Soviet telegraph driving fork
date: label: date made
content: 1947
name: label: Maker
content: Western Union Corporation
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: Soviet-made driving fork for use in multiplex telegraphy. Captured by the U.S. Army on 4 November 1950 during an action in North Korea. Driving forks generate a tone that can be used to send a signal over a telegraph line. Only a receiver tuned to the same frequency will respond to the transmitter. That allows several units to transmit on the same line at the same time, a process telegraphers call harmonic multiplexing. After analyzing the unit, the Army sent it to the Smithsonian.
label: Description (Brief)
content: For more about this object see the 2014 blog post "How many electricity curators does it take to collect a Korean War telegraph?" https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/collecting-korean-war-telegraph
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
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: from Western Union Corporation
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: EM.331777
label: accession number
content: 294351
label: collector/donor number
content: 43-09
label: accession number
content: 294351
label: catalog number
content: 331777
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Driving Fork
label: Object Name
content: multiplexing device
label: Object Name
content: telegraph driving fork
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (part: material)
label: Physical Description
content: iron (part: material)
label: Physical Description
content: steel (part: material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (part: material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 5 1/2 in x 15 1/2 in x 4 1/2 in; 13.97 cm x 39.37 cm x 11.43 cm