ILLUSTRATIONS OF TELEGRAPH INSTRUMENTS
Taken from contemporary sources, not to scale
Index to Instruments Illustrated
1 Bain Writer, 2 Bain’s first I & V Telegraph, 3 Bain’s I & V Telegraph, 4 Bakewell’s Copying Telegraph, 5 Bonelli’s Typo-Telegraph, 6 Breguet’s Dial Telegraph – Receiver, 7 Breguet’s Dial Telegraph – Sender, 8 Breguet's Portable Telegraph, 9 Brett’s Electric Type-Printing Telegraph, 10 Bright’s Bell Telegraph, 11 Cooke & Wheatstone’s Five-Needle Telegraph, 12 Cooke & Wheatstone’s Two-Needle Telegraph, 13 Cooke & Wheatstone’s One-Needle Telegraph, 14 Cooke’s Detector, 15 Digney’s American Telegraph, 16 Electic Telegraph Company paratonnerre, 17 Foy & Breguet’s Telegraph, 18 Henley’s Magneto-Telegraph, 19 Henley’s earliest Trough for Cables, 20 Henley’s later Trough for Cables, 21 Henley’s Military Telegraph, 22 Highton’s first One-Needle Telegraph, 23 Highton’s One-Needle Telegraph, 24 Highton’s Tappers, 25 House’s Type Printing Telegraph, 26 Hughes’ Type-Printing Telegraph, 27 Cooke’s Barrel Insulator, 28 Clarke’s Insulator, 29 Highton’s Gutta-Percha Insulator, 30 Bright’s Insulator, 31 Varley’s Double Shed Insulator, 32 Siemens Insulator, 33 Little’s Telegraph, 34 Nott & Gamble’s Telegraph, 35 Nottebohm’s Umschalter or Switchboard, 36 O’Shaughnessy's Indian Telegraph or Receiver, 37 O’Shaughnessy's Indian Reverser or Transmitter, 38 Rutter’s Fire and Burglar Alarm, 39 Siemens & Halske’s Galvanic Dial Telegraph, 40 Siemens & Halske’s American Telegraph, 41 Siemens & Halske’s Magneto Dial Telegraph, 42 Siemens & Halske’s Rotary Sender, 43 Wheatstone’s Automatic Telegraph, 44 Wheatstone’s Magnetic Exploder and Abel’s Magnet Fuze, 45 Wheatstone’s Magnet & Bell, 46 Wheatstone’s Dial Telegraph – Sender, 47 Wheatstone’s Dial Telegraph – Receiver, 48 Wheatstone’s Universal Telegraph
The poor quality of the images is due to the age and condition of the mid-nineteenth century sources
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Bain Writer 1848
Used by the Electric Telegraph Company between 1848 and 1860
Printing dots and dashes on a clockwork-driven roll of chemically-sensitized paper
There is a finger-pedal or key on the right of the base
Bain’s first I & V Telegraph of 1843
These simple instruments with double-keys and a single-needle indicator
were used on state circuits and on the railways in the Austrian Empire from 1843
It used a cypher based on combinations of the numbers 1 and 5 (Roman I and V)
Bain’s I & V Telegraph of 1845
This is the single needle and drop handle version on a wall bracket
used used between Edinburgh and Glasgow and on some private circuits in Britain
It has replaced the keys or pedals with a rotating comutator
Bakewell’s Copying Telegraph 1848
Used experimentally in 1854, it is the precursor of the facsimile machine
The sender and the receiver were identical, with metallic foil with writing or a drawing
on its drum to send, or with chemically-sensitized paper to receive
The drum was rotated by clockwork
Bonelli’s Typo-Telegraph 1860
A small chemical writer that printed roman alphabet on its right side,
sending from feelers scanning a line of metallic type set on the left side, as it reciprocated
It required a five-wire circuit, one wire for each feeler
The tape on the right under the feelers was about one inch wide
This was used by Bonelli's Telegraph Company between Liverpool and Manchester in 1863
Breguet’s Dial Telegraph
The Receiver
Used widely in French government circuits until the American telegraph was adopted in 1855
and on French railway circuits for much of the rest of the century
There was a separate alarm bell to attract the clerk’s attention
Breguet’s Dial Telegraph
The Sender
Not patented in this form in Britain, so was widely used on internal circuits
in factories and mines in the 1860s
It was a galvanic telegraph, requiring a battery of cells; movement of the
handle rotated the needle of the receiver
Breguet’s Portable Telegraph 1854
Combining the receiver, the sender, a galvanometer and a sand battery in the base
The only Breguet apparatus patented in Britain
Also known as Breguet & Crossley's Telegraph, from its licencee in Halifax
Brett’s Electric Type Printing Telegraph 1848
Used by the European Telegraph Company in 1854
This was devised by Royal Earl House in 1845 to print the roman alphabet on paper tape,
it could also be read from the clock-like dial in the centre;
its mechanical parts were operated by clockwork
Bright’s Bell Telegraph 1855
Used by the British & Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company between 1855 and 1868.
