AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR COMPOSING AND TRANSMITTING THE SIGNS OR LETTERS OF MORSE'S TELEGRAPHIC APPARATUS
Year: 1874

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Amedée Mouillard at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 1st
October 1874.
I, AMEDÉE MOUILLARD, of No. 28, Boulevard de Strasbourg, Paris,
France, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN
IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR COMPOSING AND TRANSMITTING THE SIGNS OR LETTERS
OF MORSE'S TELEGRAPHIC APPARATUS," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a telegraph sending apparatus so constructed
that on the depression of a finger key or the simultaneous depression of
several finger keys electrical contacts are arranged, whereby the com-
binations of dots, dashes, and intervals constituting the letters or symbols
of the Morse code are produced without the repeated key strokes of
various duration required in sending instruments of ordinary con-
struction.
According to one form of the apparatus I provide on a keyboard
thirteen keys arranged side by side, the second, fourth, sixth, eighth, and
twelfth being appropriated to dashes, and the others to dots, so that on
depressing simultaneously several of these keys in proper order, the
required combination of dashes and dots to constitute a particular letter

page_text: or symbol is produced, as I will hereafter explain, on the receiving
instrument.
According to another form of the apparatus I provide a sufficient
number of finger keys to allow one for each letter, numeral, or other
symbol required to be transmitted, so that the depression of only one
key at a time produces the required combination of dots and dashes. In
either case, besides these keys, I provide others to produce the blank
intervals required between separate letters or words. Each of the keys
has a spring catch, which engages with a lever, so that on depressing a
key the lever is moved, the catch thereupon disengaging itself.
In the first-mentioned form of the apparatus the second, fourth, sixth,
eighth, and twelfth levers have cross bars extending over the adjacent
levers on each side, so that when any one of the evenly numbered levers,
as for example, the fourth, is moved, the two adjacent levers, namely,
the third and fifth, are simultaneously moved, but nevertheless the
levers oddly numbered can be moved one at a time when the evenly
numbered levers next them are not moved. In the other form of the
apparatus independent levers are employed.
Over the row of levers are mounted thirteen thin plates fitted to slide
in guides transversely to the levers, each plate having an inclined tooth
projecting downwards at the side of one of the levers, or in the second
form of the apparatus having several such teeth, so that when one or
more of the levers is or are moved by the depression of one or more of
the finger keys one or more of the plates is or are caused to slide.
towards the one hand, each lever in its movement acting on the inclined
edges of the teeth presented to it. The levers and sliding plates are
returned to their normal position by springs.
In a framing above the sliding plates is mounted a wheel, having its
axis parallel to the sliding plates, and on its edge are mounted a number
of small blades spaced at distances apart, corresponding with those of
the sliding plates, and fitted to slide parallel to the axis of the wheel.
The wheel is connected to clockwork moved by a weight or spring with
catch apparatus, which stops the wheel, permitting it to revolve only
when any one of the levers has completed a stroke.
When the wheel is at rest a number of its sliding blades are presented
towards projections from the sliding blades below it, one of the former
facing each of the latter. When therefore on the depression of a key or

page_text: keys several of the plates are moved to the one hand several of the corre-
sponding blades on the wheel are thereby moved, and caused to protrude
on the one side of the wheel, the numbers, orders, and positions of such
protruding blades being thus made to correspond to the dots, dashes,
and intervals constituting a letter or other symbol. The blades having
thus been protruded the wheel is released and permitted to move a
distance corresponding to the extent of its circumference, over which its
blades have been acted on. The interval keys without protruding any
of the wheel blades allow the wheel to move a distance corresponding to
the interval required.
By the intermittent rotation of the wheel the protruded blades are
brought round under a pawl, which is raised by each protruding blade,
and is, of sufficient breadth to be kept up during the passage of two
successive protruding blades, but can fall into the space where a blade
is not protruded.
When the pawl is raised it makes contact, by which a current of
electricity is passed into the line wire. This current operating during
the passage of one blade causes a dot to be produced at the receiving
instrument. When it operates during the passage of three successive
protruded blades it causes a dash to be produced, and when it ceases to
operate during the passage of one or more blades not protruded it causes
the blank intervals, separating letters, and words to be produced.
As the blade wheel moves intermittently and rapidly according as it
is released by the action of the keys, whilst the operation of the contact
pawl for transmission requires to be more regular, the pawl and its
contacts are mounted on a swing frame acted on by a weight or spring
and connected to the blade wheel by sun-and-planet gearing governed
by a fly, so that when the blade wheel moves, the pawl partly moves
with it, but at less speed, the blades being thus made to travel past the
pawl with a relative velocity suited to the speed of the receiving
instrument. As the blade wheel continues its intermittent rotation the
protruded blades are successively pushed back to their normal position
ready to be again protruded as they pass the sliding plate operated on
by the keys.