IMPROVEMENTS IN RECEIVING AND RECORDING INSTRUMENTS FOR ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS, AND IN THR UTILIZATION OF EARTH CURRENTS AT TELEGRAPHIC RECEIVING STATIONS
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Orange Wildman Whitehouse, of Roslyn
Hill House, Hampstead, in the County of Middlesex, Associate of
the Institute of Civil Engineers and Telegraph Engineer, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN RECEIVING AND RECORDING INSTRUMENTS
FOR ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS, AND IN THR UTILIZATION OF EARTH CURRENTS
AT TELEGRAPHIC RECEIVING STATIONS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edward Orange Wild-
man Whitehouse at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with his Petition, on the 29th July 1871.
I, EDWARD ORANGE WILDMAN WHITEHOUSE, of Roslyn Hill House,
Hampstead, in the County of Middlesex, Associate of the Institute of
Civil Engineers and Telegraph Engineer, do hereby declare the
"IMPROVEMENTS IN RECEIVING AND
nature of the said Invention for
RECORDING INSTRUMENTS FOR ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS, AND IN THE UTILIZATION OF
EARTH CURRENTS AT TELEGRAPHIC RECEIVING STATIONS," to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to ensure accuracy and sensitiveness
in receiving and recording instruments with great simplicity of working
D •
077

page_text: parts, and with a power of compensation and self-adjustment so as to
neutralize the effects of terrestrial or earth currents, which, especially in
long submarine circuits, most seriously impede communication.
The moving part in the recording instrument the subject of the
present Invention is a coil placed in close proximity to and within the
magnetic field of one or more powerful magnets, either electro or per-
manent. I am well aware that this principle has been made use of,
patented, and published many years ago by Alexander Bain and others
in telegraphic instruments and shown in operation as a galvanometer
with bifilas suspension at the opening of the Panopticon of Science and
Art about fifteen years since, and about the same time tested as a
working telegraph instrument on the London and Brighton line of
the Electric and International Company, and more recently with very
great success made use of by Sir W. Thompson on the long lines of
Atlantic telegraph with elaborate and valuable additions and adaptations.
But my present Invention has reference to,-
1st. The forms and relative positions of magnet and coil whereby
the coil while surrounding the one pole is itself encircled by a pro-
longation of the other pole of the magnet, thereby closing in and
concentrating the magnetic field of force in a manner not previously
done, or by the encircling both poles of one or more magnets by a
double or compound coil, or the division or prolongation of the pole or
poles into two or more parts for the greater convenience of surrounding
them with such moving coils, by which means a considerable amount
of available motive power is realized beyond what has hitherto been
done.
2nd. The use for the conducting wire in all such moving coils of
metals whose specific gravity is considerably less while their specific
conductivity is greater than that of standard copper; of these the
preference is given to magnesium, though aluminium may be used also
with considerable advantage.
3rd. The coil being made to move or carry a very light capillary
syphon pen whose free end rests upon the paper, and either marks
the signals by moving from side to side or by being interrupted at
intervals, and so producing the usual alphabet of dots and dashes; the
other end of this capillary pen is immersed to a proper depth in a
fluid ink which I have devised and find most suitable for this purpose,
and which is by preference made of distilled water and glycerine with

page_text: a very minute proportion of aniline dye or any other perfectly fluid
dye. This ink if used at intervals only for months can neither dry
in or clog the aperture of the pen, it is always ready to mark, and
with the slightest touch and smallest amount of pressure.
If con-
venient the capillary pen may be fixed and the paper struck up
against it by a small boss or stud placed upon (or by a lever or spring
moved by the coil.
4th. The compensation or neutralization of earth currents in this
part of the Invention, an entirely new principle, is involved, namely,
that of making use of the carth currents themselves, and causing
them so to adjust the instrument at the receiving station as to remove
the embarrasment which they would otherwise produce by their
presence in the circuit. The mode in which this compensating adjust-
ment is produced may be best understood by first considering the
difference of form which exists at the receiving stations between the
signal currents and the earth currents whose influence it is proposed to
eliminate. The signal currents are small in force and brief in duration,
and their existence may be noted in seconds and fractions of seconds,
they require consequently for their due reception a corresponding
capability of rapid movement in the instrument. The earth currents
though they may be of considerable force are sluggish in their move-
ment, taking often many minutes in their rise and fall, in fact they
are like the billows on the ocean, compared to which the signals are
as the ripple on their surface. It is easy therefore to arrange a large.
magnetic needle or bar or a more or less astatic system of needles placed
within suitable coils and sensitive to any degree to the action of the
slow earth currents and easily deflected by them, and yet whose inertia
shall make it entirely impossible for it to respond to the more rapid
signal currents, its period of oscillation being entirely incompatible
with them. The deflection thus produced by the earth currents may
by proper arrangement of the circuits be made to take place in direction
opposed to its influence on the recording part of the apparatus and
either by a magnetic adjustment (as adopted in my previous Patent
granted to me No. 2617, A.D. 1855, Nov. 20th) or mechanically by a
fine torsion wire or tension spring to produce the desired adjustment of
the instrument, it being evident that as the degree of deflection is
strictly a measure of the disturbing force, so will the compensating
adjustment be rigidly proportionate thereto. If therefore the relations

