IMPROVEMENTS IN AUTO-QUINETIC ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH APPARATUS
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Luis Marie de Bejar y O'Lawlor at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 27th February 1879.
LUIS MARIE DE BEJAR Y O'LAWLOR, of Hammersmith, in the County of
Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN AUTO-QUINETIC ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH APPARATUS."
My Invention relates to improvements in auto-quinetic telegraph apparatus,
whereby instead of employing two separate line wires as described in the
Specification of a Patent granted to me and to Nicholas Antonio Calvo, beuring date
the Twenty-seventh day of March, A.D. 1876, Number 1303, I effect similar results
with one line wire only.
For this purpose 1 employ both negative and positive currents of electricity, for
example, a negative current to effect the necessary changes in the various apparatuses,
and a positive current for the transmission of the signals, or vice-versa. These
opposite currents are utilized by means of an electro-magnet with a polarized
armature in each of the apparatuses from which a message or signal is to be sent.
By the expression positive current I meau a current passing through a conducting
wire in one direction; and by a negative current, one passing through the same
wire in the opposite direction. At the central or terminal station (hereinafter called
for the sake of brevity the "station") I employ a commutator which is caused to
rotate by clockwork or other suitable means when released by an electric current
the circuit of which is closed in the apparatus in one of the houses or stations on
the line (hereinafter called for the sake of brevity and distinction the "house or
the "houses" as the case may be).
"
The said commutator while stationary in its normal position allows a current to
pass from the main battery or other suitable electric generator into the line wire in
one direction to allow of the necessary changes being effected in the apparatuses at
the houses when the circuit is closed at one of the latter. As the commutator
revolves it successively breaks the first current, closes the circuit of the local battery
to ring the alarm bell at the station, and recloses the circuit with the main battery
or electric generator in such a way as to cause a current to pass into the line wire

page_text: "
in a direction opposite to that of the first current. This second current has no effect
upon the apparatuses in the houses, but transmits the message from the house
communicating to the "Morse or other receiving instrument at the station. As
the commutator revolves further (and after the message has been sent) it breaks the
circuit of the second current and closes a circuit which allows a third current to pass
into the line wire in the same direction as the first current.
This third current operates upon the apparatuses at the houses and causes or
allows of their restoration to their normal position ready for a fresh set of operations.
After this the commutator completes its revolution, returning to its normal position,
and is retained therein until again released by the action of a current, the circuit of
which is closed in the apparatus in one of the houses as before.
From the "Morse" or other receiving instrument at the station a single line wire
runs in succession through all the apparatuses at the houses on the line, being
connected auto-quinetically therewith, that is to say, in such manner that when any
one of the latter is set so as to send a message to the station, the continuity of the
said line wire is broken at that apparatus, thus isolating from the line all the houses
further removed than itself from the station. Further the apparatuses at all tho
houses situated between the station and the house actually in communication there-
with are so acted upon that although the continuity of the line wire is preserved
through them no signals can be sent from them to the station until the apparatus
actually or about to be engaged in sending a message has finished such message,
and the whole line has been restored to its normal position.
The auto-quinetic apparatuses at the houses consist of arrangements whereby on
setting any one of the apparatuses to send a message, not only is the 'continuity of
the line wire severed at that apparatus, but the circuit of the electric current first
above named is closed through the commutator and main battery or generátor at
the station, and through the coils of electro-magnets in the apparatuses, thereby
magnetizing such electro-magnets with a certain polarity which repels permanently
magnetized armatures connected with the said electro-magnets; this causes contact
makers or commutators in the said apparatus, and in all others intermediate between:
it and the station, to make a movement whereby all such other intermediate
apparatuses are rendered inoperative so far as regards sending signals from them,
but the continuity of the line wire through them is maintained. This movement
also breaks the first current (if it has not already been broken by the commutator
at the station), demagnetizing the electro-magnets, and the magnetized armatures
are then attracted by the soft iron cores of the said electro-magnets.
commutator at the station having reversed the direction of the current, the electro-
magnets in the apparatuses are again magnetized, but with polarity opposite to
that first imparted, and they now attract more firmly the permanently magnetized
armatures, but do not move them, and consequently the contact makers or com-
mutators remain stationary. The electrical connections are now such that the
required message or signal may be sent from the house to the station, and when
that is completed (or soon after) the commutator at the station breaks the second
current and closes the third current in the same direction as the first one, breaking.
it again in a short time. By these means the magnetized armatures are again
repelled by the electro-magnets and then attracted, and the contact makers or com-
mutators caused to make other movements which restore all the apparatuses ⚫ to
their normal positions.
The
By these arrangements, when the line is free any one of the houses on it may be
put in communitation with the station, and no other house can interrupt that com-
munication until all the apparatuses have been returned to their normal position;
but if during the time any house has been in communication with the station it.
has been desired to send a message from another house to the station, and for that
purpose its apparatus has been set in the required position, the said house (if nearer
to the station than any other on the line that may have been set for sending a
message) will be put in communication with the station immediately. the apparatuses-

page_text: have been returned to their normal positions, and the desired messages may be sent
automatically without any further attention on the part of the person at the house,
or if preferred an attention bell may be rung in such house as soon as the line is
clear, and the message sent by telephone or any of the known systems of telegraphy
for which the apparatus and receiving instrument may have been adapted. .
"