The second apparatus is the Transmitter, which receives the strips of paper as prepared by the perforator and transmits the currenta pro duced by the eloctro-motor in the order and direction corresponding to the holes perforated in the slip. This it etlecte by mechanism some what similar to that of the perforator. An eccentric produces and regulates throe distinct movements. let, the to-and-fro movement of a small frame which contains a groove to receive the strip of paper, and carry it forward ; 2nd, the rising and falling of a spring-clip, which holds the paper firmly during the receding motion. but allows it to move freely during the advancing motion ; golly, the simultaneous elevation of three wires placed parallel to each other, resting at one of their ends over the axis of the eccentric, and their free ends entering corresponding holes in the grooved frame. These three wires are not fixed to the axis of the eccentric, but each of them rests against it by the upward pressure of a spring, ao that when a light pressure is exerted on the free ends of either of them it is capable of being separately depressed. When the slip of paper is not inserted, and the eccentric is in action, a pin attached to each of the external wires touches, during the advancing and receding motions of the frame, a different spring, and an arrangement is adopted by means of insulation and contacts properly applied, by which, while one of the wires is elevated and the other remains depressed, the current passes from the voltaic battery to the telegraphic circuit in one direction, and passes in the other direction when the wire before elevated is depressed, and rice rend ; but while both wires are elevated or depressed the passing of the current is interrupted. When the prepared slip of paper is inserted in the groove and moved forward, whenever the end of one of the wires enters an aperture in its corresponding row, the current passes in one direction, and when the end of the other wire enters an aperture in the other row it passes iu the other direction. By this means the currents are made to succeed each other automatically in their proper order and direction, to give the requisite variety of signals. The middle wire only acts as a guide during the operation of the cur rent. The wheel which drives the eccentric may be moved by the hand or by any motive power. Were the movements of the trans mitter effected by machinery, then any number might be attended to by one or two assistants. Instead of a voltaic battery, a magneto electric, or an electromagnetic machine may be used as the source of electric power, in which case the transmitter and the magneto-electric, or electromagnetic machine form a single apparatus, moved by the same power, and so adapted to each other that the currents are pro duced at the moments when the pins of the transmitter enter the apertures of the perforated paper. The transmitter requires only a single telegraphic, wire.
The third apparatus is the Recording or Printing apparatus, which prints or impresses legible marks on a strip of paper corresponding in their arrangement with the apertures in the perforated paper. The pens or styles are elevated and depressed by their connection with the mov ing parts of electro-magnete. The pens are entirely independent of each other in their action, and arc so arranged that when the current passes through the coils of the eloctro-magnet in one direction, one of the pens is depressed, and when it passes in the contrary direction the other pen is depressed; when the currents cease, light springs restore the pens to their usual elevated positions. The method of supplying the pens with ink depends on the principle that a liquid will not flow from a capillary opening unless it be electrified. Accordingly a shallow reservoir is made in a piece of metal, gilt within, and at the bottom of this reservoir are two capillary holes ; the ends of the pens are placed immediately above these small holes, which they enter when the electro-magnets act upon them, carrying with them a sufficient charge of ink to make a legible mark ou the strip of paper which passes beneath them. The motion of the strip is produced and regulated by
apparatus similar to that employed in other register or printing tele graphs. Among the auxiliary improvements is a Translator, for converting the points or marks into the ordinary alphabetic characters. In this instrument there are nine finger-stops In two parallel rows of four each and the remaining one is placed separately. There is also a wheel on the circumference of which are placed at equal distances thirty types, representing the letters of the alphabet and other characters. Other mechanism is so disposed and connected thereto, that wheu the keys of the upper row are depressed the wheel is made to advance one, two, four, or eight steps or letters, and when the keys of the lower row are depressed the wheel advances two, four, eight, or sixteen steps respectively. By this arrangement, when the stops are touched successively in the order in which the points are printed on the paper, touching tho first stop for one point, the first and second for two points, &c., and selecting the stops of the upper or lower row, according as the point is in the upper or lower row of the printed ribbon, the type wheel will be brought into the proper position for placing the letter corresponding to the succession of points over a ribbon of paper. The ninth stop, when it is pressed down, acts so as to impress the type on the paper, to cause the advauco of the paper, in order to bring a fresh place beneath the type wheel, and subsequently to restore the type wheel to its initial position.
Professor Wheatstone remarks, that for the profitable working of a telegraphic line, the operator should manipulate as rapidly as is con sistent with the correct transmission of the message ; hut this requires skill, even when the language of the despatch is known, but In a language unknown to the operator, or in cipher, he must proceed with caution and slowness, Under the new system the prepared messages can he transmitted with equal rapidity in whatever language or cipher they may be, and the perforated bands may be prepared at leisure, and even be subjected to the revision of a corrector.
Although this system is being extensively introduced in the metro polis and elsewhere, it does not interfere with the working of other companies, such as the Electric and International Telegraph Company, RS it is now called, which transmits messages not only to all parts of the United Kingdom and Ireland and the Continent, but also by street lines between various parts of the metropolis, its central station in Lothbury gathering up the messages from its branch offices, and trans mitting them to distant stations. Arrangements are made for sending at small cost between any of the metropolitan stations, of which at the time we are writing there are about 33. In addition to these stations there are wires between the Octagon Hall in the Houses of Parliament, and the St. James's Street Commercial Station, so that during the sitting of Parliament an abstract of the business of the two houses is made every half hour as it proceeds, and is posted up at the various club-houses, and also at the Italian Opera House. Members can thus know whether their presence is required in the House or not. The Opera House wire communicates with the Strand office, so that messages may be sent thence to all parts of the kingdom. The government wires proceed from Somerset House to the Admiralty, and thence to Portsmouth and Plymouth by the South-Western and Great Western railways.