Partrick & Carter "Marean" telegraph repeater
date: label: date made
content: ca 1880
name: label: maker
content: Partrick, Carter & Co.
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 ornate repeater was designed by Morell Marean, manager of the Western Union Office in Washington, DC. The unit was made by the Philadelphia firm of Partrick & Carter around 1880. According to a note found with the repeater it was used in a telegraph station on or near Cape Henry, Virginia.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
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content: Communications
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content: Telegraph Relays & Repeaters
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Transfer from the US Weather Bureau
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: EM.232581.02
label: catalog number
content: 232581.02
label: accession number
content: 43626
objectType: label: Object Name
content: telegraph repeater
label: Object Name
content: telegraph relay
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: cast iron (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: zinc (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: rubber (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 4 1/2 in x 8 in x 4 1/4 in; 11.43 cm x 20.32 cm x 10.795 cm