page_text: of the several parts of the instrument have been duly adjusted to each
other, the disturbing force will always be made to compensate itself
accurately. I do not propose to confine myself to the magnetic form
of adjustment or to the tension or torsion of wires or springs for con-
necting the compensating with the recording instrument; the pneumatic
and hydraulic systems of conveying power are also applicable and may
in some instances be preferable, but what I believe to be essentially
new and valuable in this part of the Invention is the utilizing the
earth current itself at the receiving station as a means of removing the
inconvenience which it would otherwise produce upon the receiving
instrument, and also the mode in which this is effected, namely; by
connecting in manner herein-before described the compensation portion
with the receiving portion of the apparatus. Under some circumstances,
and especially if the size of the compensation part of the apparatus be
reduced for convenience below that at which the inertia alone of the
heavy astatic system would produce the desired effect of steadying
it sufficiently, it may to a certain extent be supplemented, and the
mobility reduced by adding or attaching to it dampers immersed in a
fluid in a suitable manner, as will be easily understood. If it be desired
to reduce the resistance of the earth current compensating instrument
as well as its size, it may be done by making use of a fixed magnet and
moving coil or coils with dampers instead of the astatic system above
mentioned.
My system of compensation is applicable not only to the receiving
and recording instruments herein described as my Invention, but also
may with advantage be applied to polarized relays, Morse instruments
of various forms, to needle instruments, and under other modifications
to other electric telegraphs.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Edward Orange Wildman Whitehouse in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 29th January 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
ORANGE WILDMAN WHITEHOUSE, of Roslyn Hill House, Hampstead,
in the County of Middlesex, Associate of the Institute of Civil Engineers
and Telegraph Engineer, send greeting,

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of July, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the
thirty-fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Edward Orange Wildman Whitehouse,
Her special licence that I, the said Edward Orange Wildman Whitehouse,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Edward Orange Wildman Whitehouse, 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 RECEIVING AND
RECORDING INSTRUMENTS FOR ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS, AND IN THE UTILIZATION OF
EARTH CURRENTS AT TELEGRAPHIC RECEIVING STATIONS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Edward Orange Wildman Whitehouse,
my executors or adminstrators, 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 Edward Orange Wildman Whitehouse
do hereby declare the nature of my 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 ensure accuracy and sensitiveness in
receiving and recording instruments with great simplicity of working
parts, and with a power of compensation and self-adjustment so as to
neutralize the effects of terrestrial or earth currents, which, especially in
long submarine circuits, most seriously impede communication.
The moving part in the recording instrument the subject of the
present Invention is a coil placed in close proximity to and within the
magnetic field of one or more powerful magnets, either electro or per-
manent. I am well aware that this principle has been made use of,
patented, and published many years ago by Alexander Bain and others
in telegraphic instruments, and shewn in operation as a galvanometer
with bifilas suspension at the opening of the Panopticon of Science and

