IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to David Edward Hughes, of New York, in the United
States of America, but now residing at Devonport, in Devon, in England,
Telegraphic Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said David Edward Hughes
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
5th May 1858.
I, DAVID EDWARD HUGHES, of New York, in the United States of America,
but now residing at Devonport, in Devon, in England, Telegraphic Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MEANS OF AND APPARATUS FOR TRANSMITTING SIGNALS AND ELECTRIC CURRENTS,"
to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to certain means for expediting the transmission of a
succession of signals, and also of ensuring the continuous efficient action of the
recording apparatus employed. In order to restore the needle or armature to
its normal position immediately after it has been used to close the circuit for
the signalling current, I propose to provide a short local circuit, which shall

page_text: throw a reverse current into the receiving relay or induction coil, and thereby
deflect the needle in an opposite direction.
In carrying out this part of my Invention, I so arrange this local circuit
that when the current sent through the recording magnet has caused the
attraction or repulsion of the armature of that magnet, the local circuit will
be completed by the movement of the armature, and a battery in this circuit
will then send a current into the receiving relay and deflect the needle, and
thus, by a positive action, break the circuit of the main or recording current.
Another feature of my Invention is reversing the poles of electro-magnetic
relays or induction coils after every current that has been sent, by means of a
cog wheel moving half a revolution for every letter printed or signal trans-
mitted, so that the positive and negative currents may be brought into the
same polarity. To prevent the inconvenience in recording telegraph apparatus
in which clockwork is used, of the running down of the mechanism, I propose to
provide a pedal arrangement for winding up the barrel, using for that purpose
a rod, which will pull forward a click that is kept in contact with the teeth of
the ratchet wheel on the barrel. Or this click may be worked by being con-
nected with the keys of the recording instrument instead of a treadle, and so
worked by the action of the operator on the instrument.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said David Edward Hughes in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 5th November 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, DAVID
EDWARD HUGHES, of New York, in the United States of America, (but now
residing in London,) Telegraphic Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
David Edward Hughes, Her special license that I, the said David Edward
Hughes, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
David Edward Hughes, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,

page_text: the Channel Islands and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MEANS OF AND APPARATUS FOR TRANSMITTING SIGNALS AND ELECTRIC CURRENTS,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said David Edward Hughes,
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 David Edward Hughes, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
This Invention relates, firstly; to an improvement on the telegraphic appa-
ratus for which I obtained Her Majesty's Letters Patent, bearing date April
Twenty-seventh, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, and consists in
applying to such apparatus a treadle arrangement for winding up the clock-
work, whereby all risk of inconvenience from the clockwork running down
during the transmission of a message will be avoided.
In Sheets I. and II., which shew the improved telegraphic apparatus in
front elevation and plan view, A, B, is the framework, carrying the main
driving shaft C, from which the axial motion of all the rotating parts is
derived. To this shaft is keyed the barrel C¹ for receiving the weighted
cord C, the drag of which maintains the clockwork in action. On the barrel
a ring of ratchet teeth C³ is fixed, and by the side of this ratchet, and on the
shaft C, which carries the barrel, is a spur wheel D, the same being mounted
loosely on its shaft, and having attached to it a ratchet wheel D'. From the
side of this wheel projects a pin, which carries a click D², that takes into the
ratchet teeth C³. The barrel C¹ is surrounded by a metal band C, which is
furnished with a lug for carrying the supporting pin of a click or catch C
This catch takes into the ratchet teeth C³, and is intended to drive it round,
and thereby wind up the barrel, while the other click D² serves to impart the
running down or driving motion of the barrel to the wheel D. Attached to
the click C³ is a metal strap Co, which is secured at its other end to the rod T
of a treadle. When, therefore, the rod T is depressed by the foot of the
telegrapher, the click C³ will be caused to drive round the ring of teeth C³
and thus wind up the barrel. On the release of the treadle from the pressure
of his foot, the treadle will rise, a lifting spring being applied to it for the pur-

