Telegraph Register
date: label: date made
content: ca 1885
name: label: maker
content: Western Electric
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: This Western Electric register is one of the few for which we also have the weight, used to power the tape drive mechanism. The string holding the weight passed through the hole in the unit’s base and wrapped around the brass drum. Like a mechanical clock, the operator would rewind the unit when the weight reached the floor.
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 C. H. McDonald, through T. Boyle
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: EM.330823
label: catalog number
content: 330823
label: accession number
content: 312604
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: lead (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: copper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: cloth (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 6 1/2 in x 5 3/4 in x 13 in; 16.51 cm x 14.605 cm x 33.02 cm
label: Measurements
content: weight: 4 in x 3 1/2 in; 10.16 cm x 8.89 cm