Telegraph Register
date: label: date made
content: ca 1860
name: label: maker
content: Knox & Swain
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: This telegraph register, typical of those in service during the U. S. Civil War, used a weight to drive the tape mechanism. The register was made by Knox & Shain, a noted Philadelphia maker of telegraph equipment. Telegraph registers are electrically-activated printers that receive Morse code messages. The message travels as a series of electrical pulses through a wire. The pulses energize the register’s electromagnets which move a lever-arm holding a pen or stylus. A clockwork mechanism pulls a strip of paper across the pen or stylus, recording the message. Short pulses draw or emboss a dot, slightly longer pulses a dash. The sequence of dots and dashes represent letters and numbers.
label: Location
content: Currently on loan
topic: label: web subject
content: Communication, telegraph
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
label: See more items in
content: Telegraph Registers
label: See more items in
content: Communications
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: from J. H. Bunnell & Co.
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: EM.219550
label: catalog number
content: 219550
label: accession number
content: 40906
objectType: label: Object Name
content: telegraph receiver
label: Object Name
content: telegraph register
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: copper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 8 1/4 in x 6 1/4 in x 13 1/4 in; 20.955 cm x 15.875 cm x 33.655 cm