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: 1850s

Patent Model of a Hand Stamp

This patent model demonstrates an invention for a self-inking hand stamp which was granted patent number 21980.
Description (Brief)
This patent model demonstrates an invention for a self-inking hand stamp which was granted patent number 21980.
Date made
1858
date made
ca 1858
patent date
1858-11-02
maker
Phelps, James N.
ID Number
GA.89797.021980
accession number
89797
patent number
021980
catalog number
GA*89797.021980
patent number
021980

Smith 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 John E. Smith of Troy, New York, along with his patent application. On 18 August 1857, he received patent #18022 for his "Improvement in Telegraphic Repeaters." Smith's goal was to, "dispense with the use of a main battery continually on the line and enable the telegraph to be worked by local batteries at the several stations [and also by] the reversing of the current over the line by every stroke of the key, [compensate for] the escape of current to the ground...." Many of the components of this model are wooden and represent a telegraph line between New York and Baltimore. A real key and sounder made by S. W. Chubbuck of Utica, NY, are also mounted on the unit.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1857
maker
Chubbuck, Samuel W.
Smith, John E.
ID Number
EM.251260
catalog number
251260
accession number
48865
patent number
18022

Zayda Playing an Instrument

Gerome Ferris titled the initialed pencil drawing of a seated young woman playing an instrument, Zayda/Three Princesses." Zayda is a character from "Legend of the Three Beautiful Princesses" in Washington Irving’s book, Tales of the Alhambra, first published in 1832.Currently not
Description (Brief)
Gerome Ferris titled the initialed pencil drawing of a seated young woman playing an instrument, Zayda/Three Princesses." Zayda is a character from "Legend of the Three Beautiful Princesses" in Washington Irving’s book, Tales of the Alhambra, first published in 1832.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
after 1851
original artist
Ferris, Jean Leon Gerome
ID Number
GA.16629
catalog number
16629
accession number
119780

Portrait of Von Steuben

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1857
depicted (sitter)
Steuben, Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin
engraver
Huber, Kaspar Ulrich
ID Number
2014.0250.43
accession number
2014.0250
catalog number
2014.0250.43

Lithographic hand press, miniature

This miniature lithographic hand press was made by Benjamin J. Warner, about 1850. It includes a lithographic stone to scale, and a print from the stone. The press is made of wood, steel, brass, and ivory, and is mounted on a wooden plinth on a circular wooden base.
Description (Brief)
This miniature lithographic hand press was made by Benjamin J. Warner, about 1850. It includes a lithographic stone to scale, and a print from the stone. The press is made of wood, steel, brass, and ivory, and is mounted on a wooden plinth on a circular wooden base. It has a height of 5 inches, a width of 3.75 inches and a length of 4 inches. The stone measures 1.5 inches by 1.25 inches.
Benjamin Warner, the London watchmaker who made this press, also made two miniature steam engines that he exhibited at the 1853 Crystal Palace exposition in New York. Warner’s delicate lithographic press is of a top-lever style known in England around 1840. The scraper was forced down by an eccentric wheel on the lower end of the lever. The sides of the model are moulded brass, the handles and wheels are of turned ivory, and the bed is black velvet. The scraper is suspended by rubber bands, not original and now dried out. The stone, which is too thick to fit under the scraper, carries the image of a prancing horse. The press has been enthroned by a later owner on the circular wooden base of a nineteenth century glass display dome, and the glass itself is now missing. The dome base is nailed onto a three-footed, veneered, circular block.
The family of Mrs. Jones, the donor, descends from Benjamin Warner. In 1976 Mrs. Jones also gave Warner’s two miniature steam engines to the Museum’s Division of Mechanical and Civil Engineering.
Donated by Mrs. Ellen R. Jones, 1976.
Citation: Elizabeth Harris, "Printing Presses in the Graphic Arts Collection," 1996.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca. 1850
date made
ca 1850
maker
Warner, Benjamin J.
ID Number
GA.24170
accession number
319964
catalog number
24170

