"Our present system of insulation is a positive disgrace to the scientific ability of our American telegraphic engineers." G. Prescott, 1866

During my years of collecting Hemingray insulators, I often wondered about the conversations that had gone over the wires carried by these glass jewels. Today we think of telephone conversations as the major impetus for the construction of pole lines with wires and insulators, but what really got it started was the telegraph. Interestingly enough, the first telegraph line was buried, not aerial. In 1843 Samuel Morse began construction of an experimental line along the rail line between Baltimore and Washington using wires in buried lead pipes. The copper wires, however, were not properly insulated and the entire route had to be rebuilt above ground on wooden poles. In 1844 the line was completed and Morse sent the first telegraph message, "What hath God wrought?", from the Supreme Court Chamber in Washington, D.C. to Baltimore over the 40-mile wooden pole line route. The age of telecommunications was born and along with it the urgent need for insulators and telegraph equipment. By 1850, 22,000 miles of telegraph lines had been strung to points as distant as Washington, D.C., New Orleans, Iowa, Maine and Canada. By 1866, there were more than 50,000 miles of mostly iron lines in operation having more than 1,400 telegraph stations and employing upwards of 10,000 operators and clerks. That same year an estimated five million messages traveled over these facilities, producing an annual revenue of $2.2 million. Of interest to insulator collectors is that in 1866 an estimated 1.5 million insulators were already in service.

The bane of this expanding telegraph system, however, was the insulator supporting the wires. George Prescott, a noted scientist, wrote in 1866, "Our present system of insulation is a positive disgrace to the scientific ability of our American telegraphic engineers." The chief complaints being that the insulators, especially when wet, allowed the electrical current to escape to the supporting wooden post, and that the insulators were easily broken. Early telegraph insulators consisted of glass plates, bureau knobs and simple glass blocks with notches to hold the wire in place. In 1851 a patent was issued to Nelson Goodyear for an insulator made of rubber. Insulators of wood and pottery were also developed to overcome the objections cited by Prescott. By the mid-1860s, the majority of insulators were glass shaped much as an insulator collector knows them today, sans threads and drip points. For many years it was up to the developing technology of the telegraph apparatus to work around the shortcomings of the insulators.

First, let's talk about the telegraph apparatus that makes up the telegraph network. Then we'll discuss the items from the perspective of the telegraph collector. Telegraph equipment can be grouped into four broad categories: 1) keys, 2) sounders, 3) relays, and 4) auxiliary items.

The telegraph key (Figures 1 and 2) is the basic telegraph transmitter, a switch with contacts that make (close) or break (open) the telegraph circuit to the distant receiver. The key's electrical contacts are held open by a spring. When the operator presses on the key's knob, the contacts are closed and the circuit is completed sending the familiar dots and dashes of the Morse Code. From a historical perspective, keys can be grouped into pre-Triumph (1844-1881), and post-Triumph, (1881 to present.) The Triumph Key (see Figure 1) was patented in 1881 by Jesse Bunnell who had been a telegrapher during the Civil War. Bunnell named it Triumph because he thought his new stamped steel lever would triumph over the design problems of existing keys that used a heavy brass lever with steel pivots pins which eventually worked loose. 

Fig. 1. The Triumph Key.

Keys were designed as either legless (Figure 1) to be attached to a table, or leg keys (Figure 2) with bolts to be permanently attached to the table with the wires connected underneath. Sometimes the key and sounder (see below) were mounted on the same base as seen in Figure 3. Referred to as KOB (key on base), these combination sets were often used for training. There were, of course, numerous other designs and manufacturers of keys. 

Fig. 2. Telegraph key with bolts
for attachment to a table.

The telegraph sounder (Figure 4) is the receiving instrument that transforms the electrical pulses from the distant office into a click when its electromagnetic coils are energized and a clack when the magnets are released. Each electric pulse from the distant key thus produces an audible click-clack sound which is interpreted by the receiving telegraph operator as a dot or dash. Sounders can be identified by their two vertical electromagnets. Sounders may be either mainline or local. The mainline sounder was connected directly to the telegraph wire from the next office. Local sounders were powered by a local battery within the telegraph office in conjunction with a relay to detect the pulses from the distant office.

Fig. 3. Key on base combination set.

Mainline and local sounders look much alike although the mainline may be somewhat larger.

A telegraph relay (Figure 5) is a sensitive electromechanical repeater used on long telegraph lines, generally more than twenty miles. The weak signal from the distant office was rejuvenated by the relay and passed to the next office along the line. A relay is more sensitive than a sounder and can be identified by its two horizontal electromagnets and horizontal tension spring.

Fig. 4. The Telegraph Sounder.

Auxiliary equipment includes batteries, switchboards, test sets, resonators, etc. There are literally hundreds of these items for the serious collector. 

Fig. 5. The Telegraph Relay.

As with insulators, the price for a telegraph item varies based on age, condition and how rare or unique the item is. Unfortunately, there is nothing for the telegraph collector that even begins to approach the insulator Consolidated Design (CD) identification system, or McDougald's Price Guide for Insulators. Tom Perera in his book, Telegraph Collector's Guide, states that "most buyers and sellers simply do not know what telegraph items are worth." Despite their historical and scientific significance, telegraph items are among the few remaining undiscovered collectibles. Ebay and similar auctions, of course, may soon change all of this. Prices for common keys, sounders and relays currently range from $25 to $150. Recently a particularly rare telegraph key sold for $1,200. Prices for auxiliary telegraph apparatus are even more variable since few people know what it is or how rare it may be. 

Again, as with insulator collectors, there is much discussion among telegraph collectors concerning how much, if any, restoration should be done. Most collectors prefer to keep the item in its original condition doing only what is necessary to stop any further deterioration. But, with all that brass, a rosewood base and black iron platform with a gold pinstripe, it is hard to resist the temptation to restore the equipment. And, yes, it really would look great on your desk next to a favorite insulator. The telegraph collector should be aware that a complete restoration takes lots of work, may obliterate historical markings and should be avoided. 

Although not as numerous as the millions of insulators produced since the 1840's, thousands of telegraph keys, sounders and relays were manufactured to serve telegraph and railroad offices in virtually every town in the developed world. Today, many of these items can be found at swap meets and on the Internet auctions. They make an appropriate adjunct to our insulator collections, and we owe a tip of the hat to the telegraph network and equipment that got it all started more than 160 years ago. For more information on the history of telegraphy and collecting telegraph apparatus, refer to: 

The W1TP Telegraph Museum at: http://w1tp.com
or
The Telegraph Office at:
http://fohnix.metronet.com/~nmcewen/ref.html