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.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- from ITT World Communications, Inc., thru John Van Ingen
- ID Number
- EM.330279
- catalog number
- 330279
- accession number
- 288763
- Object Name
- submarine telegraph key
- telegraph key
- cable key
- Physical Description
- brass (overall material)
- metal (overall material)
- plastic (overall material)
- fiber (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 2 1/2 in x 4 in x 5 in; 6.35 cm x 10.16 cm x 12.7 cm
- See more items in
- Work and Industry: Electricity
- Telegraph Keys
- Communications
- National Museum of American History
- Record ID
- nmah_706725
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a5-2951-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
