Abstract
M. SAMUEL, of Ghent, has brought before the Belgium Academy a method of registering telegraphic signals received through the mirror galvanometer (Bull., No. 5). On the screen receiving the light are fixed two selenium elements, one to the right, the other to the left. When either is illuminated its conductivity of course increases, and it acts as a relay on an electro-magnet, which causes a Morse dot or dash to be marked on paper. There are two local batteries, one having two circuits, which pass through the selenium pieces and the electromagnets, while the other is for the electro-chemical writing. In this-latter, a band of paper saturated with iodide of potassium passes continuously over a small copper cylinder which is connected with one pole of the second battery. Above the paper are the ends of the armatures of the electro-magnets; to one is attached a vertical platinum rod, to the other a small triangle with platinum base (horizontal). The rod and triangle are connected, through the armatures, with the other pole of the second battery, and they press the paper band on the cylinder each time the armatures are attracted, giving a dot or a dash as the case may be. The dashes, instead of being longitudinal, are at right angles to the length. If the ordinary lamp of the galvanometer be replaced by sunlight or lime-light, the electro-magnets (M. Samuel points out) may be actuated directly without use of a galvanometer relay; Bell's selenium elements having an average resistance of only 150 ohms in sunlight, and 300 ohms in darkness.
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Physical Notes . Nature 24, 387–388 (1881). https://doi.org/10.1038/024387a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/024387a0