US1551500A - Automatic telegraph system - Google Patents

Description

Aug. 25, 1925.

w. A. HOUGHTALING AUTOMATIC TELEGRAPH SYSTEM Filed July l5, 1925 MAN Q Licia O ,EEE m Patented Aug. 25, 1925.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WALTER A. HOUGHTALNG, 0F DUNELLEN,

Y OBK.

NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR T0 THE WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY, OF,NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW AUTOMATIC TELEGBAPH SYSTEM.

Application filed July 13,

To all whom t may concern; l

Be it known that I, WALTER A. Honori- TAIJNG, a citizen of the United States, residing at Dunellen, in the county of Middlesex and State of New Jersey, have invented certain newand useful Improvements in Automatic Telegraph Systems, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates toimprovements in operating automatic telegraph systems on the well-known Baudet multiplex principle, and particularly to the method sometimes designated as the fork and series method. The principles of this method are described in I-LVV. Pendrys book on The Baudot Printing Telegraph System.

In the fork and series method of operation, the line impulses or telegraph signals are received at an intermediate station from one line section and transmitted by means of a rotary repeater to the next section in regenerated impulses, free from distortion. The lines, of course, are duplexed so that messages may be transmitted simultaneously in both directions through the repeater.

In prior systems of this character the repeater equipment has been complicated by the large number of relays required, one for each of the 2O segments of a four channel circuit and a separate set of relays being required for each channel, ytogether with locking and unlocking circuits for these relays. The purpose of my invention is to greatly simplify the equipment by an organization which enables a single set of relays to function in each channel in succession and to entirely eliminate the locking circuits heretofore required. f

The advanta res of my improvements will be comprehen ed from the following description. in connection with the annexed drawing wherein the preferred embodiment is shown diagrammati-cally.

To illustrate the features of my invention I have shown in the usual conventional manner, terminal stations A and C, equipped with rotary distributors RT and RT and line relays M, M', duplexed as usual. The intermediate repeater station B is equipped with a rotary receiving and transmitting repeater RT2 and line relays M2 and M3, connected respectively to the line sections L and L.

I have shown the system arranged for a y 1923. Serial N0. 651,404.

quad or four channel operation. The segmented transmitting or sending rings s1 and s, of the rotary distributors at the terminal stations having their fo-ur groups of five segments each, connected to the separate transmitters, as indicated, may be of the type shown in U. S. patent to G. It. Benjamin No. 1,298,440. Likewise the groups of live segments each of the rings r1 and r, may be connected in the usual manner to the selecting magnets of separate printers.

At the repeating station B, I connect the corresponding segment of each set of five, i. e., the corresponding segment in each of the several channels, in multiple to one terminal of a polarized relay, the other' terminal of each relay being connected to a potentiometer p across the poles of a generator. The armature of each relay is connected in multiple to each of the corresponding segments vof the several channels of the sending ring which transmits or repeats into the next line section. The contacts which cooperate with the relay armatures are connected in multiple to a source of current g and g. It will be. seen, therefore, that I employ only one set of five polar relays to receive and retransmit through all of the channels.

lThe operation will be readily understood by telegraph engineers. The live-unit combinations of positive and negative impulses of the code characters impressed upon the segments of the transmitter ring s, by the separate tape transmitters, are picked upy by the rotating brushes 5 and "transmitted in succession to the line L.. As the line relay M2 at the repeater lstation responds to these impulses, the corresponding positive Iand negative polarities are impressed upon the segments of the receiving ring r, of the rotary repeater RT2, and as the brushes b2 rotate in synchronism with the brushes 5, the same polarities will be impressed upon the polar relays PR.

The two transmitting rings s, and s3 of the repeater are adjusted on the shaft until the fourth segment on each of these rings is in alinement with the first segment of the receiving rings r2 and r3. rela-tive position of the sending and receiving rings is indicated by the corresponding numbers on the segments.

This relation or Since each segto the time required by the brushes to pass over 36 in which to settle down in case there is any tendency to chatter between the time ot receiving and transmitting an impulse. Thus an impulse impressed upon the first relay by the passage of brush b2 over segment .1 ot ring r2, causes the armature of the relay to swing against one or the other contact and thereby connect the segment 4 of ring e2 with the generator g, but the impulse is not transmitted by the repeater to the line Il until the brushes have passed over two intervening segments, i. e., until they have reached the fourth segment. Each relay, however, transmits the impulse ot one tive-unit character betere it receives the corresponding impulse of the next succeeding character.

Inasmuch as the line relays are connected in duplex arrangement, the characters sent by the' A transmitter from station A will be received by the A printer at station C, simultaneously with the transmission of characters by the A transmitter ot station C and which are received by the A printer of station A. The same operation takes place in the other channels of the multiplex.

At the repeater station, the characters sent from station A actuate the line relay M2 and its armature impresses the corresponding impulses upon the segments Aof `re ceiving ring r2 and these are transferred to the polar relays PR. 'Ihe tongues or armatures ot these relays connect the segments of the sending ring 82 with one or the other pole of the generatorg, thus repeating the impulses regenerated into the line section L. In the same manner the impulses received by the line relay M3 sent out from station C, are transferred to the segments of the receiving ring r3, and from thence to the polar relays PR. The armatures of those relays connect the segments of the sending ring s3 with the generator g and upon the passage of the brush b4 the renewed or regenerated impulses are repeated to the line section L.

