Early on there were many competing systems and languages which
attempted to become the universal telegraph communicator.
But the Morse system was the simplest, and Morse Code eventually
became its standard language. Listed are a couple of
systems which were used in the late nineteenth century.
The Digney System
The Digney System prepared the
dispatch by means of a special machine called a perforator. A
band of paper passed under two keys, one of which being
depressed the paper passed under without indentation ; when
the other was depressed a steel punch cut into the paper, and
made a single point. Two consecutive pressures upon the second
key gave two points run together, or a dash. The dots and
dashes of Morse Code as an alphabet were also employed in this
method. The band of paper unrolled from the perforator with a
message written upon it in these characters, and it was able
to be revised, if needed, before sending. The band of
paper was placed in a manipulator.
This instrument was composed of an
elbowed lever easily movable, one arm of which rested
constantly upon the perforated paper. The battery communicated
with the lever and the line instrument with the metallic plate
over which the paper rolled ; when the lever dropped on the
paper no current passes ; when it fell on a perforation it
touched the metallic plate, and the current passed into the
line, thus repeating the message as it was cut into the band.
In this manner the receiver registered a dispatch exactly
similar to the one placed in the manipulator. A skillful
operator was able to send by this system 175 letters a minute
; the ordinary, or Morse method, sent about one hundred and
fifty.
Other Systems
The
Hughes Telegraph began to be employed on great ship
line; it was very ingenious, but proved to be too complicated
and eventually fell out of favor.
Caselli's
Pantelegraph was able to transmit the autograph of the
operator, and worked perfectly during a thunder-shower, but
its use was also discontinued.
The Morse System
The Morse System operated entirely
by sound, and it was said that sound reading was discovered by
the operators, who noticed the action of the armature in
writing the message on the paper band made peculiar soun
ds. In
time they became so familiar with these sounds that they read
without recourse to the written message. The operators became
so proficient that the register or receiver was entirely done
away with, which proved to be a great saving to the
companies.
In this system the armature was furnished
with a steel point or style, which made marks in the form of
dots and dashes on a strip of paper where the receiver was
used ; these arranged in combinations to form an alphabet.
Without the receiver the letters were formed in the same
manner, and were read by the duration of the sound of the
armature striking on the upper and lower binding screws.
Shadow-reading by means of a point of light reflected upon a
scale from a mirror enclosed in a magnetized frame suspended
by a human hair, was used in long distances, where it was
impossible to locate intermediate stations, as in submarine
cables.
The
check (CK) 6 Pd 25 signifies that there are six words in the
message, and that the price of transmission is 25 cents; the
abbreviation "Pd." shows that the dispatch is
prepaid. When "Col." accompanies the check, it
indicates that the charges are to be collected. The month and
year of the date are never sent over the line. The
abbreviations "Fr." (from) "Sig."
(signature) are never copied by the receiver.
