AN IMPROVED METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR FACILITATING THE ELECTRICAL TRANSMISSION OF NEWS AND OTHER (
Year: 1883

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Lee Anders, of Queen Victoria Street in the City
of London for an Invention of "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF AND APPARATUS
FOR
FACILITATING
THE
ELECTRICAL TRANSMISSION
OF
NEWS AND OTHER
(Void by reason of the Patentee having neglected to file a Specification in
pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Lee Anders at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 25th September 1883.
"
AN
GEORGE LEE ANDERS, of Queen Victoria Street, in the City of London
IMPROVED METHOD OF, AND APPARATUS FOR, FACILITATING THE ELECTRICAL
TRANSMISSION OF NEWS AND OTHER INFORMATION, AND THE RAPID PUBLICATION
OF THE SAME"
The present improvements are designed to facilitate the rapid dissemination of
news and other information throughout a large town, or in any number of towns
or stations. I propose for this purpose to establish a central office, station, or
depôt of information, to which all items of news, or announcements of any kind,
may be sent by telegraph or otherwise, and to connect therewith a large number of
Each of these stations may
stations distributed throughout the area to be served.
be connected to the central office by a separate wire, but I prefer to carry a single
wire through a large number of such stations, so that a single operator and a
single transmitting instrument at the central office may suffice to effect simultaneous
communication of the same items to all of them. The same stations may also, if
desired, be utilized for collecting news to be forwarded to the aforesaid central
office. At the central office I place a transmitting instrument substantially like
that shewn and described for use in connection with a printing telegraph instrument
in the Specification of former Letters Patent granted to Sydney Pitt the
27th December A.D. 1878 and numbered 5292, and at each of the sub-stations
I place an instrument similar to the said printing telegraph instrument as described
in the Specification of the above mentioned Patent but modified in the following
particulars namely, in place of the type wheel there shewn I mount upon the arbor
which there carries the said type wheel a radial arm carrying a contact-spring and
I arrange in a circle about said arbor a series of insulated contact-points each of
which the contact spring touches in turn when the arbor is revolved by the clock-
train to which it is connected. These contact points are equal in number to the

page_text: different sorts of type necessary to the production of a page of printed matter, and
each joint is in electrical connection with a separate electro-magnet which controls
the outlet of a tube containing type of one sort, so that each time the armature of
any one of the said magnets is attracted in consequence of the passage of a current
through the coils of that magnet a single type will be disengaged from the tube.
The remaining terminals of all the electro-magnets are connected in common to
one pole of a galvanic battery the other pole of which is connected to the revolving
arm above-mentioned, so that when the spring on said arm touches any one of the
contact points a current will be passed through the corresponding electro-magnet
and a type will be disengaged from the tube controlled by said magnet. The types
when disengaged from the tubes fall upon an inclined apron by which they are
guided into a composing frame as in other type-setting machines, being arranged
in lines and spaced out mechanically, or by hand. If the division into lines is to
be effected mechanically I prefer to make all the sorts of type upon a uniform size
of body and to use the same width of body as a word space, so that the length of a
line shall always be filled by the same number of types and be made up without
any fractional spacing.
By the above arrangement the operator at the central office is able to control the
setting of type at all the stations, and may thus cause type to be simultaneously
set at a large number of places for printing every item of news or information as
soon as it is received at the central office.
In order to still further facilitate the actual publication of such items I make the
following modifications in the press used for printing from the types set as above
described, that is to say, instead of the usual chase in which to lock up the form of
type for printing I divide the bed of the press into columns by permanent bars, and
1 arrange by the side of, and parallel to, each fixed bar a movable bar which is
pressed against the column of type lying between it and the next fixed bar, by
springs or wedges. By this arrangement, when a new edition is to be printed the
new. matter can be pushed into the press at the foot of each column, displacing at
the same time an equal amount of old matter at the top, without the necessity for
disturbing other parts of the page which may contain standing advertisements or
other matter of more permanent character. As an alternative I may print the
more permanent parts of the sheet upon a separate press in advance, leaving blank
the columns intended for telegraphic items, and print the latter upon a press
constructed as above by a second impression.
"
"
As a means of reducing the number of keys in the transmitting instrument I
may divide the sorts of type into two equal classes to be denominated as is
customary among printers as "upper case and "lower case sorts, and I then
connect magnets controlling upper case sorts to contact points in the receiving
instrument alternating with those to which are connected the magnets controlling
lower case sorts. In this manner a positive final current will always cause the
contact spring to stop on a contact point corresponding to an upper case sort and a
negative final current will stop it upon a contact point corresponding to a lower
case sort, or vice versa. By means of a reversing switch or equivalent device in
connection with the transmitting instrument I may cause the final currents passed
by all the keys to be positive or negative at pleasure and thus cause at will either
upper case or lower case sorts to be selected.
It will be obvious that by this improved method and apparatus, information of
all kinds collected from various points at a central office may be simultaneously
transmitted to, and be distributed to the general public at, any number of sub-
stations in various localities with very great rapidity.