IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS
Year: 1855

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Jones at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 2nd November
1855.
I, JOHN JONES, of St. Asaph, in the County of Flint, North Wales, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRIC
TELEGRAPHS to be as follows:-
My Invention relates to improvements in electric telegraphs, whereby
intelligence is communicated from one place to another by characters which
are formed at one station being reproduced at another distant station by the
agency of electricity. My improved telegraph may be divided into three
principal parts: viz., first, the apparatus for transmitting; secondly, the
receiving or recording part; with a third part, which may or not be used,
its object boing to elevate and liberate the pencil fixed in the receiving
instrument, so as to prevent unnecessary marks being made on the paper.
The transmitting instrument consists of two frames or boxes, each of which
encloses a set of cog wheels with a commutating apparatus for the purpose of
sending successive currents of electricity to the distant station, either by means
of the line wire or earth current and through the coils of wire belonging to
tho electro-magnet, so as to change the polarity of its ends according to its

page_text: direction. This is effected by the motion of a pencil placed on the lower end
of a lever, which works in a universal joint placed apart from the two frames
or boxes; to its upper end two metallic rods working in universal joints are
attached, and which are, also connected each to a crank fastened to the arbor
of one of the cog wheels which is used to work the commutator in each box;
the frames or boxes must be placed in a plane at right angles to each other.
The commutator is a small "crospiece," fastened to an arbor passing through
it, with two metallic.ends properly insulated; one of these ends is metallically
connected with the line wire, and the other with the earth plate. The
commutator is supported in an upright position by two springs, and on each
side one piece of metal is placed, each of which is connected with a pole of
the battery. Each piece has its two ends brought in close proximity to the
two ends of the commutator, so that when its two ends are brought in contact,
one with the north and the other with the south pole of the battery, the
circuit will be complete, and the direction of the current will be regulated
according to the pole which each end is connected with. The commutator in
cach frame has a small wheel fastened to the arbor, which passes through its
centre; this is so arranged, that when a cog wheel in revolving brings one of
its cogs in contact with this wheel, the two ends of the commutator complete
the circuit, and so it remains until the wheel has rolled over the cog, when
the springs break the contact and current; consequently every cog causes one
current to be transmitted, and every space between the cogs one suspension,
and according to the direction which this cog wheel revolves, so will the
direction of the current be. The friction of the small wheel is regulated by
means of a spring. The machinery contained in the two frames or boxes will
indicate the movements of the pencil fixed to the lever by transmitting and
'breaking currents of electricity, and according to the direction which it takes,
so will the direction of the current be; and according to the division in the
wheel's proportionate lengths of each crank and lever, so will the number of
currents transmitted be regulated and the magnets polarized.
The recording part consists of two divisions, and, like the transmitting ones,
are placed in planes at right angles to each other. Each division has a
central wheel surrounded by cogs fixed in position, having one end passing
through the side of its frame, which is placed within the angle, having a screw
cut on it. This screw works in a nut, which is fastened to an arm by two pivot-
pointed screws, which allows it an horizontal motion, and according to the revo-
lution of the central-wheel the screw drives the arm out or withdraws it;.thus
the arm obtains three motions. On each side of this wheel the wheels, joints,
levers, &c. are similar in number, size, and in division, and a description of

