IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James Wallace Brown at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 3rd August 1878.
JAMES WALLACE BROWN, of 17, Leadenhall Street, in the City of London;
Electrician. IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS."
"
The object of the first part of the Invention is to provide apparatus or appliances
for recording the motions of an armature or coil freely suspended between the poles
of a permanent or electro magnet, or permanent or electro inagnets, when the
motions of such armature or coil are caused by electric currents passing through a
cable or difficult circuit.
In carrying this part of the Invention into practice I provide the freely sus-
pended armature or coil with a contact maker and breaker, which acts against a
freely suspended or moving contact receiver in such manner that little or no
resistance is opposed to the motions of the armature or coil.
The contact maker and breaker attached or secured to the armature or coil, as
mentioned, may itself be so constructed as to offer little or no resistance to the
motion of the said armature or coil when contact is made with the receiver.
The said contact maker and the contact receiver are connected to a local battery,
whereby any desired record may be obtained of the motions of the armature or
coil by any usual or suitable apparatus.
Under one modification the contact receiver is freely suspended axially above the
armaturé or coil, and contact is made and broken by means of a contact piece fixed
or secured to the armature or coil.
Under a second modification the receiver is suspended in front of the armature
or coil, and is free to move to and fro, being maintained in position by a vane or
like appliance surrounded by fluid. The contact maker consists of an arm attached
or secured to the armature or coil.
Under a third modification the contact maker consists of an arm attached to the
armature or coil, and provided or fitted at its outer end with a tube or contained
partly filled with fluid, or containing a ball free to roll about therein. The receiver
consists of a fixed point or stud, or fixed points or studs, at one or both ends of

page_text: the tube or container. Contact is made or broken by the fluid or ball touching or
coming in contact with the receiver during the motion of the tube or container.
It will be obvious that under the Invention many modifications of apparatus
may be made, in which contact is made and broken without affecting the motion
of the armature or coil.
If the signals transmitted through the cable are from a Morse transmitter such
signals may be recorded upon a strip of paper by an instrument in the local circuit,
or any other desired means may be employed.
The object of the second part of the Invention is to render audible the variations
in the electric currents transmitted through a cable or difficult circuit to a freely
suspended armature or coil.
In carrying this part of the Invention into practice I provide the armature or
coil with an arm, which rests against and is in contact with a spring, and I connect
such arm and spring to a local battery and circuit, in which there is a telephone or
like instrument.
The tendency to motion produced in the armature or coil by variations of electric
currents transmitted through the cable or difficult circuit will cause the arm
attached or secured to the said armature or coil to press with greater or less
intensity against the spring, and will thereby cause variations of resistance to the
passage of electricity through the local circuit. Sounds will be emitted from the
telephone or like instrument at each variation of local resistance.
The object of the third part of the Invention is to provide apparatus or appliances
whereby signals, known as single needle signals, may be transmitted through a cable
or difficult circuit to a freely suspended armature or coil may be recorded in Morse
or other character on a strip of paper; the dots or their equivalents on one side, and
the dashes or their equivalents on the other.
Under one modification I provide the armature or coil with a contact maker and
breaker arranged to operate in conjunction with a receiver in the manner described
under the first part of the Invention, and I employ a second arm or a portion of
the same arm to reverse a pair of switches, so as to cause the local circuit to traverse
one or other of two styles, according as the contact maker and breaker moves to
the right or to the left. The styles and receiving paper and drum are of any
ordinary or desired construction.
Under a second modification instead of employing a couple of switches I make
use of an arm or arms attached to the armature or coil, so arranged as by its or
their motion to reverse the direction of the local currents.
The object of the fourth part of the Invention is to provide apparatus or appli-
ances which shall record the motions of a freely suspended armature or coil, operated
by electric currents through a cable or difficult circuit by a zig-zag line on a strip
or riband of paper.
In carrying this part of the Invention into practice I attach an ink reservoir to
the armature or coil, or said reservoir may be independent of the armature or coil,
and carry from it a tubular or like pen provided with a brush, which rests on a
strip or riband of paper passing over a roller, drum, or other surface.
As the armature or coil is caused to move on its axis the brush will also be
caused to move to and fro over the surface of the paper, which is caused to travel
forward in any desired manner.
The marks left by the pen on the paper will be in a zig-zag or wavy form, and
one set of apexes will represent dots and the other set dashes.