page_text: Art many years ago, and about the same time tested as a working
telegraph instrument on the London and Brighton line of the Electric
and International Company, and more recently with very great success
made use of by Sir William Thomson on the long lines of Atlantic
telegraph with valuable additions and adaptations. But my present
Invention has reference to certain forms and relative positions and
modifications of magnet and coil which I believe to be new and valuable,
and which I will therefore now describe by reference to the illustrative
Drawings or Diagrams which accompany this Specification..
Diagram No. 1 is one form of magnetic field which I employ, (A)
being the central pole of a circular or cylindrical magnet, while the
outer cylindrical shell (B), which encircles all forms the opposite pole,
terminates in a flat ring of soft iron (C), (wedge-shaped towards the
central aperture) so as to concentrate the total magnetic force in the
most effective manner.
The direction and condensation of the lines of magnetic force are
further modified and improved by the use, as shewn at Diagram No. 1*,
of another magnet A, B, of similar construction and like polarity placed
near and opposite to it. This holds good of electro or steel permanent
magnets indifferently. The parts marked with the same letters are the
same in both these Diagrams.
The moving coil (D) shewn in these Diagrams of a cylindrical form is
placed in the magnetic field surrounding the central poles A, and is
itself surrounded by the prolongation of the other poles C. These
Diagrams (No. 1 and No. 1*) also shew the elastic membrane (E, E,)
which is herein-after described. No. 1* is a sectional plan of No. 1*.
Diagram No. 2 (magnet) and No. 2* (poles and pole pieces) is another
form with both pieces of an electro-magnet or permanent magnet
encircled completely by a double or compound moving coil. Here S
and N denote the poles, and D the moving coil. (No. 2* also shews the
membrane above mentioned and herein-after described.)
Diagram No. 3 (side view) and No. 3* (plan) show the prolongation
and division of each pole into several parts for the greater convenience
of surrounding them with such moving coils. Here S and N denote the
poles.
Diagram No. 4, vertical section on line X, X, of plan 4*, shows
another magnetic field, wherein the force is concentrated in a similar

page_text: manner. Two, three, or more compound horse-shoe permanent magnets
S, N, S, N, being arranged around a soft iron ring or plate C, which
encloses (as shewn) a central pillar A, thus forming a circular or oval
field of magnetic force, the ring being in contact with all the north
poles, and the pillar with the south, or vice versa.
Diagram No. 5 is another form of concentration of the magnetic field
in which the coils D, two in number, are each of them partially imbedded
in or encircled by a prolongation of the pole of the permanent magnet
S, N, by soft iron pole picces (A, A, B, B,) one side of the parallelogram
forming the helix being made continuous with the axis which supports
it, and upon the point of which it turns. The magnetic field of force is
fully concentrated upon the free moving sides of both the helices, the
other side D, D, to which the axes are attached being relatively in a
ncutral part of the field. This Diagram also shews the syphon pens in
situ hereafter described, likewise the tension springs T, T.
The suspension of the moving coil may be effected in any of the well
known usual ways, but I prefer to mount it upon a fine elastic sheet or
membrane in a state of tension either on bars or on a frame, as a
drum head; the coil may thus be made either to give electrical contacts
as a relay or to move a syphon pen, as herein-after described by direct
action, but under some circumstances I prefer the use of the following
arrangement, which is shewn in Diagram No. 6 and 6-A fine elastic
sheet or membrane is stretched across the magnetic field in the same
manner is is shewn in Diagram No. 1 and No. 1', and marked E, E,
also in No. 2, and occupies the middle of the space between the faces
of the two magnets (A, B, Diagram No. 1 and 1*); it is here enclosed
in an air-tight chamber F (shewn in section at Diagram No. 6), which
it divides into two parts as a diaphragm, the moving coil D mounted on
a disc of aluminium G, shewn also in Figures 1 and 1*, as fixed in the
centre of this sheet or membrane, and is free to move or vibrate in a
plane perpendicular to it. From cach compartment of this chamber a
tube H of sufficient size leads to a smaller chamber I (plan view in
Diagram No. 6 and section Diagram No. 6*), whose free end is closed
by another sheet or membrane K drawn across it like a drum head; the
movements of the coil D suspended on the diaphragm E in the larger
chamber produce corresponding movement or pulsations in the air
contained therein, and these pulsations are propagated through the air
tubes A to the smaller chambers I and the drum heads closing them;

