1851 Great Exhibition: Official Catalogue: Class X.: Jacob and John Brett
429. BRETT, JACOB, and JOHN, 2 Hanover Square — Patentees and Proprietors.
1. An electric printing telegraph, which, by the aid of a single wire only, prints in Roman (or other) letters, with the certainty of action, and under the control of the distant correspondent; it is worked either by galvanic or magnetic electricity, and controlled by hydraulic or atmospheric regulators, combining also a signal bell. Size, 12 inches by 7 inches, height 12 inches.
2. Similar telegraph with additions for registering in duplicate, indicating by dials or signal bells; by the same simple means and certainty of action. Size, 12 inches by 8 inches, height 12 inches.
3. The communicator, or corresponding apparatus, by means of which any one may at first sight print communications at a distant station; the opening and shutting at the commencement and close of a correspondence by its action, taking, or giving the electric current, from or to the main line. Size, 4 inches by 4 inches, 2 inches deep.
4. A similar one, with pianoforte arrangement; the touching of the keys with the finger acting on the main wire, and printing the required or corresponding letter at the distant station.
5. Communicator, adapted as a pocket apparatus for guards of railway trains, for communicating with distant stations on the instant of an accident. Size, 3 inches by 3 inches, 2 inches deep.
6. A circuit regulator for the absolute control of any number of stations from one given point, by the aid of an independent NA ire. Size, 3 inches by 3t inches.
7. A portion of the experimental wire passed along the bottom of the channel in August last, when messages were printed by this telegraph from England to France, preparatory to the great undertaking now in progress, which, by the aid of eight permanently-protected wires, will, it is expected, in June next, place Great Britain in constant and instantaneous communication with all the great capitals of Europe.
8. Specimens of an iron protecting cable for enclosing the covered submarine wires, where great strength is be required. (Invented by Thos. W. B. Brett.)
9. Electric bells for division signals in the new Houses of Parliament, by which any number may be brought under instantaneous control.
10. Specimens of the printing executed at 200 miles distance.
11. The grants of Louis Philippe and Louis Napoleon to the Messrs. Brett, for the exclusive privilege of establishing electric communication between France and England.
This printing telegraph effects all the purposes of telegraphic communication by a single wire only; printing in Roman, or other letters, recording in duplicate with the rapidity of a compositor, indicating by dials, or signalising by bells. The telegraphs in general use formerly required 8 or 5 wires for vibrating the single or double needles only, and an independent wire in all cases for a single bell.
It requires but a single wire, and no attendants for watching, copying, or transcribing.
If adapted, at a General Office in Loudon, for the reception of correspondence from all parts of Europe, during the night when the offices are closed, and no attendant present, the whole of the communications of the night from the different capitals of Europe, will, ou the arrival of the attendants in the morning, be found accurately printed; and during the day, a signal-bell will announce when, and from where, a communication had been made, requiring attention only to reply to it.
For sending a communication, it is required only to move the hand or strike the key of either of the communicators, Nos. 3, 4, 5, by which a current of electricity is sent through the wire to the distant station, bringing into action the given or required letter on the periphery of a wheel, which instantly impresses itself on part of an endless scroll of paper, rolling printed from an aperture in the instrument, as the shocks or currents of electricity are conveyed by the action on the corresponding letters of the distant communicator.
The telegraph is comparatively self-supplying as the colouring or printing material requires renewal only once a month, according to regulation.
[The insulation of the wires for submarine electric communication is effected by covering them with gutta percha. They are covered in the following manner: a mass of gutta percha in a soft state is contained within a cylinder, and being acted upon by a piston is driven out through a small die, in the centre of which is the wire. The latter being slowly drawn forward, becomes surrounded with an uniform covering of gutta percha, the thickness of which varies with the diameter of the die-hole through which it is compressed. The coated wire is then drawn through a trough of cold water and wound on a drum. Its insulation is afterwards tested by passing an electric current through it while under water, and observing the deflection, or rather the absence of the deflection, of a magnetic needle.—R. E.]