Perforating machine for automatic telegraph lines
date: label: date made
content: ca 1880
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: Perforating Machine, used in operating automatic telegraph lines. Key board machine on wooden base fastened to top of table, which is supported on cast iron legs. Provided with a treadle and fly wheel. Description made by the Vice President, G.M. Yorke, of the Western Union Telegraph Co. as follows: "This perforator is somewhat larger than a sewing machine, requiring a treadle which is worked by the operator to perform the functions or perforating the paper and feeding it. The keyboard is similar to that of a piano. As the keys are operated certain punching and feeding mechanisms are selected and upon the completion of the stroke of a key, cams are tripped and the power from the flywheel operated by the treadle perforates the tape and feeds it, as previously stated. This perforator was used by the American Rapid Telegraph Company about 1880 in connection with the Chemical Telegraph System which that company operated." With the machine are 2 reels with specimens of paper tape on them. The machine was received with a wooden cover for the apparatus which is badly broken.
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 Telegraph Company
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: EM.300828
label: catalog number
content: 300828
label: accession number
content: 61649
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Perforator
label: Object Name
content: telegraph perforator
label: Other Terms
content: Perforator; Telegraphy; Transmitter
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: each: 9 3/4 in x 29 1/2 in x 19 in; 24.765 cm x 74.93 cm x 48.26 cm