The distributors at the terminal stations and the rotary repeaterl at the intermediate station are rotated in synchronism, each being driven preferably by a motor of the La Cour phonlc wheel type. The rotary repeater is corrected from the distributor at station A -and distributor at station C is corrected fromthe repeater, the correction being effected automatically in the manner Well understood by multiplex operators, by the correcting system disclosed in U. S. patent to Rothermel No. 1,253,889.

The number of channels working between any two stations may be varied within certain limits. Thus a quad or four channel circuit may be arranged to work all four channels between the terminal stations; or to work three channels between terminals naartoe and one channel between the repeater station and each terminal; or to work two channels between terminals and two channels between therepeater and each terminal; or to work one channel between terminals and three channels between the repeater' station and each terminal. In the diagram I have shown the three channels A, B and C working between the terminal, while on the channel D the operator at the repeater station has printers connected to receive from either station A or station 'C and transmitters connected to send messages to either terminal rlhe channel D is, therefore, dropped at the repeater station from the series transmission in both directions, so that no messages are transmitted trom either terminal to the other through the repeater on the D channel.

As pointed out above, the D channel can be used at the repeater station to receive messages on a printer connected to the segments 16 to 2O ot the ring r, sent from the D transmitter at the A station. However, instead oi connecting a printer at the receiving station, this channel may be connected to a printer located at some distant station on a branch line. Said distant station may also transmit messages simultaneously through the repeater station to' the A station over the D channel by having the branch line connected to the segments 19,

20, 1, 2 and 3 of the ring s3.

In the same manner the messages over D channel operated by the D transmitter at the C station may be received by a printer at the repeater station connected to the segments 16 to 20 of ring r3, or these segments may be connected to a branch line and the printer may be located at a distant station on that line. Likewise the transmitter at that distant station may transmit messages simultaneously to the D prlnter at the C station if said branch line 1s connected to the segments 19, 20, 1, 2 and 3 of rings s2 of the rotary repeater.

In the example shown, therefore, the multiplex system operates through the repeater station in series from' station A to station C on three channels of the circuit and forks at the repeater station on the D channel to provide for the interchange of -messages from the stations A and C to stations on other lines which branch o' from the repeater station. The rotary distributors at the station on .the branch lines willbe maintained in synchronism by correcting from the rotary repeater at the repeater station.

While I have shown only the D channel forked at the repeater station to other lines, it is evident that other channels may be forked in the same manner to other branch lines.

v system, a plurality of stations. divided into sections, amultiplex s 'nc rionousV-"system connecting said station nda relaying apparatus interposed veen adjacent line sections includ- 'ing afl- ,of polarized relays operable by paratus interposed between adjacent. line sections, said apparatus -comprismg a rotary'repeater having a air of segmented rings and a set of polarized relays having the magnets connected in multiple respectively to thel corresponding segments of each of the channels of the multiplex system in *onev ring and the armatures connected in multiple respectively to the corresponding segments of the other ring.

3. A telegraph system, comprising a line divided into sections, a plurality of stations, Y

a multiplex synchronous system connecting -said stations and including a relaying ap-k paratus interposed -between adjacent line sections, said apparatus comprising/a ro-` -tary repeater having pairs of segmented rings, a source of energy, a' plurality of sets of polarized relays, one set associated with each pair of rings and functioning successively with kthe segments of each channel of the lmultiplex to 'receive' impulses from one line section and to transmit to an` other line section impulses derived from said source of energyand corresponding to said received impulses.

4. A telegraph system, comprising a line divided into sections, a plurality of stations, a multiplex synchronous system connecting said stations and including a relaying apparatus interposed between adjacent line sections, said apparatus comprising a rotary repeaterhaving a pair of segmented rings and a set of polarized relays having the magnets vconnected in multiple respectively to the corresponding segments of each of the dierent channels of the multiplex system in one ring and the armatures connected in multiple respectively to the corresponding segments of the other ring, a branch line connected td the .segments of said repeater rings of one channel and a station in said branch line having a. printer and a transmitter operating synchronously with said repeater.

5. A telegraph system, comprising a line divided into sections, a plurality of stations, a multiplex synchronous system connecting said stations and including -a relaying apparatus interposed between adjacent line sections, said apparatus comprising a ro tary repeater having pairs of segmented rings, a source of energy, a plurality of.

sets of polarized relays, one set associated with each pair of rings and functioning successively with the segments of each channel of the multiplex to receive impulses from 'o n'e line section and to transmit to another lllne section impulses derived from said source of energy and corresponding to said received impulses, branch lines connected to the segments of said repeater rings of certain channels and stations in said branch lines provided with printers and transmitters operating synchronously with said relpeater.

In testimony whereof ture.

WALTER A. HOUGHTALING.

I allix my signa

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