transmitted and received, the
following means are or may be employed. When a tuning fork is
caused to vibrate in the manner herein-before described, it is made to
touch a contact piece whereby a current from a local battery is closed,
and this current may then either direct or through a relay cause the
letter, number, or sign in question to be printed. In the same manner
each of the other tuning forks will when caused to vibrate close a local
current which causes the corresponding letter, number, or sign to be
From the aforesaid it will be understood that a single pressure at the
transmitting station automatically produces the required letter, number,
or sign at the receiving station, without the two apparatus necessarily
having any synchronous movement. A far greater reliability is thus
obtained than heretofore as regards telegraphic printing apparatus, and
a far greater speed than heretofore as regards both telegraphic printing
and writing apparatus.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Peter Jensen in the Great Seal Patent. Office on
the 2nd March 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PETER
JENSEN, of 89, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Second day of September, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirthy-
eight year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Peter Jensen, Her special licence that
I, the said Peter Jensen, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Peter Jensen, 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 TRANSMITTING AND
PRINTING TELEGRAPHIC MESSAGES AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR," a communi-
cation to me from abroad by Paul la Cour, of Copenhagen, in the
Kingdom of Denmark, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Peter Jensen, 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 Peter Jensen, do hereby declaré
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement :—
The object of this Invention is to transmit, to receive, and if desired
to print telegraphic messages by means of apparatus working with or
by isochronously vibrating currents. For this purpose I employ a trans-
mitting instrument, consisting of a set of tuning forks or other a

page_text: appliances partaking of their nature, such as vibrating rods, plates,
chords or strings, the said appliances being of various lengths, thickness,
or configuration so as to give a certain number of vibrations per second.
The receiving instrument' has a set of tuning forks or other equivalent
appliances corresponding as to number of vibrations with the tuning
forks at the transmitting station.
.
I will now describe a transmitting instrument and a receiving instru-
ment constructed in their simplest form, according to this Invention,
with reference to the accompanying diagrams, of which Figure 1 is a side
elevation of one of the tuning forks in the transmitting instrument, and
Figure 2 is a plan of the same. It is placed in between the ends of the
wire conductor L, L, which are insulated from each other at J and i.
A is the fork, or, as I call it in the sequel, the key; C, a contact piece,
which is so placed that when the key A is caused to vibrate the latter
will at each out stroke come in clectrical current contact with the
piece C, and at each in stroke cause to be separated from it, and thus
produce a current interruption. The wire will consequently be traversed
by currents of short duration, and as the vibrations of the key A are
isochronous the currents and their intervals will be isochronous, and the
intensity of the current produced by this key will vibrate in a musical
time or measure corresponding to and with that of the key.
The receiving instrument is illustrated by the diagrams shewn at
Figures 3 to 6, of which Figure 3 is a side elevation; Figure 4, a plan;
Figure 5, an end elevation; and Figure 6, a view in perspective. n, p, 8,
is a tuning fork made of soft iron, and so proportioned as to give the
same note as the fork A of the transmitting instrument. Its two legs
pass through two wire coil rollers T, T, so as to be able to vibrate freely
therein without touching them. The current transmitted from L passes
through these wire coils and also through an electro-magnet M, M,
which is so arranged that its poles N and S are close to the legs of the
tuning fork. The arriving current will consequently produce magnetism
in the tuning fork as well as in the electro-magnets, and by the mutual
attraction of the latter the legs of the tuning fork will be extended.
When the current is interrupted again the attraction will cease, and the
legs of the tuning forks return to their original position. As several
currents follow each other in the self-same time or measure in which the
tuning fork as the tendency to vibrate the tuning fork will by the
consequent isochronous attraction come into vibration. This produces

page_text: contact between the leg n of the tuning fork and a contact piece P,
whereby an electrical conductor 1, 1, is closed to a local battery, and the
current produced therein will then either directly or through a relay
print the desired signal.
The practical application of and the advantages resulting from this
Invention depend upon the following three main points :-
1. That receiving instrument only which is in unison with the acting
key at the transmitting station will be acted upon by the current. If I
consequently at the transmitting station apply keys having different
time of vibration, and through which the current can be sent at will,
and if I at the receiving station apply receiving instruments, the tuning
forks of which correspond with the keys at the transmitting station,
then a complete signal may be transmitted by a single movement and
indicated as such at the receiving station. Consequently if each key
denotes say a letter, number, or sign, then a single movement on the
transmitting station will produce a movement of the same letter,
number, or sign on the receiving station, and the printing of same can
be produced by a printing apparatus. As the time for transmission is a
small fraction of a second a suitable printing telegraph can thus be
arranged according to this Invention. As only one signal is indicated
on the receiving instrument corresponding to the acting key these
apparatus are applicable where a single cable unites several points with
one another, and where it is desired to send a signal from one of them
to another without its being indicated at the other points. The Inven-
tion may then be used for many different practical purposes, such as
calling signals for exploding torpedoes, &c.
2. Several keys may be in use simultaneously, and the combined
current produced thereby will then act upon the receiving instruments
corresponding to the keys actuated. Several signals may thus be sent
off at the same time, so that with a certain number of keys and receiving
instruments not only the same number of single signals may be trans-
.mitted, but a large number of combined signals are at disposal, and can
be transmitted in the same time as that which a single signal takes, and
that by a single movement. As a practical example, ten different keys
may be so combined that 2 and 2 act simultaneously, producing 45
combinations, so that every letter and number and several signs can be
assigned its double signal, and sent off as easily and quickly as by the
.

