IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR TRANSMITTING ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH MESSAGES AND SIGNALS
Year: 1862

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Richard Archibald Brooman at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 3rd
September 1862.-A communication from abroad by Theodore Auguste
Mario Sortais, of Lisieux, France.
I, RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR TRANSMITTING ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH MESSAGES
AND SIGNALS," (Communicated to me from abroad by Theodore Auguste Marie
Sortais, of Lisieux, France,) to be as follows:-
This Invention is for improvements upon a former Invention of the said
T. A. M. Sortais, for which Letters Patent were granted to me, 14th December
1858, No. 2864, in the Specification of which the clockwork was described as
being set free, brought into action, and stopped by means of the current itself,
with the system applied to a dry pricking or dotting telegraph.
Now in the following description the improvements are described with
reference to a printing or writing telegraph, but they are equally applicable to
all telegraphs.
The present Invention will be well understood by the following description
and reference to the accompanying Drawings.
Figure 1 is an elevation of a Morse apparatus, showing the present Inven-
tion applied to it; Figure 2 is an interior view, showing the principal parts by
which the Inventor's method of disengaging and engaging (de déclanchement

page_text: et d'enclanchment) clockwork is effected; Figure 3 is a vertical section of
the ink-holder and pen or style.
A represents the coils; B is the printing lever mounted on a horizontal
axis; it prints the messages or signals through a spring c fitted to it, and
following all its movements. b is an arm fixed to the spring of the printing
lever B, and following the motions thereof; it acts as a lever upon a spindle d,
Figure 1, receiving motion from the arm b at each stroke of the printing lever,
and setting free a paul or click E, to which it is fixed. This click E engages
and disengages the ratchet wheel G. ff, is a regulating screw, which termi-
nates in a stop upon the rear end of the click E. The ratchet wheel G carries
two small levers h, h'; that marked h terminates in a hook i, and acts as a
stop to the clockwork. The lever h¹ sets free the clockwork by means of a
weight i', fixed to one end of it. j is a stop for limiting the extent to which the
lever h¹ may move; k is a pinion set in a vertical plane parallel to the ratchet
wheel G, and at each revolution causing it to advance one tooth by means of a
catch m fixed on the axis of the pinion; n is a stop on the axis of the regulating
fly wheel of the clockwork. Round this axis a highly flexible spring p is wound;
one end is fixed to the axis just mentioned, and the other to the stop n for stop-
ping the fly wheel. The ink vessel is V-shaped in section, through the cover the
style or pen passes, and is fixed at the height required by a thumbscrew; the
ink is poured through a funnel, and a sponge or spongy material preserves it.
The paper is unwound from a drum, and is led between guide rollers, then under
another roller or guide a, before coming in contact with the spring c in con-
nection with the printing lever. The guide a steadies the paper and prevents
the pen adhering to it. The paper then passes under the pen or marker, and
is thence drawn off between rollers a², a³. A screw I is employed to regulate
the pressure exerted by the latter rollers on the paper, according to the tension
required. A regulating screw t passes vertically through the printing lever B,
and abuts against the spring c below; by giving this regulating screw & a
quarter of a turn, the commutations are established or suppressed. Between
the screw t and the fulcrum of the lever B there is a fixed or permanent
screw u, which sets the spring c for the automatic travel and inking of the
paper by pressing the latter against the printing pen q; thus by turning
down the regulating screw t, the spring c is pressed further from the lever B,
and not only ceases to press the paper against the pen; but also removes the
arm b.
The workings of the apparatus take place wholly automatically. At each
manipulation the printing lever by means of the arm b raises the spindle d,
which, raising with it the click E, disengages the ratchet wheel G, which being

page_text: movable upon its axis turns to an extent determined by the distance of the
lever h' from the stop j. At the same time that the ratchet wheel turns, the
other lever h, i, is carried in the opposite direction, and frees the clockwork,
and as long as the manipulation lasts, the click being always raised, cannot
cause gearing with the clockwork. The manipulation finished, the catch m,
fixed to the axis of the escape, causes the ratchet wheel to rise one tooth at
each turn of this wheel, the click being freed and remaining so until the
hook i of the small lever h comes in contact with the stop n; although the
stop n has become fixed, the fly wheel from the impulse it has acquired con-
tinues to revolve long enough to disengage the catch m.
revolutions is determined by the time the spring p takes to
axis of the wheel, which it ultimately stops by its pressure.
The number of
wind upon the