Communications

WANN Microphone

Tools of communication have transformed American society time and again over the past two centuries. The Museum has preserved many instruments of these changes, from printing presses to personal digital assistants.

The collections include hundreds of artifacts from the printing trade and related fields, including papermaking equipment, wood and metal type collections, bookbinding tools, and typesetting machines. Benjamin Franklin is said to have used one of the printing presses in the collection in 1726.

More than 7,000 objects chart the evolution of electronic communications, including the original telegraph of Samuel Morse and Alexander Graham Bell's early telephones. Radios, televisions, tape recorders, and the tools of the computer age are part of the collections, along with wireless phones and a satellite tracking system.

Date: 1860s

Chester telegraph relay

Telegraph relays amplified electrical signals in a telegraph line. Telegraph messages traveled as a series of electrical pulses through a wire from a transmitter to a receiver. Short pulses made a dot, slightly longer pulses a dash.
Description
Telegraph relays amplified electrical signals in a telegraph line. Telegraph messages traveled as a series of electrical pulses through a wire from a transmitter to a receiver. Short pulses made a dot, slightly longer pulses a dash. The pulses faded in strength as they traveled through the wire, to the point where the incoming signal was too weak to directly operate a receiving sounder or register. A relay detected a weak signal and used a battery to strengthen the signal so that the receiver would operate.
This unusual looking relay bears the stamp of Charles T. Chester of New York. Charles and his brother John ran a business manufacturing electrical devices from 1855 to the latter's death in 1871. Charles patented several devices including improvements for batteries however we have not been able to associate a patent with this relay. The unit itself is a production piece with serial number 326.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1860
maker
Chester, Charles T.
ID Number
EM.320525
catalog number
320525
accession number
241402

New York Lithographing, Engraving, and Printing Company circular

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1868
maker
Bien, Julius
ID Number
GA.03771
catalog number
03771
accession number
23155

Patent Model of a Lithographic Printing Press

This patent model demonstrates an invention for a self-inking scraper press, in which the stone was moved beneath the stationary scraper, was granted patent number 80771. The stone was dampened by hand.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
This patent model demonstrates an invention for a self-inking scraper press, in which the stone was moved beneath the stationary scraper, was granted patent number 80771. The stone was dampened by hand.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1868
patent date
1868-08-04
maker
Shackford, Amaziah G.
ID Number
GA.89797.080771
accession number
089797
patent number
080771
catalog number
GA*89797.080771

Brooks Ramshorn Insulator With Side Screw

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1865
associated person
Brooks
ID Number
EM.222697
catalog number
222697
accession number
42110

Leffert's Hook Insulators in Crossarm Sections

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1866
ID Number
EM.181751.01
catalog number
181751.01
accession number
33261

S. T. Van Choate's Ramshorn Insulator

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1865
maker
Van Choate, S. F.
ID Number
EM.252670
catalog number
252670
accession number
49064
patent number
47141

Telegraph Sounder

Telegraph sounders convert electrical pulses into audible sounds and are used to receive Morse code messages. The message travels as a series of electrical pulses through a wire. Short pulses make a dot, slightly longer pulses make a dash.
Description (Brief)
Telegraph sounders convert electrical pulses into audible sounds and are used to receive Morse code messages. The message travels as a series of electrical pulses through a wire. Short pulses make a dot, slightly longer pulses make a dash. The sequence of dots and dashes represent letters and numbers. The pulses energize the sounder’s electromagnets which move a lever-arm. The arm makes a loud “click” when it strikes a crossbar and the operator translates the pattern of sounds into the original language. Chester, Partrick and Company was a Philadelphia manufacturer of telegraph equipment and other electrical supplies in the late 1860s.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1868
maker
Chester, Partrick & Co.
ID Number
EM.332370
accession number
294351
catalog number
332370

Cross Arm with two Brooks Ramshorn Insulators

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1864
associated date
1915
ID Number
EM.313685
catalog number
313685
accession number
191610

Brook's Ramshorn Insulator Patent Model

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1867
date made
ca 1867
ID Number
EM.252671
catalog number
252671
accession number
49064
patent number
63206