page_text: use of a single key.. 10 keys and receiving instruments would thus do
the same as 45. The same peculiarity, viz., that several keys can be
worked together, enable me also according to this Invention to construct
pantelegraphs, which exactly and very much quicker than those here-
tofore invented can telegraph handwriting, drawings, &c., for whereas
the latter have only one tracing pen on the transmitting and one on the
receiving station, thus involving their traversing the paper many times
to give the outline, I on the contrary may arrange a whole series of
tracing pens, each corresponding with its key and receiving instrument,
so that I need only pass over the paper once, and I also thus dispense
with the cumbersome synchronism of clockwork, necessary with pan-
telegraphs as heretofore made.
3. The receiving instrument is not affected by ordinary electric
currents unless they be very strong, but only by such as arc isochronously
vibrating in the measure corresponding with the receiving instrument,
nor by earth currents, or other irrevelant currents..
Positive and negative currents may, if preferred, be sent alternately
by arranging an additional contact at the inner side of the transmitting
tuning fork. The receiving fork must then be one octave higher than
the transmitting fork. Figure 7 is a general arrangement. Diagram A
is the transmitting instrument; a, telegraph wire; B, the receiving
instrument; a', a', batteries on the earth line; b, a relay or galvanoscope;
b', b', local batteries. The contact on the transmitting instrument is set
so that there is no contact when the tuning fork is at.rest, but still so
near that the fork vibrates against it. The contact on the receiving
instrument is set at a very small distance from the fork. To try it the
wire may be left open, say at 1, while the transmitting key is struck,
and while yet vibrating against the contact the wire should be closed; in
the same moment the local battery 6' will be closed by the receiving
fork at B, which will be seen at the relay b.
The main object of this Invention is then to give the electric current
a certain definite character, whereby it is enabled to act upon a certain
definite receiving instrument, the intensity of the currents being made
vibrating in a certain "time" or "measure." This may be done, as
above described, by means of a key consisting of a tuning fork which
vibrates against a contact, but it may of course be done in many other
ways, so long as the key transmit isochronously vibrating currents.

page_text: The receiving instrument may also of course be arranged in many other
ways than here shown and described, so long as it is made to be actuated
by isochronously vibrating currents, and is put into vibrations by the
said currents producing isochronously vibrating magnetic attractions or
repulsions.
The circumstance that several keys can act simultaneously makes it
possible that several plain telegrams can pass through the same telegraph
wire at the same time; say, for instance, that a wire goes from a main
station to another station A, thence to the next B, and so on; then a
telegraph clerk a on the main station can telegraph to the station B,
another clerk 6 simultaneously to B, and so on, the clerk a successively
closing the currents through two vibrating keys, the corresponding
<receiving instruments being on the station A; the clerk 6 closes through
keys, the corresponding receiving instruments of which are at B, and so
.on.. Letters are thus combined of two signals in a manner similar to the
lines and dots in the Morse system. For small stations, where speed is
not of so great advantage as on large stations, the advantage of several
telegrams passing each other will be so much greater.
And having thus fully described and ascertained the nature of this
· Invention, I declare that I claim,—
Firstly. Keys or transmitting instruments which transmit isochronously
vibrating electric currents to receiving instruments, the keys when
struck or agitated being put into vibrations, the number of such
. vibrations per second being different in the different keys, but each
key corresponding to a receiving instrument vibrating a like number
of times per second, all substantially as and for the purpose set forth.
*Secondly. The vibrating keys A or equivalent appliances in com-
bination with contact pieces C, and by the latter put into electric
isochronously interrupted communication with receiving instruments
constructed as set forth, and corresponding with the said keys.
Thirdly. Receiving instruments consisting of the fork n, p, 8, in
combination with wire coils T, T, electo-magnet M, M, and contact
piece P.
And, Fourthly. The transmitting instruments A, in combination with
telegraph wire a, receiving instruments B, battery a¹ on the earth line

page_text: as set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Peter Jensen, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Second day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.
PETER JENSEN. (L.S.)