Contact
Back Next Home

 Early Telegraph Apparatus

 

This page is still under construction.  Background information on wired telegraphy will be added here.



A full size replica of first Samuel F.B. Morse's demonstration model of 1837. This is a copy of the apparatus built from a series of measurements and photos from the collection of the Science Museum in London.  The pen register receiver is below. The "port rule" transmitter is in the foreground.

 

Morse "Port rule" transmitter.  This is the first transmitter developed by Morse and Vail.  It is a good example of how inventors frequently rely on familiar paradigms.  This apparatus was built on a printing press paradigm, complete with composting stick and movable type. 
 


Port Rule moveable type

A few pieces of  moveable type from the Port-rule are shown at left. Morse used a code of 1-9, and a codebook was used to convert between sequences of numbers and the words they represented. For example, the sequence "8732" might mean "Reply requested."

 

The idea of using a key for transmission didn't occur until later, when, during tests of the Baltimore-Washington line, Vail began sending code by dipping the wires into the mercury cups by hand - a method he found much easier and faster than arranging the type in the port-rule.  Shortly after he developed the first crude telegraph key, called the "Finger key:"


Vail Finger Key
Reproduction of original version

 

Not long after he developed the finger key, Vail designed an improved version called the "Lever Correspondent."  The key was  used in the famous 1844  demonstration between Washington D.C. and Baltimore, along with a new system of signals developed by Vail known as the "Morse Alphabet", or Morse code as it is more commonly known today.


Vail Lever Correspondent
Replica of 1844 version


Below is a "camelback" key from the mid 19th century.  Named for their characteristic "hump", camelback keys were among the first telegraph keys placed into commercial use.


European Camelback Key
Mid 19th Century


Pair of Two-Needle Railway Block Telegraphs
 

 


Cooke-Wheatstone Double-Needle Telegraph
ca. 1840's

 


Cooke-Wheatstone Single Needle Telegraph
ca. 1850's



Double Current Telegraph Key
British Post Office
ca. 1850's
Used with the Cooke-Wheatstone Single Needle Telegraph

Click here to see this key before restoration



Hughes Telegraph
Dumoulin - Froment a Paris
Mid 19th Century

Operated on the Paris - Milan line


 

 

 

The Hughes Telegraph

Many people are not aware that Morse didn’t invent the telegraph.  What he did was invent a particular form of electromagnetic telegraph – one that was elegantly simple and required little maintenance.  He (or rather his assistant Alfred Vail) also developed the Morse code.  In the early days of the telegraph there were many other attempts to develop methods of communication by wire, and one of these, the Hughes Telegraph, was especially unusual.

 What makes the Hughes unique? On the sending side, instead of using a Morse key, the operator uses a piano key – or keyboard, to be more precise.  The receiver, instead of marking dots and dashes on a paper strip, actually spells out the text of the message. This was quite unusual for the time. 

 These devices were very popular in France, where there were likely many more piano and harpsichord players than telegraphers. The piece we have in the museum was operated on the Paris-Milan line.  Unfortunately they were quite temperamental and suffered frequent breakdowns. Transmission speed was also much slower than the Morse system and so the Hughes system was eventually replaced by the much simpler (and cheaper) Morse apparatus.  Very few survive today.

 


 

 

Alphabet Dial Telegraphs

Breguet-Style Dial Telegraph
French
1870

Demonstration Dial Telegraph Receiver
French
1870

Dial Telegraph
Sender and Receiver Combination
Italian
1860


Alphabet Dial Telegraph
Loiseau
French
1850-1860


Dial Telegraph
Deleuil
French
1855-1865

 

Ruhmkorf Alphabet Dial Telegraph
French
1840

The telegraph is an early example of the Wheatstone apparatus and is made from silver, brass, mahogany and iron. See pg. 100 figs. 13a and 13b in Pioneers of Electrical Communication.