page_text: these, if of smaller area, are moved proportionately more rapidly or
through greater distances than the large membrane, the arrangement
thus augmenting the space or velocity of the movement. A boss or stud
fixed in a small disc of aluminium in the centre of this smaller sheet or
membrane is made the means of moving the pen P or pens if two be
used. The Diagrams 6 and 6* show these separate parts in situ and
in section detached from the rest of the instrument, which may be of
any convenient character for simplicity.
In the construction of these moving coils I prefer for the conducting
wire the use of metals whose specific gravity is less while their specific
conductivity is greater than that of standard copper, such as aluminium
or magnesium, though others may be also used. The coil being of
suitable form and material and suspended in a suitable manner is made
either by the usual direct mechanical means or pneumatically to move
or carry a very light capillary syphon pen (preferably of glass), whose
free end touches the paper and marks the signals either by moving
horizontally from side to side or by moving vertically, by which the line
is interrupted at intervals so as to produce an alphabet by the use of
either dots alone or dots and dashes in combination. The other end
of this capillary pen is immersed to a proper depth in a reservoir of
fluid ink. Such a capillary pen arrangement is shewn in Diagrams
Nos. 2, 5, 6, and 6*, being there marked P.
The syphon pen may be either single, as above described, or double so
as to make two parallel lines of dots or dashes produced by currents of
either polarity repeated or alternated at pleasure.
The double syphon pen may be either bifurcated at the delivery or
free end, of one leg supplying while the other two deliver the ink, or it
may consist of two simple syphons mechanically bound together and
united into one double pen, in which case each can be made to deliver
its own color, so that the signals may be more readily distinguished.
The syphon pen, though above described as one entire piece, may with
advantage in some instances be made discontinuous, as I have shown in
Diagram No. 2, the two parts of which it essentially consists, namely,
that which draws the fluid from the reservoir and that which delivers it
upon the paper, need not absolutely be one unbroken tube, but may,
without interfering with its perfect action, and indeed sometimes with
advantage to the working of the instrument, be divided into two parts
separable for brief intervals during the signals, and resuming their

page_text: position and action as a capillary syphon instantly on replacement. In
Diagram No. 2 the body of the pen is marked P, the delivery point,
which is a separate funnel-shaped piece including point, is marked Q.
The operation of a capillary syphon differs widely from that of a syphon
of ordinary size and construction, and in consequence of this arrange-
ment a very small and light part only of the tube connected with and
comprising the point of delivery need be attached to the moving coil.
When the movement of the coil is direct and vertical it may be
sufficient that the fixed part of the syphon should be the banking stop
against which the other part of suitable shape and size presses in the
position of rest.
The double coil (shewn in Figures 7 and 7*, which has an oscillating
motion on its axis (X, X,) may be made to move either two separate
pens resting on the paper giving signals by a series of points or waves
(as shewn in Figures 7*, 7', and 7%, where P is in each sketch a pin
carried by the coil and striking the pens); or the coil may be used with
a double-pointed pen (shewn in No. 73) producing signals by a double
row of dots at any required intervals. In this latter case the short free
end of the double pointed discontinuous syphon pen should be so fixed
upon the coil that its axis Z shall coincide as nearly as possible with
that of the coil itself.
If it be desired to use two colours of ink for greater distinction of
signals, then the short ends of the two pens necessary must be so placed
that their axes Z coincide as nearly as possible in like manner, as will
be understood by reference to the Figure (see Diagram No. 7*.
For the perfect action of the syphon pen I find it preferable to use a
fluid composed of distilled water and glycerine in the proportions of
three of water to one of glycerine or thereabouts, with the addition of a
very small quantity of aniline dye, though any other perfectly soluble
dye might answer. This ink, though allowed to stand in the pen and
used at rare intervals only, after the lapse of many months has been
found neither to have dried in nor clogged the aperture of the pen. It
remains always ready to mark, and with the slightest touch.
In the construction of the apparatus for the compensation or neu-
tralization of earth currents an entirely new principle is involved,
namely, that of making use of earth currents themselves, and causing
them so to adjust the instrument at the receiving station as to remove
the embarrassment they would otherwise produce by their presence in

