IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Glover, of Upper Chadwell Street, Myddleton
Square, in the County of Middlesex, Manufacturer, and Alexander Bain,
of Fetter Lane, Holborn, in the same County, Electric Telegraph Engi-
T
3
"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Glover and
Alexander Bain at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 21st November 1857.
We, THOMAS GLOVER, of Upper Chadwell Street, Myddleton Square, in the
County of Middlesex, Manufacturer, and ALEXANDER BAIN, of Fetter Lane,
Holborn, in the same County, Electric Telegraph Engineer, do hereby declaro
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS,"
to be as follows:-
There are (as is well understood by persons conversant with electric
telegraph engineering) two methods or systems of electric telegraphs. the
signal and the recording, and there are several modifications of each. The
modification of signal electric telegraphs most generally in use is that termed
the "needle" system, the signals of which are represented to the eye by the
deflections of magnetic needles, which are caused to point or be deflected in one
or other direction, as required, by the direction in which the current of elec-
tricity is caused to flow through the communicating wires. The objections to this
system are, in the first place, that each indicator making up in most cases only
part of a letter or sign, being so transient, and one indication must be removed
before another can be represented, they are often forgotten before the word or
part of a word is obtained, and a "repeat" of the sign or signs has to be

page_text: performed, thereby occasioning loss of time. Whilst in addition with this
system it is necessary to have a battery of full power at each of the stations,
at a considerable permanent cost, and the recording systems in use are
objectionable by reason of the complexity of the arrangements involved.
Our improvements combine the principles and advantages both of a signal
and a recording telegraph, and have for their object the production during the
flow of an electric current of a mark or indication by water or other suitable
fluid upon a moveable or other surface, upon which it is retained only sufficient
time to read or transfer the indications. A lever or arm formed to convey the
indicating fluid is provided with a tendency to be off the receiving surface, but
so soon as the electricity is caused to flow, the lever or arm is brought in
contact with, and so as to make a moist mark on the receiving surface, and
the order of such indications will represent letters or signs as determined upon.
In order to bring the marker into operation, an electro-magnet or other
suitable instrument may be employed in connection with it.
The indicating fluid may be water, which will remain sufficiently long for
the signs to be correctly read, and then by evaporation or otherwise be
removed without leaving a mark. Or other coloring fluid may be used, as
when (according to arrangements hereafter referred to) the indications are
desired to be preserved, we prefer for the receiver an endless or other band
of vulcanized india-rubber, but this may be varied, and if evaporation bo
found insufficient in the time allowed to remove the indications, we employ a
suitable rubber or other drying medium. When coloring fluid is employed,
paper or other matter may be employed as a second receiver to take the
indications from the first receiving medium, by such paper or other matter
being caused to travel in contact with such first receiver. By this means the
indications may be permanently retained. In place of simply water or coloring
medium a chemical (as for instance, a solution of potash) may be employed to
discharge color from blue or other colored paper or material upon which it is
delivered.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filod
by the said Thomas Glover and Alexander Bain, in the Great Seal Patent
Office, on the 21st May 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, THOMAS
GLOVER, of Upper Chadwell Street, Myddleton Square, in the County of Mid-
dlesex, Manufacturer, and ALEXANDER BAIN, of Fetter Lane, Holborn, in the
same County, Electric. Telegraph Engineer, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS, Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent bearing date the Twenty-first day of November, in the year of our Lord,
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twenty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said Thomas Glover and Alexander Bain, Her special licence, that we, the
said Thomas Glover and Alexander Bain, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said Thomas Glover and Alexander Bain,
our 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 ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS," upon the condi-
tion (amongst others) that we, the said Thomas Glover and Alexander Bain, our
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our or their
hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us or them, should par-
ticularly 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 we, the said Thomas Glover and Alexander Bain,
do hereby declare 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 thereof, that is to say :-
There are (as is well understood by persons conversant with electric
telegraph engineering) two methods or systems of electric telegraphs, the
signal and the recording, and there are several modifications of cach. The
modification of signal electric telegraph most generally in use is that termed
the "necdle" system, the signals of which are represented to the eye by the
deflections of magnetic needles, which are caused to point or be deffected in
one or other direction, as required, by the direction in which the current of
electricity is caused to flow through the communicating wires. The objections
to this system are, in the first place, that each indication, making up in most
cases only part of a letter or sign, being so transient, and one indication must
be removed before another can be represented, they are often forgotten before
the word or part of a word is obtained, and a
repeat "of the sign or signs
has to be performed, thereby occasioning loss of time. Whilst, in addition with
this system, it is necessary to have a battery of full power at each of the
stations at a considerable permaneut cost. And the recording systems in use
are objectionable by reason of the complexity of the arrangements involved.
"