Breguet Dial (ABC) Telegraph Transmitter
(French)
1850 -1870


Breguet Dial (ABC) Telegraph Receiver
(French)
1850 - 1870

Breguet Dial (ABC) Telegraph
(French)
1860's

Dial Telegraph Kit
French
1870

 

In green covered paperboard box, with instructions, 2 spools of silk-covered green wire and battery. Box measures 12" x 9"x 3-3/4". Sending and receiving dial telegraph apparatus used to demonstrate Wheatstone's alphabet dial telegraph invention.


Alphabet Dial Telegraph
Breton Freres
French
1860


Toy ABC Telegraph
4th Qtr 19th Century

 

 

Early Telegraph Registers


Very Early S.F.B. Morse Design
Weight Driven
Telegraph Register
J.W. Norton
1851

Norton was the first telegraph manufacturer in New York City and worked at this address in 1851. He was also on the first board of directors of the Magnetic Telegraph company in 1846. In Samuel F.B. Morse, His Life and Letters (edited by Morse's son Edward Lind Morse), the frontispiece photograph in Vol. 2 is of S.F.B. Morse holding this exact Norton register in his hand. Original hand made chain is also present on this register.

 


Very Early S.F.B. Morse Design
Weight Driven Telegraph Register
John Dean Caton
Early 1850's

John Dean Caton was an associate justice of the Supreme Court in Illinois and later became resident of the Illinois and Mississippi telegraph line and a telegraph manufacturer. This is a very early example from the Caton shop from the early 1850's.


Demonstration Telegraph Register
Daniel Davis
1840's

This apparatus was part of the collection of J.M. Wightman objects found together. It was likely sold by Wightman whose 1842 catalog is bound with 1842 edition of the Davis Manual of Magnetism.
 

 


Demonstration Telegraph Register
American
1850 - 1860


Very early "harp" design register. This apparatus came with a paper label:" Made by Mr. J.Q. Vanvalkenberg in about 1870 (secured in 1926). No. 80 from Historical Collection of Charles W. Jack, Iona, Michigan." From the early design and very early coils, this apparatus appears to date Circa 1850-1860.


Early S.F.B. Morse Design
Weight Driven Telegraph Register
James Clark
1860

 James Clark was a maker of early electromagnetic telegraph instruments and was in business from 1847 - 1861. It is very rare to find instruments by this maker.

  .

Early S.F.B. Morse Design
Weight Driven Telegraph Register
Charles T. Chester
1855


Charles T. Chester made telegraph registers in New York City in the 1850's at 104 Centre Street.



Early S.F.B. Morse Design
Weight Driven Telegraph Register
 unsigned
1850

Provenance: from the Charles Came collection of philosophical and telegraph instruments - see Rittenhouse Vol. 5, No. 4 1991 pgs. 118-128.  The U-shaped electromagnet and binding posts, as well as the provenance suggests manufacture date circa 1850.

 

Early S.F.B. Morse Design
Weight Driven Telegraph Register
 Tillotson and Co.
1860's

The number "1" is stamped in numerous places on the brass-work. See Prescott pg. 75.  Tillotson was manufacturing telegraph apparatus for a brief period only at this address in the 1860's.

Early S.F.B. Morse Design
Weight Driven Telegraph Register
C. Williams, Jr., Boston.
1850's

Fancier and more elaborate design American telegraph register by very famous maker. Elaborately turned and cut brass, with large gutta-purcha electromagnetic coils.

 


Demonstration Telegraph Register and Key
Chamberlain
1840's

This is a demonstration apparatus meant to show how electromagnetism can be applied to transmit intelligence over a distance. Chamberlain was a philosophical instrument maker in Boston and displayed/sold Davis apparatus in the 1840's.



Very Early S.F.B. Morse Design
Weight Driven Telegraph Register
Unsigned
1850
   

Telegraph Keys and Sounders


Apparatus from an Inventor's Attic
American
1850
 

Found in Cambridge, Massachusetts; from left to right: (1) unusual telegraph sounder on walnut base measuring 5-3/4" x 2-3/4"; (2) electrical bell connect to microphone on walnut base measuring 6-2/4" x 3-1/4" and (3) unusual telegraph key on tin box base measuring 5-3/4" x 3". The design of the binding posts, hand cut nuts and electrical coils all suggest that these instruments are circa 1850.

