Telegraph Register
date: label: date made
content: ca 1860
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: We do not know for certain who made this ornate telegraph register, only that the Delaware & Hudson Company’s Transportation Department used it on their railroad. Telegraph equipment maker J. H. Bunnell and Company donated the register to the Smithsonian in 1901 and may have been the maker, but the piece lacks the Bunnell stamping that usually appears on their products.
label: Description (Brief)
content: 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
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content: Communications
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: from J. H. Bunnell & Co.
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: EM.209324
label: catalog number
content: 209324
label: accession number
content: 37530
objectType: label: Object Name
content: telegraph receiver
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 8 in x 13 in; 16.51 cm x 20.32 cm x 33.02 cm