page_text: the circuit.
The mode in which the compensating adjustment is
produced may be best understood by first considering the difference of
character which exists at the receiving stations between the signal
currents and the earth currents whose influence it is proposed to
eliminate. The signal current are small in force and brief in duration,
and their existence may be noted in fractions of seconds, they require
consequently for their due reception a corresponding capability of
rapid movement in the instrument. The earth currents though they
may be of considerable force are usually sluggish in their movement
and take often many minutes in their rise and fall, in fact they are like
the billows of the ocean, compared to which the signals are as the ripple
on their surface. It is easy therefore to arrange in connection with
the line circuit a large magnetic needle or bar, or a more or less astatic
system of needles placed within suitable coils whose weight and inertia
shall make it impossible to respond to the rapid signal currents, and
which yet shall be sensitive to any degree to the action of the slow
earth currents and easily deflected by them. The deflection thus pro-
duced by the earth currents may by proper arrangement of the circuits
be made to take place in direction opposed to its influence in the
recording part of the apparatus, and either by a magnetic adjustment
as adopted in a previous Patent granted to me No. 2617, A.D. 1855,
November 20, or mechanically by a fine torsion wire or tension spring
to produce the desired adjustment of the instrument. It being evident
that as the degree of deflection is strictly a measure of the disturbing
force so will the compensating adjustment be rigidly proportionate
thereto. If therefore the relation of the several parts of the instrument
have been duly adjusted to each other, the disturbing force will always
be made to compensate itself accurately.
In Drawing or Diagram No. 8 an elevational view is shewn of an
arrangement for utilizing earth currents in manner just mentioned. In
the centre of the instrument is a small magnetic needle with a single
fibre suspension contained within a helix A and constituting a gal-
vanometer or receiving instrument of the simplest form. Surrounding
this is a large coil of full sized wire 18 to 20 gauge, marked B, and within
this coil a permanent magnet C is suspended moveable on a central
point at D and having at each of its extremities a thin flat piece of
brass E immersed in a trough F of glycerine and acting as a damper
to prevent rapid or oscillatory movements. The circuits of these two

page_text: coils being properly arranged the signals will be seen only on the needle
of the instrument, while the earth currents will deflect the heavy
magnet C producing perfect magnetic adjustment of the small needle.
If desired the galvanometer A may be taken away and its place
supplied by a relay constructed on the principle of magnetic adjustment
described in the Patent No. 2617, A.D. 1855, the adjusting magnet
being attached to this compensating magnet C instead of being worked
by hand. I do not propose to confine myself to the magnetic form of
adjustment or to the torsion or tension of wires or springs for connecting
the compensating with the recording part of the apparatus.
The pneumatic or hydraulic system of conveying power is also applic-
able and may in some instances be preferable, but what I believe to be
essentially new and valuable in this part of my Invention is, the
utilizing the carth current itself at the receiving station as a means of
removing the inconvenience which it would otherwise produce upon
the receiving instrument, and also the mode in which this is effected,
namely, by connecting in manner herein-before described the com-
pensating portion with the receiving part of the apparatus.
If it be desired to reduce the resistance of the compensating instru-
ment, as well as its size, it may be done by making use of a fixed
magnet and moving coil or coils with dampers instead of the astatic
system above mentioned.
In Drawing or Diagram No. 9 an arrangement for effecting this is
shewn. Here A denotes a powerful electro or permanent magnet with
its pole pieces B, B, and moving coil C. The coil is suspended on a
membrane with an aluminium plate as described, and is still further
supported by a small spiral tension spring D attached to a lever E, E,
to which lever a fulcrum may be attached at any point between E
and E' to adjust leverage. This lever E is attached by means of the
wire E to F which is a counterpoise beam carefully adjusted upon a
knife edge; G, G, are two hollow coils suspended from F by the rods G³
and surrounding the limbs of the magnet A upon which they play
loosely, a space of a quarter of inch being allowed all round. The
circuit is maintained through these coils by means of the wires H, H,
each being prolonged in a copper disc I, which is immersed in a small
separate trough K containing mercury. This acts at once as a damper
and as a means of producing electrical contact. It will be evident
that any earth current movement produced upon the coils Ģ will be

page_text: communicated to the beam F, and through the lever E to the spiral
spring D, which will adjust the signal coil in a compensating manner.
The system of compensation is applicable not only to the receiving
and recording instruments herein described as my Invention, but also
may with advantage be applied to polarized relays, Morse instruments
of various forms, and other telegraphic instruments.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature and
object of my said Invention and in what manner the same may be
performed or put in practice, I hereby declare that I claim, the herein
described "Improvements in Receiving and Recording Instruments for
Electric Telegraphs and in the Utilization of Earth Currents at Tele-
graphic Receiving Stations" wherein the following are important points
or features:-
1. The arrangements of magnetic field and moving coils herein
described.
2. The capillary syphon pen arrangements and ink herein described.
3. The membrane suspension for moving coils herein described.
4. The utilization of earth currents as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Orange Wildman White-
house, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth
day of January, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and seventy-two.
Witness,
THOMAS MORGAN,
Secretary,
E. O. WILDMAN WHITEHOUSE (L.S)
Inventors' Patent Right Association, Limited,
21, Cockspur Street.
25