Receiving acoustically, it was worked by a separate pair of “tappers” or keys which are not shown;
the device in the centre is a relay
Cooke & Wheatstone’s Five-Needle Telegraph 1838
This is the first commercially-successful electric telegraph,
though complex in manufacture, using five sets of needles and keys to indicate the alphabet,
it was so easy to use that it was worked by children in 1838
Cooke & Wheatstone’s Two-Needle Telegraph 1842
Used by the Electric Telegraph Company between 1842 and 1868
Note later drop handles
Cooke & Wheatstone’s Single-Needle Telegraph
This is the earliest ‘gothic’ version with an S-handle
Cooke’s Detector
The first common electrical instrument from 1838;
it was a portable galvanometer measuring current in degrees of deflection
Digney’s “American” Telegraph
The French version of the inking receiver, used by the Submarine Telegraph Company
The tape reel above the clockwork mechanism for moving the tape,
with the electro-magnetic element to the right
Electric Telegraph Company paratonnerre 1848
Lightning striking the line wires is short-circuited to earth across the brass spheres
and close points before it can damage the instruments or their clerks
There were a great many alternative arrangements for lightning protection
Foy & Breguet’s Telegraph
Used by the Submarine Telegraph Company briefly in 1852
It has two rotating arms with two crank handles;
the arms imitated the action of the Chappe optical telegraph of the Bonaparte era
W T Henley’s Magneto-Electric Telegraph
Used by the Magnetic Telegraph Company and its successors between 1851 and 1868,
phased out in England after 1855, it remained common in Ireland for many years
Each lever worked a needle in one direction only, but without batteries
W T Henley’s Original Troughs
Protecting underground gutta-percha telegraph cables bound together
Wooden sleepers with wooden lids
Used by the English & Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company 1851 - 1852
W T Henley’s Troughs
Protecting underground gutta-percha telegraph cables
Rot-proofed wooden sleepers with a zinc or iron lid
Used by the English & Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company
and the British & Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company
1851 - 1868
W T Henley’s Military Telegraph
Originating from the Crimean War 1854-6,
A portable galvanic single-needle instrument with button keys,
it also served as a galvanometer for measuring current
Used by the Royal Sappers & Miners in the 1860s and 1870s
Highton’s First Single-Needle Telegraph
This is the earliest version with an S-handle for sending, dating from 1850
The S-handle was replaced by two wooden “tappers” or keys in the same case in 1852
They all had a German-silver shield at the head
engraved with either Highton's name or that of the British Telegraph Company
Highton’s Single-Needle Telegraph
Used by the British Telegraph Company, the British & Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company
and the London District Telegraph Company
After those of Cooke & Wheatstone this was the commonest telegraph instrument in Britain
(Note the “tappers”)
Highton’s Tappers 1852
Invented in 1852, double current-reversing keys
Installed in the base of Highton's needle telegraph and used separately to work Bright's Bells
Side view and plan view
The tappers and base are wooden with a narrow brass bridge towards the front
The tappers work on thin springs
House’s Type Printing Telegraph 1849
Used by the House lines of the American Telegraph Company and its predecessors from 1850
It printed messages in capital letters onto a paper tape, it could also be read letter-by-letter
by means of a dial in the small turret on the top if the paper ran out
The roll of paper tape was on the cross at top right on the pedestal with the ink band (dotted)
It needed a treadle air pump under the table-top to turn its various mechanisms
Hughes’ Type Printing Telegraph 1858
Used by the United Kingdom Electric Telegraph Company from 1862 until 1868
It had a clockwork mechanism to print alphabet on a paper tape until the 1880s
when Siemens & Halske introduced an electric motor
Insulators
W F Cooke's Barrel Insulator
Electric Telegraph Company 1845 - 1850
A hollow earthenware cylinder retained by an iron staple to the pole
Latimer Clarke's First Insulator
Electric Telegraph Company 1850 - 1855
A solid ceramic version, without the zinc "shed" was also made
Edward Highton’s Gutta-Percha Insulator
British Electric Telegraph Company 1851-52
A silk ribbon surrounded by hot gutta-percha and varnished with shellac
Used on its lines in Lancashire and Yorkshire
C T Bright's Insulator
Used by the English & Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company,
British & Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company and the London District Telegraph Company
1852 - 1868
A metal pin and light wire held the wire in place at the head of the ceramic dome
C F Varley's Insulator
Used by the Electric & International Telegraph Company, 1859 - 68
A "double shed" of earthenware glued together with mastic
Siemens Insulator
Used by the Indo-European Telegraph Company from 1868
Also widely used on government lines over rough terrain in Prussia and Russia
An iron shell with an earthenware inner and an iron hook for the wire
Little’s Telegraph 1849
The indicator uses two glass vials each containing a metal filament in oil