page_text: one side will be suitable for the other. On each side of the central wheel a
cog wheel is fixed, with a drum or barrel attached to it, in which a spring is
placed, or a string connected with a weight is wound round, as in. ordinary
clockwork; this gives motion to another cog wheel, that has on its arbor
(which passes through the frame on the opposite side to that through which
the central wheel passes) a ratchet wheel, which is held in check by an
escapement, and so prevents the drum with its wheel from recoiling in the:
last cog wheel. The cogs of another are fixed with a camb wheel on the same
arbor; this camb wheel gives motion to a lever, at one end of which two
rolling wheels are fixed at right angles to each other, having a spring pressing.
equally on them for the purpose of keeping the rollers in contact with the
cambs, and the other for pressing it on a pedestal, which can be elevated by
apparatus connected with the other half of the machine.
The fulcrum of this lever is in a universal joint, so that a vertical and hori-
zontal motion can be imparted to it. When the escapement lets off a tooth of
the ratchet wheel, the spring or weight sets all the above wheels in motion,
and according to the division of their teeth so will the camb wheel be moved
through a certain part of its circumference, and by the rolling of the vertical
wheel attached to the lever over the cambs, with the assistance of the spring
already mentioned, horizontal motion in a right and left direction will be given
to the principal lever. The opposite end of this lever falls into a space between
two "bent levers," with ratchet-formed teeth at the end of each, for the
purpose of retaking in the cogs of the central wheel. The two ends adjoining to
the first-described lever are brought in contact with a piece of wood by means
of a wire spring fastened to the two ends; this wood is firmly wood is firmly
fixed in a line with the central wheel. These two smaller "bent levers" will
be moved by the action of the first-mentioned one, for every movement of
these two levers one tooth of the central wheel is, moved in one direction into
the position of its adjoining one. On the same arbor as the ratchet wheel two
disces of metal are placed, having as many square-shaped indentures as thero
are teeth in each ratchet wheel, and one side of which is cut parrallel to the
point of its corresponding ratchet wheel. These disces on revolving causo
levers with beveled heads, which slide out of the indentures to elevate tho
pedestal on which the principal lever on the opposite side of the central wheel
rests, to be elevated, and which causes the said lever to depress its opposite end,
and so allow the springs of the driving "bent levers" to draw them to the
block of wood' already mentioned, if by any means they should not have
reached that position after being set in motion by the machine on its side.
The wheels, levers, joints, &c. are similar on each side of the central wheel,

page_text: and for a similar purpose, with the exception of the smaller levers, one pair of
which causes the central screw to draw the arm in, while the other drives it
out, by one part imparting a reverse motion to the central wheel to that of the
other. From this it will be seen that the motive power is obtained from the
spring or weights. I obtain the directive power from the electro-magnet, one
of which is placed within each frame or box at an equal distance from the
arbor, which has the ratchet wheels fixed on them. The magnet I make of two
cylindrical pieces of soft iron, each fastened at one end to a soft connecting
piece, and surrounded with coils of wire connected with the line and earth
plate, as in ordinary magnets; but to the front of each I would have a semi-
circular piece of flat iron fastened, for the purpose of bringing each pole in
close proximity to a permanently magnetized steel bar placed between them,
so that each pole of the permanent magnet stands opposite to both ends of the
electro-magnet, and according to the polarity imparted to the electro-magnet,
so will the permanent magnet be repelled and attracted by each pole. To the
arbor of the permanent magnet, which passes through the frame between the
two ratchet wheels, I have a small lever fastened, with a pin or stud riveted
on it, for the purpose of moving rods connected with each escapement, so as to
allow the ratchet teeth to revolve one tooth for every movement of the central
magnet. The escapements are brought in contact with a piece of wood, on
which is fastened a spring, for the purpose of forcing one pallet of the escape-
ment into the teeth of its ratchet, and so prevent it from further revolving. By
this means, when the two springs force their respective pallets into the teeth of
their respective ratchet wheels, this will also cause the central magnet to
remain in a position at an equal distance from each of the ends of the electro-
magnet until further acted on. From this it will be seen that one division
of this part of my telegraph can be worked by one line wire and one division of
the transmitting instrument.. The arms belonging to each division are worked
by the same kind of machinery; the line wire leading from the right side of
the transmitting instrument must convey its current round the magnet in the
left division of the recording instrument, and the wire which leads from the
left to the contrary side, when the two arms which are worked by the screws
of the central wheels are connected by means of a pin at a distance from each
nut, so that they would be at right angles to each other. When the connecting
rods of the transmitting instrument are in that position, and each nut half way
along its screw, then this pin would be moved in a direction contrary to that
of the pen or pencil in the transmitting instrument, and if a wheel was placed
at the end of one arm and a pencil at the end of the other, a fac-simile repro-
sentation of the inovements of the transmitting pencil would be marked by

page_text: this pencil. A proper arrangement of the magnets and currents would be
required to ensure this.
The transmitting pencil I would have to slide with some degree of friction
in its lever and through the head of a screw fastened to it. I pass a piece of
wire for the purpose of raising a small hinge fastened to a piece of metal, and
connected to a third line wire at about the eight of an inch above the hinge
when the pencil is drawn to the paper. I have another piece of metal con-
nected with the P pole of special battery, so that when the pencil is raised
from the paper metallic contact is made, and the current transmitted along its
wire to a magnet placed near the arm in which the recording pencil is placed.
This magnet on being magnetized attracts a soft piece of iron to it, which is
connected with a bent lever, and withdraws the pencil by means of a cord
passing over the wheel from off the paper, and when the current is broken a
spring presses the pencil on the paper as before.