Patent Model of a Hand Printing Press

This patent model demonstrates an invention for a flat-bed printing press which was granted patent number 9923. This press is a toggle lever press in which the platen was forced down by bails. The model is incomplete.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
This patent model demonstrates an invention for a flat-bed printing press which was granted patent number 9923. This press is a toggle lever press in which the platen was forced down by bails. The model is incomplete.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1853
patent date
1853-08-09
maker
Lewis, John
ID Number
GA.89797.009923
patent number
009923
accession number
89797
catalog number
GA*89797.009923

Patent Model of a Platen Printing Press

This patent model demonstrates an invention for a platen printing press which was granted patent number 7413. The platen jobbing press was manufactured as Hawkes's Lion.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
This patent model demonstrates an invention for a platen printing press which was granted patent number 7413. The platen jobbing press was manufactured as Hawkes's Lion.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1850
patent date
1850-06-04
maker
Hawkes, Charles W.
ID Number
GA.89797.007413
patent number
7413
accession number
89797
catalog number
GA*89797.007413

Patent Model of a Type-Composing Machine

This patent model demonstrates an invention for a type-setting machine which was granted patent number 10929. The patent details improvements on Mitchel's earlier patent of 1853 for composing and distributing apparatus.
Description (Brief)
This patent model demonstrates an invention for a type-setting machine which was granted patent number 10929. The patent details improvements on Mitchel's earlier patent of 1853 for composing and distributing apparatus. Specifically, the patent covered a method of conveying type to the composer, and a wheel for setting the type in line. The model shows only the composing wheel.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1854
patent date
1854-05-16
maker
Mitchel, William H.
ID Number
GA.89797.010929
patent number
010929
accession number
089797
catalog number
GA*89797.010929

Patent model for copper plate press

This patent model demonstrates an invention for a plate attached to an endless chain that was carried past stations for automatic inking, wiping, and printing; the invention was granted patent number 12213. There was provision for applying bands of different colors.
Description (Brief)
This patent model demonstrates an invention for a plate attached to an endless chain that was carried past stations for automatic inking, wiping, and printing; the invention was granted patent number 12213. There was provision for applying bands of different colors. According to Tucker, this press was built by R. Hoe & Co. for D. Steffens in 1858. Robert Neale, an American, was living in London when he took out this patent. He patented the press there in 1853.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1855
patent date
1855-01-09
maker
Neale, Robert
ID Number
GA.89797.012213
patent number
012213
accession number
089797
catalog number
GA*89797.012213

View of Sacramento City, from the River

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1851
associated date
1851
author
Sears, Robert
graphic artist
Badeau, Jonathan F.
publisher
Oliver & Brother
ID Number
GA.309390.14
catalog number
309390.14
309390.14

La Mort de Cesar

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1859
original artist
Gerome, Jean Leon
publisher
Goupil & Company
maker
Goupil & Company
ID Number
GA.16566.01
catalog number
16566.01

Patent Model for a Rotary Web Press

This patent model demonstrates an invention for a rotary press using tapered type on its type cylinders along with a special curved composing stick; the web of paper was cut and folded at the same machine, after printing.
Description (Brief)
This patent model demonstrates an invention for a rotary press using tapered type on its type cylinders along with a special curved composing stick; the web of paper was cut and folded at the same machine, after printing. The invention was granted patent number 468.
According to Stephen D. Tucker’s History of R. Hoe & Company, Wilkinson built a press along these lines for the New York Sun in 1842, but never succeeded in printing the paper at it.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1853
patent date
1853-01-04
maker
Wilkinson, Jephtha A.
ID Number
GA.11019
catalog number
GA*11019
accession number
48865
patent number
009525
catalog number
GA*48865.009525