page_text: Our improvements combino the principles and advantages both of a signal
and a recording telegraph, and have for their object the production during the
flow of an electric current of a mark or indication by water or other suitable
fluid upon a moveable or other surface upon which it is retained only suflicient
time to read or transfer the indientions. A lever or arm formed to convey the
indicating fluid is provided witli a tendency to be off the receiving surface,
but so soon as the electricity is caused to flow, the lever or arm is brought in
contact with and so as to make a moist mark on the receiving surface, and
the order of such indications will represent letters or signs, as determined upon.
In order to bring the marker into operation, an electro-magnet or other
suitable instrument may be employed in connection with it.
The indicating fluid may be water, which will remain sufficiently long for
the signs to be correctly read, and then by evaporation, or otherwise, bo
renioved without leaving a mark. Or other coloring fluid may be used, as
when (according to arrangements hereafter referred to) the indications are
desired to be preserved. Wo prefer for the receiver an endless or other band of
vulcanized india-rubber, but this may be varied; and if evaporation be found
insuflicient in the time allowed to remove the indications, we employ a suitable
rubber or other drying medium. When coloring fluid is employed, paper or
other matter may be employed as a second receiver to take the indications from
the first receiving medium, by such paper or other matter being caused to
travel in contact with such first receiver. By this means the indications may
he permanently retained.. In place of simply water or coloring medium, a
chemical (as for instance, a solution of potash) may be employed to discharge
color from blue or other colored paper or material, upon which it is delivered.
But that the nature of these our improvements may be more fully under-
stood, we will proceed to describe the Drawings annexed.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 shows a side view; Figure 2 a plan; Figure 3 a sectional sido
view; and Figure 4 a sectional plan of apparatus, arranged according to our
improvements, when adapted simply as an indicating apparatus. In each of
these views each of the letters employed applies to like parts wherever they
occur.
a, a, is an endless band of india-rubber or other suitable material adapted
as a receiving means, and which is supported upon pulleys b, c, and has slow
motion given to it in manner hereafter described, in order that any indications
made thereon may follow each other in succession, so as to be seen and read
collectively; & is a lever or arm formed to convey the indicating fluid on to.

