Telegraph Register
date: label: date made
content: ca 1928
name: label: maker
content: Steinitz, Oswald G.
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: This telegraph register was designed for use in a municipal fire alarm system. When a person activated a call box to report a fire, this register would receive the signal and record which box had been activated. Patented in 1930 by Oswald G. Steinitz of Berkeley, CA (US Patent 1749927), this design reduced the number of batteries needed in the alarm system and thus saved money for the city.
label: Description (Brief)
content: 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 not on view
topic: label: web subject
content: Communication, telegraph
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
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content: Telegraph Registers
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content: Communications
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: from Richard Pitman
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1988.0179.01
label: accession number
content: 1988.0179
label: catalog number
content: 1988.0179.02
objectType: label: Object Name
content: telegraph register
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: glass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: steel (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 12 1/2 in x 5 3/4 in x 15 in; 31.75 cm x 14.605 cm x 38.1 cm