Patent Model for a Hand Press

This patent model demonstrates an invention for a hand press which was granted patent number 18527. The platen was lowered by a series of conical rollers turning against cam discs.
Description (Brief)
This patent model demonstrates an invention for a hand press which was granted patent number 18527. The platen was lowered by a series of conical rollers turning against cam discs. The platen adjustment wedge was placed at the crown of the press instead of the usual position in the hub of the platen, to avoid being knocked - "for it is well known that pressmen are in the habit of throwing their wrenches or other tools down on the platen.”
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1857
patent date
1857-10-27
patentee
Morse, Jedediah
ID Number
GA.89797.018527
accession number
089797
patent number
018527
catalog number
GA*89797.018527

Patent Model of a Flatbed Cylinder Printing Press

This patent model demonstrates an invention for a flatbed cylinder press which was granted patent number 18567. The press has a segmental impression cylinder, which rocked back and forth across the bed.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
This patent model demonstrates an invention for a flatbed cylinder press which was granted patent number 18567. The press has a segmental impression cylinder, which rocked back and forth across the bed.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1857
patent date
1857-11-03
patentee
Davis, Merwin
ID Number
GA.89797.018567
patent number
018567
accession number
089797
catalog number
GA*89797.018567

Ruggles Card-and-Hand Billhead jobber

This platen jobber, with clamshell mechanism (Green's “cylindrical impression”), was made by the S. P. Ruggles Power Press Manufacturing Company of Boston beginning in 1854. The press has an original maker’s label and some old dark green paint with red pinstriping.
Description (Brief)
This platen jobber, with clamshell mechanism (Green's “cylindrical impression”), was made by the S. P. Ruggles Power Press Manufacturing Company of Boston beginning in 1854. The press has an original maker’s label and some old dark green paint with red pinstriping. The original chase, inking rollers, and treadle are missing (and were replaced in the Museum). The press has a height of 27 inches (excluding the flywheel) a length of 38 inches and a width of 26 inches; its chase measures 3.5 inches by 6.75 inches.
Stephen P. Ruggles (1808-1880) was granted a patent for this press in 1851. It was one of a new breed of jobbing presses with the bed and platen more or less vertical, hinged together below their lower edges, the pattern which was followed by George Gordon and others. A few years after its introduction Ruggles added a smaller, bench-top, and a larger size to the line.
The press was to be bolted to a box, and a long treadle lever connected to its flywheel. The cylindrical back of the type bed forms an ink-distributing surface over which the rollers pass before crossing the type itself. A short distributing roller vibrates from side to side, guided by a follower in a spiral track.
In 1854 Ruggles sold his interests in his press to the newly incorporated S. P. Ruggles Power Press Manufacturing Company and retired a wealthy man. Some time later the Hoe Company acquired all rights to the press and produced their own very similar model. An example is at the Ford Museum, Dearborn, Michigan.
Donated by Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Hennage, 1969.
Citation: Elizabeth Harris, "Printing Presses in the Graphic Arts Collection," 1996.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1854
maker
Ruggles, Stephen P.
ID Number
GA.23009
catalog number
23009
accession number
285336

Patent Model of a Platen Printing Press

This patent model demonstrates an invention for a platen printing press which was granted patent number 16109. The press had a revolving ink cylinder behind the type bed. Inking rollers circulated entirely around the cylinder and over the type.
Description (Brief)
This patent model demonstrates an invention for a platen printing press which was granted patent number 16109. The press had a revolving ink cylinder behind the type bed. Inking rollers circulated entirely around the cylinder and over the type. The patent also covered a device for quick disconnection of bed and platen in case of a feeding accident. Patentee Franklin Bailey took out a number of printing patents, and sold several of them to the Hoe Company. This patent was assigned to Hoe in 1860.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1856
patent date
1856-11-25
maker
Bailey, Franklin L.
ID Number
GA.89797.016109
patent number
16109
accession number
89797
catalog number
89797.016109

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 is referred to as a camelback due to the curved design of the lever.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1850
maker
Clark, James J.
ID Number
EM.219551
catalog number
219551
accession number
40609

