Scribner telegraph repeater
date: label: date made
content: 1876
name: label: maker
content: Scribner, Charles E.
notes: label: Description
content: Telegraph repeaters amplified electrical signals in a telegraph line. Telegraph messages traveled as a series of electrical pulses through a wire from a transmitter to a receiver. Short pulses made a dot, slightly longer pulses a dash. The pulses faded in strength as they traveled through the wire, limiting the distance a message could travel. Repeaters remedied that problem by detecting a weak signal and using a local power source to re-energize and re-transmit the signal down the line.
label: Description
content: This model was submitted to the U.S. Patent Office by inventor Charles Scribner of Toledo, Ohio, on 9 August 1876 along with his patent application. Only 20 days later, he received patent #181600 for his "Improvement in Telegraphic Repeaters;" perhaps one of the shortest review periods ever for a patent. The rods seen along the top of the repeater connect the armatures of two relays to a centrally-mounted switch so that each relay can control the other. The armature of one relay is Stamped "Western Union Telegraph Co. Cleveland, O."
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
label: See more items in
content: Communications
label: See more items in
content: Telegraph Relays & Repeaters
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: EM.251257
label: catalog number
content: 251257
label: accession number
content: 48865
label: patent number
content: 181600
objectType: label: Object Name
content: telegraph repeater
label: Object Name
content: telegraph relay
label: Object Type
content: Patent Model
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: cloth (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: rubber (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 5 in x 12 in x 6 in; 12.7 cm x 30.48 cm x 15.24 cm