Wood-covered Wade Insulator with Wooden Pin

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1860
ca 1860
ID Number
EM.181019
catalog number
181019
accession number
25096

Letter to Samuel Osborne Copp from Samuel Copp

The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s.
Description
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1860-04-05
originator (author or composer, etc.)
Copp, Jr., Samuel
originator (author, etc.)
Copp, Jr., Samuel
ID Number
DL.006873.095
catalog number
6873.095
accession number
28810

Patent Model of a Machine for Cutting Paper Collars

This patent model demonstrates an invention for a machine for cutting paper collars and simultaneously indenting them with imitation stitches or printing them with ornamental devices; the invention was granted patent number 56679.J. F.
Description (Brief)
This patent model demonstrates an invention for a machine for cutting paper collars and simultaneously indenting them with imitation stitches or printing them with ornamental devices; the invention was granted patent number 56679.
J. F. Tapley, a bookbinder and a prolific inventor, founded the bookbinding J. F. Tapley Company in 1850. The company survived until its merger in 1970.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1866
patent date
1866-07-24
maker
Tapley, Jesse F.
Tapley, George W.
ID Number
GA.24592
patent number
056679
accession number
1977.0968
catalog number
GA*24592

Telegraph Key

Telegraph keys are electrical on-off switches used to send messages in Morse code. The message travels as a series of electrical pulses through a wire.
Description (Brief)
Telegraph keys are electrical on-off switches used to send messages in Morse code. The message travels as a series of electrical pulses through a wire. The operator pushes the key’s lever down briefly to make a short signal, a dot, or holds the lever down for a moment to make a slightly longer signal, a dash. The sequence of dots and dashes represent letters and numbers. This key has a switch on the side called a circuit-closer that takes the key off-line when not in use. The so-called humpback design was uesd in early telegraph keys.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1865
maker
Phelps, George M.
ID Number
EM.331833
accession number
294351
catalog number
331833
collector/donor number
03-35

Mendiant

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
c. 1860
original artist
Fortuny y Carbo, Mariano
publisher
Goupil & Cie.
graphic artist
Delatre
ID Number
GA.16767
catalog number
16767
accession number
119780

Patent Model of a Platen Printing Press

This patent model demonstrates an invention for a platen press in which the platen had, in addition to the usual rocking motion, a straight-line approach that took it perfectly parallel to the type bed for the impression.
Description (Brief)
This patent model demonstrates an invention for a platen press in which the platen had, in addition to the usual rocking motion, a straight-line approach that took it perfectly parallel to the type bed for the impression. The invention was granted patent number 32130.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1861
patent date
1861-04-23
maker
Gordon, George Phineas
ID Number
GA.22837
accession number
249602
patent number
032130
catalog number
GA*22837

Charles Wilkes

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1864
depicted (sitter)
Wilkes, Charles
original artist
Chappel, Alonzo
publisher
Johnson, Fry & Co.
ID Number
2012.0093.29
accession number
2012.0093
catalog number
2012.0093.29

Bunnell telegraph repeater patent model

Telegraph repeaters amplified electrical signals in a telegraph line. Telegraph messages traveled as a series of electrical pulses through a wire from a transmitter to a receiver. Short pulses made a dot, slightly longer pulses a dash.
Description
Telegraph repeaters amplified electrical signals in a telegraph line. Telegraph messages traveled as a series of electrical pulses through a wire from a transmitter to a receiver. Short pulses made a dot, slightly longer pulses a dash. The pulses faded in strength as they traveled through the wire, limiting the distance a message could travel. Repeaters remedied that problem by detecting a weak signal and using a local power source to re-energize and re-transmit the signal down the line.
This model was submitted to the U.S. Patent Office by inventor Jesse Bunnell of New York City along with his patent application. On 26 January 1868, he received patent #73774 for his "Improvement in Telegraph-Repeaters." In their 1877 review of telegraph equipment, Charles Davis and Frank Rae reported that in Bunnell's repeater, “the arrangement of the main circuits ... is exactly like that of an ordinary button repeater.” However, instead of a person operating the lever to engage the repeater, the switching was made automatic thru the use of “two governor magnets.” The governor magnets were wound with a much finer wire than that used in the sounders so the resistance, and hence the magnetic field, differed between the two and enabled the automatic switching to operate.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1867
maker
J. H. Bunnell & Co.
ID Number
EM.251258
catalog number
251258
accession number
48865
patent number
73774