Patent Model of a Platen Printing Press

This patent model demonstrates an invention for a platen printing press which was granted patent number 17449. The patent details improvements to the feed and delivery systems of a press patented by Merwin Davis in 1855.
Description (Brief)
This patent model demonstrates an invention for a platen printing press which was granted patent number 17449. The patent details improvements to the feed and delivery systems of a press patented by Merwin Davis in 1855. Charles Potter was at this time in business building Merwin Davis's Oscillating Press and a jobber for George Babcock. After 1864 he turned to his own large cylinder presses, for which he is better known.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1857
patent date
1857-06-02
maker
Potter, Jr., Charles
ID Number
GA.89797.017449
accession number
089797
patent number
017449
catalog number
GA*89797.017449

Farmer & Woodman 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 repeater was submitted with to the U.S. Patent Office by inventors Moses G. Farmer and Asa F. Woodman in 1856 for their "Improvement in Telegraphic Repeaters." The basic idea of their patent was to prevent to action of the local telegraph circuit from interfering with the retransmission of a message between two distant stations. They received patent #16,828 on 17 March 1857 for this device.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1856
maker
Farmer, Moses G.
Woodman, Asa F.
ID Number
EM.251263
catalog number
251263
accession number
48865
patent number
16828

Patent Model for a Book-Trimming and Paper-Cutting Machine

This patent model demonstrates an invention for a book-trimmer and paper-cutting machine which was granted patent number 19654.
Description (Brief)
This patent model demonstrates an invention for a book-trimmer and paper-cutting machine which was granted patent number 19654. The machine describes a paper cutter on which the table rode up a sloping track, pulling the paper obliquely across the horizontally mounted blade.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1858
patent date
1858-03-16
maker
Semple, Amzi C.
ID Number
GA.89797.019654
accession number
089797
patent number
019654
catalog number
GA*89797.019654

Patent Model for a Hand Stamp

This patent model demonstrates an invention for a self-inking stamp, operated by hand or foot; the invention was granted number 16641.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
This patent model demonstrates an invention for a self-inking stamp, operated by hand or foot; the invention was granted number 16641.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1857
date made
ca 1857
patent date
1857-02-17
maker
Elliot, William H.
ID Number
GA.89797.016641
accession number
89797
patent number
016641
catalog number
GA*89797.016641

Patent Model of a Bed-and-Platen Printing Press

This patent model demonstrates an invention for a perfecting machine with two printing plates, two platens, and a rotary carrier to convey the paper between them; the invention was granted patent number 14558.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
This patent model demonstrates an invention for a perfecting machine with two printing plates, two platens, and a rotary carrier to convey the paper between them; the invention was granted patent number 14558.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1856
patent date
1856-04-01
maker
Folsom, George F.
ID Number
GA.89797.014558
accession number
089797
patent number
014558
014558
catalog number
GA*89797.014558

Patent Model for a Flatbed Cylinder Printing Press

This patent model demonstrates an invention for a flatbed cylinder press which was granted patent number 16826. The bed on this flatbed cylinder press ran on sloping ways, or tracks. For the impression pass, the bed was powered up the slope and under the cylinder.
Description (Brief)
This patent model demonstrates an invention for a flatbed cylinder press which was granted patent number 16826. The bed on this flatbed cylinder press ran on sloping ways, or tracks. For the impression pass, the bed was powered up the slope and under the cylinder. It was returned by gravity.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1857
patent date
1857-03-17
maker
Davis, John C.
Miller, William
ID Number
GA.89797.016826
patent number
016826
accession number
089797
catalog number
GA*89797.016826

Residence of John Richie, Yolo Yolo, Co., Cal.

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1850
publisher
De Pue & Company
graphic artist
Joseph Winterburn & Company
ID Number
2014.0037.27
accession number
2014.0037
catalog number
2014.0037.27

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