 

Telegraph Practice Boards
 J.H. Bunnell
 American
1880’s

 

Camelback Key and Sounder on Board
Charles Williams Jr. Boston
1860's

 

 

Camelback Key and Sounder on Board
Charles Williams Jr. Boston
1860's

 

Camelback Key and Sounder on Board
Cooperative Mfg. Company, Philad, PA
1860's

 

 
Telegraph Key and Sounder on Cast-Iron Base
L.G. Tillotson and Co. New York
1870


 
Very fancy, ornately pin-striped and japaned cast-iron base with 100% of gilt-decoration intact.

 

Telegraph Sounder
C. Williams, Jr., Boston
1855-1860.

 

 

Telegraph Sounder
Partrick and Bunnell and Co., Philadelphia
1870

 


Demonstration T
elegraph Key
T. Hall, Boston
1860


Thomas Hall was the successor to Daniel Davis.

   

Telegraph Key and Sounder on Board
L.G. Tillotson and Co. New York
1865-1870

 

 

Telegraph Key and Sounder on Board
Partrick and Carter Co.
1870's

 

Victor Telegraph Key and Sounder on Board
L.G. Tillotson
1882

 

 

Portable Lineman's Telegraph Set in Box
 American
1860-1870

 

Telegraph Alarm Bell
Charles Williams, Jr., Boston, Mass
1870's


  Used as fire-alarm or burglar alarm.

 

 

Holmes Burglar Alarm Telegraph
American
1867

 

Telegraph Relays

Very Early Telegraph Relay
Caton Ottawa, Ill.
Early 1850's

Same manufacturer and provenance as the Caton register described above.



Very Early Telegraph Relay
Charles Chester, New York
1855

Same manufacturer as Morse register, above.. Charles T. Chester made telegraph apparatus in New York City in the 1850's after taking over J.W. Norton's shop.

Early Telegraph Relay
L.C.T. and Co. 8 Dey St., N.Y
Late 1860's to early 1870's

Early Telegraph Relay
A.S. Chubbuck, Utica, New York
American
1850's


Telegraph Relay
likely by Charles Williams, Jr.
1870

Multiple Telegraph Relays
American
 Patented June 22, 1880

 J.G. Wilson No. 229, 068" signed as above on U.S. Patent office tags and signed on wood base. Walnut base measures 4-1/2" x 3-1/2". See The Art of Invention Part II, Christies 1996, pg. 18.

Self-Adjusting Relays
American
Patented October 7, 1879

Peter S. Bates, No. 220, 333" signed as above on U.S. Patent Office tags. Walnut base measures 4-1/4" x 2-3/4". See The Art of Invention Part II, Christies 1996. pg. 23.

 


Atlantic telegraph cable section
"laid in Atlantic Ocean 1884, recovered 1889.
Depth: 1980 fathoms"

 

Other Telegraphy Apparatus

 


Telegraphy Statue


Unknown Telegraph Key


English
Telegraph Key


Radiguet & Massiot
Telegraph Receiver


Bunnell Telegraph Relay
1895


Western Electric 7A 1K Ohm Telegraph Sounder
c. 1900 - 1920


Bunnell "Barclay Relay"
 

 

 

 

Bonderi Needle Telegraph Receiver
(Italy)

2nd Half 19th Century

Each letter of the alphabet is printed around the top edge, and has a corresponding coil of wire.  A character is sent by passing a current through the corresponding coil, creating a magnetic field which turns the needle to indicate which character is being sent.

This device is one of a generation of telegraph devices invented before the development of Morse code.  The response of the needle is very slow and each alphabetic character requires a separate wire between the transmitter and receiver, or 26 wires in all.  "Needles" to say, (sorry) these early telegraphs were not very practical and saw little commercial use.

 

 

 

Contact

Back Next Home