Page:United States patent 766474.pdf/8



To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I,, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Providence, in the county of Providence and State of Rhode Island, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Receiving Telegraph Instruments, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a receiving telegraph instrument; and its main object is to provide an instrument by means of which the code characters of a telegraph-code may be translated into other characters, and especially into ordinary letters, figures, &c., of a language.

A further object of the invention is to record or print the characters into which the code-signals are translated, and hence to provide an instrument capable of receiving telegraphic matter and converting it into messages recorded in the form of words and sentences of any desired language.

The principal feature which distinguishes my improved receiving instrument from all other telegraph instruments, whether of the ordinary type or of that class known as &ldquo;printing-telegraph&rdquo; instruments, is a translating-receiver controlled by combinations of signals representing the respective code characters of a telegraphic code and controlling the selection of devices representing the characters of ordinary language, these devices being selected by the instrument when the respective groups of signals corresponding to their code characters are received by the instrument. The devices representing the characters into which the code-signals are to be translated will preferably be types representing the usual letters, figures, &c., and these types constitute character-indicating or character-recording devices, each one of which is represented by a particular combination of telegraphic code-signals and is brought into operation only when its particular combination of code-signals is received.

In most telegraph systems in which Morse or other code characters are converted into language and recorded as letters, words, and sentences the conversion of the message from one system into the other is usually effected by assigning a predetermined value in terms of makes and breaks of the circuit to each letter, figure, &c., and selecting such letters and figures in accordance with the transfer of the proper numbers of makes and breaks of the circuit by a make-and-break wheel. The present invention is distinguished from these in many ways, but chiefly by reason of the fact that translation of the message is accomplished wholly by the receiving instrument and by the further fact that the Selection of each letter, figure, or other character of the language into which the telegraphic signals are to be converted is determined by the number of signal components of each code character, by the value of each such component, and by the position of each component with respect to the others of its code character. The operation of the receiving instrument is therefore dependent upon the analysis of the telegraphic code characters and the conversion of the components or signals of these code characters, they being preferably converted into representative movements the sum of which for any code character will represent and will control the selection of a corresponding character of the language into which the telegraphic code characters are to be translated.

As is well known, most of the characters of the Morse and other telegraph codes are composed of combinations of two electric signals separated by breaks in the circuit, these two signals being of different values and constituting what are known as &ldquo;dot” and &ldquo;dash” signals, which differ from each other merely with respect to the length of time during which the current flows, the dash being made by keeping the circuit closed a greater length of time than when a clot-signal is to be sent. The time constants of these two signals or signal components of the code characters are therefore different. This difference in the signal values of the dots and dashes of the majority of the characters of a telegraph-code may be utilized to control different operations corresponding, respectively, to said dots and dashes, and those code characters which are represented by or embody a signal or signals differing in value-that is, in which the time