Lindsey telegraph repeater patent model
date: label: date made
content: 1873
name: label: maker
content: Clark, James J.
label: maker
content: L. G. Tillotson & Co.
label: maker
content: Lindsey, Landy T.
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: In July 1872, inventor Landy T. Lindsey of Tennessee submitted this model along with his application for a U.S. patent. In 1873 he received patent #136251 for an "Improvement in Telegraph-Repeaters," in which he disclosed a circuit design "simple, reliable and void of many of the mechanical auxiliaries heretofore used" in automatic repeaters. He did not manufacture all the parts of his model however. The telegraph keys were made by L. G. Tillotson & Co., and the sounders and relays have the stamp of James J. Clark of Philadelphia. Lindsey simply arranged the manufactured components in a novel circuit to accomplish his invention.
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.251264
label: catalog number
content: 251264
label: patent number
content: 136251
label: accession number
content: 48865
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: metal (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 5 in x 12 in x 9 3/4 in; 12.7 cm x 30.48 cm x 24.765 cm