IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS, AND IN VARIOUS APPARATUS TO BE USED IN CONNECTION THEREWITH, PART OF WHICH IMPROVEMTS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO OTHER SIMILAR PURPOSES
Year: 1851

page_text: LITTLE'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
LITTLE, of New Peckham, in the County of Surrey, Electro-telegraphic
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 at Westminster, the Fourteenth day of
March (One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one), in the fourteenth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said George Little, my exors, admors, and assigns, Her especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said George
Little, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said George
Little, 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 the Islands
of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and also in all Her Majesty's
Colonies and Plantations abroad, save and except the Provinces of Canada,
Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, and the Island of Prince Edward, in
North America, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS, AND
IN VARIOUS APPARATUS TO BE USED IN CONNECTION THEREWITH, PART OF WHICH
IMPROVEMTS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO OTHER SIMILAR PURPOSES;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said George Little, shall cause
a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my
hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within

page_text: 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
George Little, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had
to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon, that is to say:-
My Invention has for its object the improvement of the electric telegraph,-
Firstly, by suspending the indicators or other parts of electric telegraphs
that may be desirable by means of magnetic attraction.
Secondly, by the supporting of indicators of electric telegraphs by means of
floats made of blown glass or of other suitable buoyant material, such floats
being enclosed in glass tubes containing any suitable fluid.
In the accompanying Sheet of Drawings I shew in what way I prefer the
said improvements to be carried out.
Figure 1 shews a permanent magnet as fixed into a socket 6. c, a glass
tube, which contains alcohol, in the centre of which is seen the indicator
suspended from its upper point by the attractive power of the permanent
magnet; d, d, coils of fine insulated wire secured to the glass tube by means
of the connecting piece e. On a current of electricity being made to pass
through the coils of wire, as is well understood, the lower end of the needle
or indicator in the tube will move to the right or to the left, as may be
required, thereby producing any number of conventional signals, the use of
the spirits in the tube being to act as a continuous lubricator by preventing
the indicator from sticking against the sides of the glass tube, which act as
stops to the same. One or more of such arrangements, as shewn, may be
fixed to the dial plate of the instrument.
Figure 2 shews a side view of the same. a, the permanent magnet; b,
the socket with a screw attached, so that the same may be secured to the dial
plate by means of the screwed nut b'; c, the tube; d, the end view of the
coils of wire.
Figure 3 shews the permanent magnet a with the indicator 6 suspended
from the same in the centre of the conical guide c.
Figure 4 shews a coil of wire a with a glass tube b containing spirits or any
suitable fluid, in which is suspended a magnet by means of a float c, which
magnet is acted upon and drawn down into the tube, carrying with it the float
out of sight or nearly so, thereby producing conventional signals on a current

page_text: of electricity being made to pass through the coils of wire surrounding the
glass tube. One or more of such arrangements, as shewn, may be secured to
the dial plate of the instrument by a screw passed into the slot d.
Figure 5, section of the coil of wire a. b, the space left for the glass tube
to slide in.
Figure 6.-a, the glass tube; b, the magnet secured to the float c.
Now having described my Invention, and the mode I prefer the apparatus
to be arranged for the indicating parts of electric telegraphs, I wish to have
it understood, that I do not confine myself to the arrangements herein set
forth, as the same may be accomplished in a variety of ways. But what I
claim as new, and of my Invention, is,―
Firstly, any arrangement in accordance with the mode described for the
suspending of indicators by means of magnetic attraction for electric
telegraph purposes. And,
Secondly, the supporting of indicators by means of floats in tubes of spirits
or other suitable fluids for electric telegraph purposes.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Little, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twelfth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one.