Object Details
- Description (Brief)
- Telegraph keys are electrical switches used to send coded messages that travel as a series of electrical pulses through a wire. Due to special difficulties in sending pulses through long underwater cables, so-called double-current keys were used. Instead of the short dots and long dashes of land-line telegraphs, submarine telegraphs sent positive pulses and negative pulses that made the receiver move right or left. The operator pressed one lever on the key to send a positive pulse and another to send a negative pulse. The code consisted of the sequence of left and right movements recorded on a paper tape. One lever is missing from this specimen.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
- maker
- Elliott Brothers
- Credit Line
- from Western Union Corporation
- Physical Description
- brass (overall material)
- metal (overall material)
- plastic (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 6 in x 4 1/4 in x 4 1/4 in; 15.24 cm x 10.795 cm x 10.795 cm
- Object Name
- telegraph key
- cable key
- submarine telegraph key
