IMPROVEMENTS IN TELEGRAPHING
Year: 1854

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Walker at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
20th December 1854.
I, ROBERT WALKER, of Glasgow, Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of
the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TELEGRAPHING" to be as follows:-
I employ a single wire along the line of communication, and connect it with
one voltaic battery, or with two batteries, according as it is desired to telegraph
from a given station in one direction only, or in both directions. When it is
required to signal in one direction only from a given station or position on
the line, I connect the wire with one pole of a battery, the other pole of the
battery being connected with the earth; and when intelligence is to be trans-
mitted from any point of the line towards the point at which the battery is
situated, I make a connection of the wire with the earth at that point in any
convenient way, which completes the voltaic circuit, and causes the electricity
to pass through all the indicators in the line between the point of connection
and the battery, and to furnish signals, by deflection of their needles or other-

page_text: wise, according to the kind of indicators employed; and when it is required
or desirable to transmit intelligence in both directions from the telegraphing
station, I connect each end of the wire with a battery, taking care to connect
it with the corresponding poles of both batteries, as the zinc pole of each and
the other poles of the batteries I connect with the earth. With this arrange-
ment, when the connection is made between the earth and the wire at any
intermediate position, a circuit is completed on both sides of that position, and
all the indicators within those circuits are simultaneously acted upon, and the
signals are thus repeated along the line towards both of the battery stations.
For the purpose of ordinary telegraphing, a suitable permanent apparatus
for connecting the wire with the earth is provided at cach telegraphing station,
and the connection is there made when about to transmit signals from a par-
ticular or given station; and when it is required to signal from some other
point in the line, as in case of accidental stoppage of a railway train, a
temporary connection of the wire with the earth is there formed, and the
signalling is conducted at that point exactly and with all the effect as at a
permanent station.
Instead of depending upon the earth for completing the circuit, as above
described, a second wire may be employed, as described in the Specification
of my Patent for improvements in signalling by voltaic electricity, dated the
Twenty-first day of February, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, and
that arrangement may be employed, as herein above described, for ordinary
telegraphing, as well as for transmitting danger signals on railways, as therein
contemplated.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed 2
by the said Robert Walker in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
20th June 1855..
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
WALKER, of Glasgow, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Robert Walker, Her special licence that I, the said Robert Walker,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Robert
Walker, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree

page_text: with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TELEGRAPHING,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Robert Walker, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great
Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Robert Walker, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof (that is to say):-
I employ a single wire along the line of communication, and connect it with
one voltaic battery, or with two batteries, according as it is desired to telegraph
from a given station in one direction only, or in both directions. When it is
required to signal in one direction only from a given station or position on the
line, I connect the wire with one pole of a battery, the other pole of the battery
being connected with the earth; and when intelligence is to be transmitted
from any point in the line towards the point at which the battery is situated,
I make a connection of the wire with the earth at that point in any convenient
way, which completes the voltaic circuit, and causes the electricity to pass
through all the indicators on the line between the point of connection and the
battery, and to furnish signals by deflection of their needles or otherwise,
according to the kind of indicators employed. For this purpose, a line wire
properly insulated from the earth is to be suspended between two distant
places on a line of railway. This wire is to be connected at one end to one of
the poles of a battery, and the other pole of the battery is to be connected with
the, earth. A telegraphic apparatus being thus arranged, its use will be as
follows: At each station, or at any stations along the line of railway, there
may be instruments, cither acting by a pointer or by electro-magnets, as is
well understood. So long as no circuit is completed, no action will take place;
but immediately a connection is made with the line wire and the earth at any
point in the line of railway, the instruments intermediate of the battery and
that point will be called into action as often as the contact is made and broken.
Thus, supposing the guard of a train from any cause (such, for instance, as
the train becoming disabled,) may wish to communicate with the station or
stations intermediate of the place to which the train may have arrived and the

page_text: galvanic battery, he would simply have to connect by a wire the permanent or
fixed line wire with one of the rails of the railway, or otherwise obtain an earth
connection, and he would have the power of bringing the instruments between
him and the battery into action. For this purpose, the guard would simply
have to carry, or have in the train, any suitable form of telegraphing instru-
ment, similar to those used on the line, having a wire to and from it to enable
him to attach it to the fixed wire and a rail of the railway, and he would be
enabled to communicate freely with the station or stations between him and
the galvanic battery; or, in place of attaching the instrument carried by a
train by suitable wires to the railway and the fixed wire, there may be at cach
of the suspending posts of the fixed wire a suitable earth connection, arranged
ready to be coupled up with the portable instrument. It will be evident that
if the fixed or line wire, in place of being simply between two distant places on
a line of railway, if the wire proceed from the battery to the distant place and
then return to, but be not connected with, the battery, and a connection with
the earth be made at any part of the return portion of the wire, as above
explained, then, in place of the instruments between the connection made with
the earth and the battery only being called into action, all the instruments
from end to end of the line between the two distant points will be called into
action, when a connection is made with the earth, however near to the battery
such connection be made with the earth; and when it is required or desirable
to transmit intelligence in both directions from the telegraphing station, I
connect each end of the wire with a battery, taking care to connect it with the
corresponding poles of both batteries (as the zinc pole of each), and the other
poles of the batteries I connect with the earth. With this arrangement, when
a connection is made between the earth and a wire at any intermediate
position, a circuit is completed on both sides of that position, and all the indi-
cators within those circuits are simultaneously acted upon, and the signals are
thus repeated along the line towards both of the battery stations. When thus
employing a battery at each end of an insulated line wire fixed between two
distant places, such wire, as above stated, is to be put in connection with the
two similar poles of the two batteries, as above stated, and the two other poles
of the battery are to be put in connection with the earth; by which arrange-
ment of electric telegraphic apparatus no action will take place on any of the
instruments introduced into such line wire till a communication be made with
such fixed wire and the earth, which may be done at any intermediate position,
and the whole of the instruments will be put into action each time of making
and breaking communication with the earth; hence, the guard of a train of
carriages. on a line of railway may, by having an instrument similar to those

page_text: used in the line wire, communicate with all the stations, by simply introducing
his instrument by connecting it up between the earth and the line wire, as
above explained. By this arrangement of apparatus, telegraphic communica-
tions
may be made between station and station, and also at any intermediate
spot where a railway train may become disabled, or where, from other causes, a
temporary communication may be desired to be made. For the purpose of
ordinary telegraphing, a suitable permanent apparatus for connecting the wire
with the earth is provided at each telegraphing station, and the connection is
there made when about to transmit signals from a particular or given station.
And when it is required to signal from some other point in the line, as in case
of accidental stoppages of a railway train, a temporary connection of the wire
with the earth is there formed, and the signalling is conducted at that point
exactly and with all the effect as at a permanent station.
I would remark, that when communicating from a station to the temporary
instrument, the introduction of a local battery at the station is found desirable,
for the purpose of reversing the currents.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Walker, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twentieth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
Witness,
JNO. ALCOCK.
ROBT WALKER. (L.S.)