Telegraph Register
date: label: date made
content: ca 1845
name: label: maker
content: Davenport, Thomas
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: Electromagnetic Demonstration Apparatus, electromagnetic telegraph ("rapping machine") used by Thomas Davenport. At one end of a brown wooden base is a clock work drive, in the center is a horse-shoe electromagnet, and at the end is the support for the armature. The base has 2 connecting terminals.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Vermont blacksmith and inventor Thomas Davenport made this telegraph register around 1845 as part of his investigations of electromagnetic phenomena. 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 Frank E. Chandler
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: EM.315892.03
label: catalog number
content: 315892.03
label: accession number
content: 222039
objectType: label: Object Name
content: telegraph receiver
label: Object Name
content: telegraph register
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 5 1/2 in x 13 1/2 in x 4 3/4 in; 13.97 cm x 34.29 cm x 12.065 cm