page_text: the endless band a, when that lever is acted upon by the electro-magnet f:
This lever arm we form by preference, somewhat as an ordinary drawing-pen,
and it receives its supply of water or other fluid from one end of a piece of
cotton or other suitable material adapted by capillary attraction to convey fluid
from a reservoir e, provided for the purpose. The reservoir e is divided into
two parts, as shown (1), (2), one for clean water and the other for any suitable
coloring or other acting matter, and each is provided with a tubo (3) to
conduct a piece of cotton or medium of supply to the point of the lever d, and
one or the other of these tubes (3) will be brought opposite the point of the
arm d, by simply turning the reservoir e in its support. The lever arm d
turns upon an axis of motion d', and is borne towards the reservoir e by a
spring d, which is capable of being adjusted by the turning of the pin a³;
but when an indication is required to be made, the passage of a current of
electricity through the electro-magnet facts upon the plate d' of the lever d,
drawing that lever towards it, when its upper end will conduct the fluid to the
endless apron a, or other passing surface, acting as a receiving surface in posi-
tion to receive it; and it will be manifest that if the receiving surface is
constantly moving when the apparatus is in action, any marks or indications
made by the instrument d will be longer or shorter in proportion to the time,
during which the instrument d is at each magnetic action kept drawn towards
the coils f; f, f, represent the two portions of wire from the coils f to
produce a circuit, and the means of effecting connections and disconnections
of the magnetic wires may be varied. One end of the wire will be in direct
connection with the battery and the other with the circuit.
According to the arrangement shown, the endless apron a has progressive
motion given to it by a train of wheelwork, set in motion by the spring barrel
9, which is capable of being wound up by a key acting on the axis g', in
manner similar to the spring barrel of a clock, the barrel g having formed on
one end of it a toothed wheel g, which takes into a pinion h, upon the axis of
which is fixed a toothed wheel h', which takes into a pinion affixed upon the
axis of the drum or cylinder b; the toothed wheel 92 also takes into the teeth
of a pinion i upon an axis i', upon which is affixed a toothed wheel i², which
takes into a pinion j affixed upon the axis j'. upon which is affixed a toothed
wheel, which takes into the teeth of a pinion k affixed upon the axis & upon
which is affixed the toothed wheel, which takes into a pinion upon the
axis l', upon which is affixed the toothed wheel 1, which takes into a pinion
n on the axis of the flyer m for regulating the speed of the drum c; n is a
stop to stop the motion of the parts.
The indications made by the marker d will be seen on the surface A of the

page_text: endless apron a, and then removed by the action of the absorbing roller o, and
scrapers p, p. This absorbing roller we form of blotting paper or other suitable
absorbing material, as are also the scrapers p, p.
Figures 5 and 6 show a slight modification adapted to be used when the
indications are to be preserved; q is a creel, upon which a narrow slip of
paper g or other suitable matter is wound, and when indications are to bo
taken thereon, those indications are made by preference by the use of a
coloring matter, or by the use of a chemical capable of effecting a change in
the appearance of the surface of the paper or other material used to preservo
the indications. The paper or other receiver q' is conducted partly around the
roller in contact with the surface A, in such manner that the indications
made on the surface A may be transferred to the surface q¹.
Figure 7 shows a Diagram of a method of using apparatus according to our
improvements; and we would here state that we prefer to use a key for
forming and breaking contact between parts of the circuit, such as we have
shown at Figures 8 and 9. This key is formed with a screw t, by which, when
not in use, it may be kept closed, or in a position to complete the circuit
through that part of the wire. In the Diagram, Figure 7, B represents a
battery; C, C', plates, one at each end of the line to communicate with the
earth, and a wire from the plate C is connected to the screw coupling f of
the apparatus at A (say London), such as represented at Figures 1, 2, 3, and
4, or 5 and 6, and thence from the screw coupling f' to the key at D. The wire
then continues to other similar apparatus, (say at York,) when communication
is also made to the battery, though the battery may be placed at any other
part of the line desired. And from the battery the wire communicates to
another distant apparatus, situated (say at Edinburgh) and so on, but at the
last station the wire communicates with the earth. By thus using keys, which
when not in use are found to preserve contact in the parts of the wire, com-
munications may at once be opened with parts the most remote, and when
desired to make indications to any distant part, the key will be released from
contact to be used in the ordinary manner of using such keys.
Figure 10 represents a table of indications, such as are proper to produce,
with a key to them.
Having thus described the nature of our said improvements, and the best
means we are acquainted with for carrying the same into effect, we would have
it understood that we do not confine ourselves to the precise details shown and
described, so long as the peculiar character of either part is retained; but what
we do claim is, first, the mode of arranging, combining, and operating parts
substantially as described in respect to Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4; and, secondly,

page_text: we claim the mode of arranging, combining, and operating parts substantially
as explained in respect to Figures 5 and 6.
In witness whereof, wc, the said Thomas Glover and Alexander Bain.
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twentieth day of May, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty eight.
Witness,
BENJ J. B. MILLS,
78, Chancery Lane,
London.
(S.)
ALEXANDER BAIN. (L.s.)