Telegraph Key
Object Details
- Silvertown Telegraph Works
- India-rubber, Gutta-percha, and Telegraph Works Company
- 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.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- from Western Union Corporation
- ID Number
- EM.331793
- accession number
- 294351
- collector/donor number
- 03-41
- catalog number
- 331793
- Object Name
- Morse key
- telegraph key
- submarine telegraph key
- Physical Description
- brass (overall material)
- metal (overall material)
- plastic (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 6 1/4 in x 4 1/2 in x 6 1/4 in; 15.875 cm x 11.43 cm x 15.875 cm
- See more items in
- Work and Industry: Electricity
- Telegraph Keys
- Communications
- National Museum of American History
- Record ID
- nmah_891008
- Metadata Usage (text)
- CC0
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a7-2f5e-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page .
International media Interoperability Framework
IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more.