Fig. 177. Circuit of Four-Party Station with Relay
[View full size illustration.]

The detailed wiring of the telephone set employed in connection with the system illustrated in Fig. 173 is shown in Fig. 177. The wiring of this set is arranged for a common-battery system, inasmuch as this arrangement of signaling circuit is more especially adapted for common-battery working. However, this arrangement is frequently adapted to magneto systems as even with magneto systems a permanent ground connection at a subscriber's station is objectionable inasmuch as it increases the difficulty of determining the existence or location of an accidental ground on one of the line conductors. The wiring of this set is also arranged so that one standard type of wiring may be employed and yet allow any telephone set to be connected as an A, B, C, or D station.

Harmonic Method. Principles. To best understand the principle of operation of the harmonic party-line signaling systems, it is to be remembered that a flexible reed, mounted rigidly at one end and having its other end free to vibrate, will, like a violin string, have a certain natural period of vibration; that is, if it be started in vibration, as by snapping it with the fingers, it will take up a certain rate of vibration which will continue at a uniform rate until the vibration ceases altogether. Such a reed will be most easily thrown into vibration by a series of impulses having a frequency corresponding exactly to the natural rate of vibration of the reed itself; it may be thrown into vibration by very slight impulses if they occur at exactly the proper times.

It is familiar to all that a person pushing another in a swing may cause a considerable amplitude of vibration with the exertion of but a small amount of force, if he will so time his pushes as to conform exactly to the natural rate of vibration of the swing. It is of course possible, however, to make the swing take up other rates of vibrations by the application of sufficient force. As another example, consider a clock pendulum beating seconds. By gentle blows furnished by the escapement at exactly the proper times, the heavy pendulum is kept in motion. However, if a person grasps the pendulum weight and shakes it, it may be made to vibrate at almost any desired rate, dependent on the strength and agility of the individual.

The conclusion is, therefore, that a reed or pendulum may be made to start and vibrate easily by the application of impulses at proper intervals, and only with great difficulty by the application of impulses at other than the proper intervals; and these facts form the basis on which harmonic-ringing systems rest.

The father of harmonic ringing in telephony was Jacob B. Currier, an undertaker of Lowell, Mass. His harmonic bells were placed in series in the telephone line, and were considerably used in New England in commercial practice in the early eighties. Somewhat later James A. Lighthipe of San Francisco independently invented a harmonic-ringing system, which was put in successful commercial use at Sacramento and a few other smaller California towns. Lighthipe polarized his bells and bridged them across the line in series with condensers, as in modern practice, and save for some crudities in design, his apparatus closely resembled, both in principle and construction, some of that in successful use today.

Lighthipe's system went out of use and was almost forgotten, when about 1903, Wm. W. Dean again independently redeveloped the harmonic system, and produced a bell astonishingly like that of Lighthipe, but of more refined design, thus starting the development which has resulted in the present wide use of this system.

The signal-receiving device in harmonic-ringing systems takes the form of a ringer, having its armature and striker mounted on a rather stiff spring rather than on trunnions. By this means the moving parts of the bell constitute in effect a reed tongue, which has a natural rate of vibration at which it may easily be made to vibrate with sufficient amplitude to strike the gongs. The harmonic ringer differs from the ordinary polarized bell or ringer, therefore, in that its armature will vibrate most easily at one particular rate, while the armature of the ordinary ringer is almost indifferent, between rather wide limits, as to the rate at which it vibrates.

As a rule harmonic party-line systems are limited to four stations on a line. The frequencies employed are usually 16-2/3, 33-1/3, 50, and 66-2/3 cycles per second, this corresponding to 1,000, 2,000, 3,000, and 4,000 cycles per minute. The reason why this particular set of frequencies was chosen is that they represent approximately the range of desirable frequencies, and that the first ringing-current machines in such systems were made by mounting the armatures of four different generators on a single shaft, these having, respectively, two poles, four poles, six poles, and eight poles each. The two-pole generator gave one cycle per revolution, the four-pole two, the six-pole three, and the eight-pole four, so that by running the shaft of the machine at exactly 1,000 revolutions per minute the frequencies before mentioned were attained. This range of frequencies having proved about right for general practice and the early ringers all having been attuned so as to operate on this basis, the practice of adhering to these numbers of vibrations has been kept up with one exception by all the manufacturers who make this type of ringer.

Tuning. The process of adjusting the armature of a ringer to a certain rate of vibration is called tuning, and it is customary to refer to a ringer as being tuned to a certain rate of vibration, just as it is customary to refer to a violin string as being tuned to a certain pitch or rate of vibration.