THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.

How it Works by Archibald Williams is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here. THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.

Chapter VI. THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.

Needle instruments—Influence of current on the magnetic needle—Method of reversing the current—Sounding instruments—Telegraphic relays—Recording telegraphs—High-speed telegraphy.

TAKE a small pocket compass and wind several turns of fine insulated wire round the case, over the top and under the bottom. Now lay the compass on a table, and turn it about until the coil is on a line with the needle—in fact, covers it. Next touch the terminals of a battery with the ends of the wire. The needle at once shifts either to right or left, and remains in that position as long as the current flows. If you change the wires over, so reversing the direction of the current, the needle at once points in the other direction. It is to this conduct on the part of a magnetic needle when in a "magnetic field" that we owe the existence of the needle telegraph instrument.

NEEDLE INSTRUMENTS.

Probably the best-known needle instrument is the Cooke-Wheatstone, largely used in signal-boxes and in some post-offices. A vertical section of it is shown in Fig. 54. It consists of a base, b, and an upright front, a, to the back of which are attached two hollow coils on either side of a magnetic needle mounted on the same shaft as a second dial needle, n, outside the front. The wires w w are connected to the telegraph line and to the commutator, a device which, when the operator moves the handle h to right and left, keeps reversing the direction of the current. The needles on both receiving and transmitting instruments wag in accordance with the movements of the handle. One or more movements form an alphabetical letter of the Morse code. Thus, if the needle points first to left, and then to right, and comes to rest in a normal position for a moment, the letter A is signified; right-left-left-left in quick succession = B; right-left-right-left = C, and so on. Where a marking instrument is used, a dot signifies a "left," and a dash a right; and if a "sounder" is employed, the operator judges by the length of the intervals between the clicks.

INFLUENCE OF CURRENT ON A MAGNETIC NEEDLE.

igs. 55 and 56 are two views of the coils and magnetic needle of the Wheatstone instrument as they appear from behind. In Fig. 55 the current enters the left-hand coil from the left, and travels round and round it in a clockwise direction to the other end, whence it passes to the other coil and away to the battery. Now, a coil through which a current passes becomes a magnet. Its polarity depends on the direction in which the current flows. Suppose that you are looking through the coil, and that the current enters it from your end. If the wire is wound in a clockwise direction, the S. pole will be nearest you; if in an anti-clockwise direction, the N. pole. In Fig. 55 the N. poles are at the right end of the coils, the S. poles at the left end; so the N. pole of the needle is attracted to the right, and the S. pole to the left. When the current is reversed, as in Fig. 56, the needle moves over. If no current passes, it remains vertical.

METHOD OF REVERSING THE CURRENT.

A simple method of changing the direction of the current in a two-instrument circuit is shown diagrammatically in Fig. 57. The principle is used in the Wheatstone needle instrument. The battery terminals at each station are attached to two brass plates, a b, a1 b1. Crossing these at right angles (under a a1 and over b b1) are the flat brass springs, l r, l1 r1, having buttons at their lower ends, and fixed at their upper ends to baseboards. When at rest they all press upwards against the plates a and a1 respectively. r and l1 are connected with the line circuit, in which are the coils of dials 1 and 2, one at each station. l and r1 are connected with the earth-plates e e1. An operator at station 1 depresses r so as to touch b. Current now flows from the battery to b, thence through r to the line circuit, round the coils of both dials through l1 a1 and r to earth-plate e1, through the earth to e, and then back to the battery through l and a. The needles assume the position shown. To reverse the current the operator allows r to rise into contact with a, and depresses l to touch b. The course can be traced out easily.

In the Wheatstone "drop-handle" instrument (Fig. 54) the commutator may be described as an insulated core on which are two short lengths of brass tubing. One of these has rubbing against it a spring connected with the + terminal of the battery; the other has similar communication with the – terminal. Projecting from each tube is a spike, and rising from the baseboard are four upright brass strips not quite touching the commutator. Those on one side lead to the line circuit, those on the other to the earth-plate. When the handle is turned one way, the spikes touch the forward line strip and the rear earth strip, and vice versâ when moved in the opposite direction.

