FIG. 65–FIRST TELEGRAPH INSTRUMENT USED FOR COMMERCIAL WORK
Photo by Claudy.
The desire to telegraph across the ocean came with the introduction of the telegraph on land. Bare wires in the air with glass insulators at the poles are used for land telegraphy, but bare wires in the water could not be used, for ocean water will conduct electricity. Something was needed to cover the wire, protect it from the water, and prevent the escape of the electric current. Just when it was needed such a substance was discovered. In 1843, when Morse was working on his telegraph, it was found that the juice of a certain kind of tree growing in the Malayan Archipelago formed a substance somewhat like rubber but more durable, and especially suited to the insulation of wires in water. This substance is gutta-percha. Ocean cables are made of a number of copper wires, each wire covered with gutta-percha, the wires twisted together and protected with tarred rope yarn and an outer layer of galvanized iron wires. The earth is used for the return circuit, as in the land telegraph.
Duplex Telegraphy
The telegraph was a success, but many improvements were yet to be made. Economy of construction was the thing sought for. To make one wire do the work of two was accomplished by the invention of the duplex system. In duplex telegraphy two messages may be sent in opposite directions over the same wire at the same time. Let us take a look at some of the methods by which this is accomplished.
One method with a long name but very simple in its working is the differential system (Fig. 66). In the differential system the current from the home battery divides into two branches passing around the coils of the electromagnet in opposite directions. Now if these two branches are so arranged that the currents flowing through them are equal, the relay will not be magnetized, because one current would tend to make the end A a north pole, and the other current would tend to make the same end a south pole. The result is that the relay coil is not magnetized, and does not attract the armature. But the current from the distant battery comes over one of these branches only, and will magnetize the relay. Hence, with a similar arrangement at the second station, two messages may be sent at the same time in opposite directions.