which moves either left or right using the current reversing buttons on the base
There was also a miniature or pocket-sized version
Used only experimentally
Nott & Gamble’s Telegraph 1846
Used experimentally in 1846 and acquired by the Electric Telegraph Company
There are two keys in the box at the base to work the index hand of the dial;
the swing arm below the dial is the switch between the telegraph and the alarm bell
It was apparently used on the Great Western Railway’s Box Tunnel in 1848
F W Nottebohm’s Umschalter
The first switch-board, used by the Royal Prussian Telegraph
and by the Electric Telegraph Company
An insulated metallic peg connected the circuits at the holes in the metal strips
O’Shaughnessy’s Indian “Telegraph” or Receiver 1851
Made in India, a simple coil and a single one-inch long needle, with a mirror in the lid
It worked a unique code for the East India Company
O’Shaughnessy’s Indian “Reverser” or Transmitter 1851
Turning the handle in the left reversed the current by dipping contacts in mercury
Used by the East India Company
Rutter’s Alarm for Protection from Fire, Trespass and Robbery 1847
The alarm apparatus with a galvanometer on the left, signalling F for Fire
and B for Burglar, with the small alarm bell to the left triggered by the electromagnet above
It was worked by the electric thermometers and mercury switches below
Rutter’s Electric Thermometer (left) and Mercury Switch (right) 1847
The heat of fire caused the mercury in the differential thermometer to rise to the platinum
points to create a circuit in one direction; a burglar opening or closing a door or window
tripped over the mercury-filled bulb to create a circuit in the opposite direction
Siemens & Halske’s Galvanic Dial Telegraph 1847
A poor drawing of the first Siemens telegraph, patented in Prussia in 1847
In one wooden case there was a galvanometer on the left, the switches in the centre,
and the dial and petal keys on the right, with an internal bell alarm
Connectors: E - earth, Z - zinc, C - copper, L - line. Switch: T - telegraph, R - rest (alarm)
There is a push-pull on-off control beneath the switch
The index or needle rotated continuously until stopped by pressure on a key
Siemens & Halske’s “American” Telegraph
A key-and-inker used in Britain mainly for submarine telegraphy to Europe before 1868
and on the domestic circuits of the United Kingdom Electric Telegraph Company
The receiving clockwork-driven inker is to the left, the paper roll is in the base drawer,
the sending key and a galvanometer under a glass dome are on the right
Siemens & Halske’s Magneto Dial Telegraph 1859
Used by the London District Telegraph Company in its private circuits from 1860.
It indicated the roman alphabet on its dial by turning the handle
There is an exposed bell alarm on the top with a switch between bell and telegraph
Like the Universal Telegraph it used no galvanic cells
Siemens & Halske’s Rotary Sender 1869
This was a magneto-telegraph that transmitted code from a punched tape
without the use of batteries, to one of Wheatstone's automatic receivers
It was first used by the Indo-European Telegraph Company on its circuit
between London and Teheran using Varley's automatic relays
Wheatstone’s Automatic Telegraph 1858
The Key-Punch and The Receiver
It sent and received three 'characters', dot, dash and space
Used by the Electric & International Telegraph Company from 1860
Wheatstone’s Magnetic Exploder 1863
The first electric blasting machine, shown removed from its wooden casing
Used in colonial mining and by the British Army from 1861,
and by the Confederate States to detonate submarine charges or torpedoes in 1864,
it ignited from two to twenty-five Magnet Fuzes instantaneously through
a gutta-percha insulated copper wire
Abel’s Magnet Fuze 1863
This was the detonator used with the Magnetic Exploder, inserted in charges of black powder
or the much more powerful new explosive, gun cotton. It has a box-wood head with
a long copper primer filled with phosphide of copper and a tubular case of black powder
Frederick Abel, the government chemist, later invented the high explosive, cordite
Wheatstone’s Magnet & Bell 1840
Pressing the lever down against the spring lifts the coil of wire away
from a permanent magnet to generate a pulse of electricity
It was used to signal slow beats on a distant bell on railways and in mines for many years
By 1848 it was known as the Thunder Pump as the bell was exceptionally loud
Wheatstone’s Electro-Magnetic Telegraph 1843
The Dial Sender viewed from above, used on the Great Western Railway in 1843
and experimentally on the London to Southampton circuit
Turning the wheel transmitted a series of magneto-electrical pulses
Wheatstone’s Electro-Magnetic Telegraph 1843
The Dial Receiver of 1843, on a wall bracket.
The letters and numbers are visible through the small circular window
It had an interior bell alarm
Wheatstone’s Universal Telegraph 1858
Used by the Universal Private Telegraph Company from 1861;
indicating the alphabet on its dials by turning the handle it did not need batteries
The sender stopped the needle by pressing one of the small button keys on the lower dial
A switch on the top switched between A - alarm and T - telegraph
(Every home should have had one)
A magnificent collection of photographs of preserved telegraphic instruments
can be found at
Fons Vanden Berghen’s Museum Website