mallet telegraph perforator
date: label: date made
content: ca 1910
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: A mallet perforator used around 1910 to make message tapes for an automatic transmitter, maker unknown. A brass housing with three plungers along the front edge, and a brass-covered perforating mechanism toward the back. The plungers are connected to the mechanism by parallel leaf-spring assemblies, visible under the unit. A spring-loaded wooden roller arm in the right side maintains tension on the paper tape. Rubber pads on the keys damp the sound of stamping. Includes two rubber-tipped mallets. Base and cover stamped: "1", written on cover: "Cable". Unit is missing the brass cover over the tape feed sprocket. The operator would use the two rubber-tipped wooden mallets to punch the keys, creating perforations along three rows on the paper tape that represented coded characters. WU Museum #30-24-1 (perforator), 30-24-2 (mallet stamped "420"), and 30-24-3 (mallet stamped "423").
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: from Western Union Corporation
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: EM.332731
label: accession number
content: 294351
label: catalog number
content: 332731
label: collector/donor number
content: 30-24
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Perforator, Mallet
label: Object Name
content: telegraph perforator
label: Other Terms
content: Perforator, Mallet; Telegraphy
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 3 in x 4 1/4 in x 6 1/2 in; 7.62 cm x 10.795 cm x 16.51 cm