Chester telegraph relay

Telegraph relays amplified electrical signals in a telegraph line. Telegraph messages traveled as a series of electrical pulses through a wire from a transmitter to a receiver. Short pulses made a dot, slightly longer pulses a dash.
Description
Telegraph relays amplified electrical signals in a telegraph line. Telegraph messages traveled as a series of electrical pulses through a wire from a transmitter to a receiver. Short pulses made a dot, slightly longer pulses a dash. The pulses faded in strength as they traveled through the wire, to the point where the incoming signal was too weak to directly operate a receiving sounder or register. A relay detected a weak signal and used a battery to strengthen the signal so that the receiver would operate.
This relay includes a marble base and was made by Charles T. Chester of New York City. The electromagnet coils are fixed but the steel core can be moved to adjust the strength of the magnetic field.
date made
ca 1860
maker
Chester, Charles T.
ID Number
EM.335588
catalog number
335588
accession number
323535
serial number
589

Patent Model of a Platen Printing Press

This patent model demonstrates an invention for nippers for holding the paper on a platen jobbing press and then delivering it after printing; the invention was granted patent number 29554.
Description (Brief)
This patent model demonstrates an invention for nippers for holding the paper on a platen jobbing press and then delivering it after printing; the invention was granted patent number 29554. Charles Wells and Henry Barth were owners of the Cincinnati Type Foundry, the company to which this patent was assigned. The patent represents improvements to the CTF Wells Jobber. Henry Barth was later famous for the Barth Type Caster.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1860
patent date
1860-08-07
maker
Wells, Charles
Barth, Henry
ID Number
GA.22841
accession number
249602
patent number
029554
catalog number
22841
GA*22841

Patent Model of a Platen Printing Press

This patent model demonstrates an invention for a platen printing press which was granted patent number 87185. The patent covered various improvements on the inventor's earlier Universal press, a popular platen jobber in which the platen had a parallel approach to the bed.
Description (Brief)
This patent model demonstrates an invention for a platen printing press which was granted patent number 87185. The patent covered various improvements on the inventor's earlier Universal press, a popular platen jobber in which the platen had a parallel approach to the bed. Merritt Gaily (born 1838) was apprenticed to a printer at 11, and he built a cylinder and a platen press while in his teens. In 1869 he set up a factory to build his new Universal press.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1869
patent date
1869-11-23
maker
Gally, Merritt
ID Number
GA.89797.097185
patent number
097185
accession number
89797
catalog number
GA*89797.097185

Diplomate

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
c. 1860
original artist
Fortuny y Carbo, Mariano
maker
Fortuny y Carbo, Mariano
ID Number
GA.16773
catalog number
16773
accession number
119780

Patent model for nickel-faced type

This patent model demonstrates an invention for electroplating printers' type, electrotype plates, or stereotype plates with nickel; the invention was granted patent number 95053.
Description (Brief)
This patent model demonstrates an invention for electroplating printers' type, electrotype plates, or stereotype plates with nickel; the invention was granted patent number 95053. The patent improved on a patent for nickel plating of type taken out earlier in 1869 by Isaac Adams, Jr.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1869
patent date
1869-09-21
patentee
Smith, Luther L.
ID Number
GA.89797.095053
patent number
095053
accession number
089797
catalog number
GA*89797.095053

Independence Hall

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1861
maker
Neagle, John B.
ID Number
2014.0250.54
accession number
2014.0250
catalog number
2014.0250.54

Patent Model of a Lithographic Printing Press

This patent model demonstrates an invention for improvements to the inking and printing mechanisms on a scraper machine; the invention was granted patent number 41862. The patent related to the press patented by George Reynolds in 1863.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
This patent model demonstrates an invention for improvements to the inking and printing mechanisms on a scraper machine; the invention was granted patent number 41862. The patent related to the press patented by George Reynolds in 1863.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1864
patent date
1864-03-08
maker
Reynolds, Edwin
ID Number
GA.89797.041862
accession number
089797
catalog number
GA*89797.41862

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