Telegraph Register
date: label: date made
content: ca 1883
name: label: maker
content: Meinrad W. Theiler & Sons
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: This register, made in London, England, features a paper tape reel that is hidden in the drawer below the printer. The tape passes from the reel, over two wooden rollers, and then through the slit cut in the base plate before being fed into the printer. Presumably this design was used to save space and prevent the paper tape from being accidentally broken. This register was used at the cable station in St. Johns, Newfoundland to record messages received via a submarine telegraph line.
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
label: See more items in
content: Communications
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.331408
label: accession number
content: 294351
label: collector/donor number
content: 01-05
label: catalog number
content: 331408
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: Physical Description
content: copper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 8 1/2 in x 12 in x 14 1/2 in; 21.59 cm x 30.48 cm x 36.83 cm