Telegraph Register
date: label: date made
content: 1860
name: label: maker
content: Knox & Shain
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. Stamped “N. C. R. W. Co.” (which may indicate the Northern Central Railway Company) the register was reportedly used at a station in Elmira, NY. 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
label: See more items in
content: Telegraph Registers
label: See more items in
content: Communications
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: from the Telegraph Historical Society, thru J. H. Shearer
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: EM.181761
label: catalog number
content: 181761
label: accession number
content: 33262
objectType: 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: 6 1/2 in x 6 1/4 in x 13 in; 16.51 cm x 15.875 cm x 33.02 cm