SOUNDING INSTRUMENTS.

Sometimes little brass strips are attached to the dial plate of a needle instrument for the needle to strike against. As these give different notes, the operator can comprehend the message by ear alone. But the most widely used sounding instrument is the Morse sounder, named after its inventor. For this a reversible current is not needed. The receiver is merely an electro-magnet (connected with the line circuit and an earth-plate) which, when a current passes, attracts a little iron bar attached to the middle of a pivoted lever. The free end of the lever works between two stops. Every time the circuit is closed by the transmitting key at the sending station the lever flies down against the lower stop, to rise again when the circuit is broken. The duration of its stay decides whether a "long" or "short" is meant.

TELEGRAPHIC RELAYS.

When an electric current has travelled for a long distance through a wire its strength is much reduced on account of the resistance of the wire, and may be insufficient to cause the electro-magnet of the sounder to move the heavy lever. Instead, therefore, of the current acting directly on the sounder magnet, it is used to energize a small magnet, or relay, which pulls down a light bar and closes a second "local" circuit—that is, one at the receiver end—worked by a separate battery, which has sufficient power to operate the sounder.

RECORDING TELEGRAPHS.

By attaching a small wheel to the end of a Morse-sounder lever, by arranging an ink-well for the wheel to dip into when the end falls, and by moving a paper ribbon slowly along for the wheel to press against when it rises, a self-recording Morse inker is produced. The ribbon-feeding apparatus is set in motion automatically by the current, and continues to pull the ribbon along until the message is completed.

The Hughes type-printer covers a sheet of paper with printed characters in bold Roman type. The transmitter has a keyboard, on which are marked letters, signs, and numbers; also a type-wheel, with the characters on its circumference, rotated by electricity. The receiver contains mechanisms for rotating another type-wheel synchronously—that is, in time—with the first; for shifting the wheel across the paper; for pressing the paper against the wheel; and for moving the paper when a fresh line is needed. These are too complicated to be described here in detail. By means of relays one transmitter may be made to work five hundred receivers. In London a single operator, controlling a keyboard in the central dispatching office, causes typewritten messages to spell themselves out simultaneously in machines distributed all over the metropolis.

The tape machine resembles that just described in many details. The main difference is that it prints on a continuous ribbon instead of on sheets.

Automatic electric printers of some kind or other are to be found in the vestibules of all the principal hotels and clubs of our large cities, and in the offices of bankers, stockbrokers, and newspaper editors. In London alone over 500 million words are printed by the receivers in a year.

HIGH-SPEED TELEGRAPHY.

At certain seasons, or when important political events are taking place, the telegraph service would become congested with news were there not some means of transmitting messages at a much greater speed than is possible by hand signalling. Fifty words a minute is about the limit speed that a good operator can maintain. By means of Wheatstone's automatic transmitter the rate can be increased to 400 words per minute. Paper ribbons are punched in special machines by a number of clerks with a series of holes which by their position indicate a dot or a dash. The ribbons are passed through a special transmitter, over little electric brushes, which make contact through the holes with surfaces connected to the line circuit. At the receiver end the message is printed by a Morse inker.

It has been found possible to send several messages simultaneously over a single line. To effect this a distributer is used to put a number of transmitters at one end of the line in communication with an equal number of receivers at the other end, fed by a second distributer keeping perfect time with the first. Instead of a signal coming as a whole to any one instrument it arrives in little bits, but these follow one another so closely as to be practically continuous. By working a number of automatic transmitters through a distributer, a thousand words or more per minute are easily dispatched over a single wire.

The Pollak Virag system employs a punched ribbon, and the receiver traces out the message in alphabetical characters on a moving strip of sensitized photographic paper. A mirror attached to a vibrating diaphragm reflects light from a lamp on to the strip, which is automatically developed and fixed in chemical baths. The method of moving the mirror so as to make the rays trace out words is extremely ingenious. Messages have been transmitted by this system at the rate of 180,000 words per hour.

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