Telegraph Register
date: label: date made
content: ca 1870
name: label: maker
content: Charles Williams, Jr.
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: This telegraph register was made in the shop of Charles Williams, Jr., in Boston. Williams was an important maker of telegraph equipment and also early telephones designed by Alexander Graham Bell. 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 The Freeman Family
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1981.0696.01
label: accession number
content: 1981.0696
label: catalog number
content: 1981.0696.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: telegraph register
label: Other Terms
content: telegraph register; Telegraphy
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: copper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 18 cm x 12.5 cm x 32.5 cm; 7 3/32 in x 4 29/32 in x 12 25/32 in