Improvements

Modern Electrical Inventions:
The Sounder. Shortly after the invention of telegraphy, operators learned that they could read the message by the click of the marker against a metal rod which took the place of the tape. In practically all telegraph offices of the present day the old-fashioned tape is replaced by the sounder, shown in Figure. When current flows, a lever, L, is drawn down by the electromagnet and strikes against a solid metal piece with a click; when the current is broken, the lever springs upward, strikes another metal piece and makes a different click. It is clear that the working of the key which starts and stops the current in this line will be imitated by the motion and the resulting clicks of the sounder. By means of these varying clicks of the sounder, the operator interprets the message.

The Relay. When a telegraph line is very long, the resistance of the wire is great, and the current which passes through the electromagnet is correspondingly weak, so feeble indeed that the armature must be made very thin and light in order to be affected by the makes and breaks in the current. The clicks of an armature light enough to respond to the weak current of a long wire are too faint to be recognized by the ear, and hence in such long circuits some device must be introduced whereby the effect is increased. This is usually done by installing at each station a local battery and a very delicate and sensitive electromagnet called the relay. Under these conditions the current of the main line is not sent through the sounder, but through the relay which opens and closes a local battery in connection with the strong sounder. For example, the relay is so arranged that current from the main line runs through it exactly as it runs through M in Figure. When current is made, the relay attracts an armature, which thereby closes a circuit in a local battery and thus causes a click of the sounder. When the current in the main line is broken, the relay loses its magnetic attraction, its armature springs back, connection is broken in the local circuit, and the sounder responds by allowing its armature to spring back with a sharp sound.

FIG. - The sounder.