Smith telegraph repeater patent model
date: label: date made
content: 1857
name: label: maker
content: Chubbuck, Samuel W.
label: maker
content: Smith, John 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 John E. Smith of Troy, New York, along with his patent application. On 18 August 1857, he received patent #18022 for his "Improvement in Telegraphic Repeaters." Smith's goal was to, "dispense with the use of a main battery continually on the line and enable the telegraph to be worked by local batteries at the several stations [and also by] the reversing of the current over the line by every stroke of the key, [compensate for] the escape of current to the ground...." Many of the components of this model are wooden and represent a telegraph line between New York and Baltimore. A real key and sounder made by S. W. Chubbuck of Utica, NY, are also mounted on the unit.
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
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content: Telegraph Relays & Repeaters
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: EM.251260
label: catalog number
content: 251260
label: accession number
content: 48865
label: patent number
content: 18022
objectType: label: Object Name
content: repeater
label: Object Name
content: telegraph relay
label: Object Name
content: telegraph repeater
label: Object Type
content: Patent Model
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: bone (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: steel (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: cloth (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: silver (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: copper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 5 1/4 in x 22 in x 12 in; 13.335 cm x 55.88 cm x 30.48 cm