page_text: pose, and the click C will then be lifted clear of the ratchet teeth C³. By
the occasional repetition of this action, a good supply of cord will be readily
maintained on the barrel, and thus the liability of the clockwork to run down
and interrupt the recording of a message will be removed.
The Invention relates, secondly, to the working of electric telegraphs with
feeble or attenuated currents, which result it is especially important to attain
when submarine cables are used to convey the currents to distant electric
stations. To this end, in addition to the magnetic arrangements with which
the receiving telegraphic instrument will necessarily be provided, I propose to
work such instrument through the agency of a galvanometer, which, by the
deflection of its needle or armature, will bring a local battery to act upon the
receiving or recording instrument.
In Sheet III, Fig. 1 shews, in plan view, the arrangement of galva
nometer which I prefer to employ. a, a, is a helix, in the centre of which
a magnetic needle b is mounted in the usual way. Upon the arbor of this
needle is fixed a small arm c, which, as the needle oscillates, moves between
two fixed metallic points d, e. The wire of the helix is connected by a
binding screw with the cable by means of the wire 1, and with the earth
plate by means of the wire 2. Situate near the helix, and in such a
position as to attract one of the poles of the needle b, is an electro-
magnet f, one end of the wire coil of which, marked 3, is connected with the
arbor of the needle b, while the other end 4 connects with a wire leading to
the local battery. From the other pole of the battery proceeds a wire 5,
which connects with the recording or signalling instrument A, which is itself
connected by a wire 6 with the bracket that carries the metallic point d.
Supposing now a feeble current to be passed from the cable by the wire 1 to
the helix a, the needle 6 being delicately mounted, will move to the position
shewn in the Drawing, and the arm c on its arbor touching the point d, a
local circuit (within which the telegraphic instrument is situate) will be com-
pleted. A powerful current may now be sent through the circuit by the local
battery, and caused to operate the instrument, but this current, in completing
its circuit, will pass through the coils of the electro-magnet f, and create a
powerful attractive force, by which the needle b6 will be attracted, and the arm c
drawn back out of contact with the point d, when the local circuit will be
immediately broken. By this means it will be seen that the most feeble
current transmitted from the distant instrument will suffice to set the instru-
ment at the opposite end of the cable in action.
I will now describe the last part of my Invention, which relates to certain

page_text: means for enabling both the positive and negative currents (which are required
to be transmitted through the cable in succession) to work recording or
signalling instruments. For this purpose I use the arrangement of circuit
breaker shewn at Fig. 2, which reverses the direction in which the successive
currents enter the helix a (Fig. 1). The axle which carries the small spur
wheel m may be supposed to be the axle I of the instrument (see Sheet I).
In gear with this spur wheel is a wheel m¹ having double the number of teeth,
and affixed to a crank pin on this wheel is a rod m², which is jointed to a lever
m³, having its fulcrum on the metallic support m*. Connected with this support
by a wire 10 is the cable 11. The wires 1, 2, from the helix a are connected
respectively to the metallic pillars or supports m³ and mo. On the pillar me is
mounted a spring m³, which bears against a projection on the pillar m³, and on
the support m is a spring mo, which bears against the pillar m³. To this
pillar the earth wire 12 is attached. The lever m³ carries a kind of hammer
head, which, as the lever is vibrated, comes into contact alternately with the
springs m and mo.
When the lever m³ is in the position shewn in the
Drawing, the current of electricity from the cable will pass up the pillar m',
and proceed along the lever to the spring me, down the pillar ms, and by the
wire 1 to the helix. In passing from the helix it will proceed along the
wire 2 to the pillar me, thence along the spring m to the pillar m³, and so to
the earth. But when the wheel m on the shaft 12 has made a complete revo-
lution, at which time the instrument must be supposed to have printed a
letter, the wheel m¹ will have carried up the rod m2, and moved the lever m³ into
the dotted position. The current from the cable will then pass up the pillar m²,
along the lever m³ to the spring m", whence it will pass along the wire 2, and
enter the helix in the opposite direction. It will then pass thence by the wire
1, and proceed to the earth plate by the pillar m³, spring mo, and pillar m³.
Thus, it will be understood that instead of applying every other current only
to set the recording instrument in action, I am enabled, by merely reversing
the course of the current through the helix, to obtain a signal from every
transmitted current, and thereby double the speed of transmitting messages.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of "Improvements in the
Means of and Apparatus for Transmitting Signals and Electric Currents,"
and explained the manner of carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be
understood that under the above in part recited Letters Patent I claim,-
First, the means herein-before described for winding up the clockwork of
telegraphic apparatus, and thus removing the liability of their operations being
suspended.

page_text: Secondly, I claim restoring the needle or armature of a galvanometer or
electro-magnet when used as a relay to its normal position by means of an
electro-magnet brought into action by the closing of a local circuit, as
described.
And, lastly, I claim utilizing both the positive and negative transmitted
currents in the manner above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said David Edward Hughes, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Fifth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane,
London.
DAVID E. HUGHES. (L.S.)