Cyclopedia of Telephony and Telegraphy Volume I Part 3

CHAPTER III

ELECTRICAL SIGNALS

Electric calls or signals are of two kinds: audible and visible.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 15. Telegraph Sounder and Key]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 16. Vibrating Bell]

Audible Signals. _Telegraph Sounder._ The earliest electric signal was an audible one, being the telegraph sounder, or the Morse register considered apart from its registering function. Each telegraph sounder serves as an audible electric signal and is capable of signifying more than that the call is being made. Such a signal is operated by the making and breaking of current from a battery. An arrangement of this kind is shown in Fig. 15, in which pressure upon the key causes the current from the battery to energize the sounder and give one sharp audible rap of the lever upon the striking post.

_Vibrating Bell_. The vibrating bell, so widely used as a door bell, is a device consequent to the telegraph. Its action is to give a series of blows on its gong when its key or push b.u.t.ton closes the battery circuit. At the risk of describing a trite though not trivial thing, it may be said that when the contact _1_ of Fig. 16 is closed, current from the battery energizes the armature _2_, causing the latter to strike a blow on the gong and to break the line circuit as well, by opening the contact back of the armature. So de-energized, the armature falls back and the cycle is repeated until the b.u.t.ton contact is released. A comparison of this action with that of the polarized ringer (to be described later) will be found of interest.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 17. Elemental Magneto-Generator]

_Magneto-Bell._ The magneto-bell came into wide use with the spread of telephone service. Its two fundamental parts are an alternating-current generator and a polarized bell-ringing device.

Each had its counterpart long before the invention of the telephone, though made familiar by the latter. The alternating-current generator of the magneto-bell consists of a rotatable armature composed of a coil of insulated wire and usually a core of soft iron, its rotation taking place in a magnetic field. This field is usually provided by a permanent magnet, hence the name "magneto-generator." The purist in terms may well say, however, that every form whatever of the dynamo-electric generator is a magneto-generator, as magnetism is one link in every such conversion of mechanical power into electricity.

The terms magneto-electric, magneto-generator, etc., involving the term "magneto," have come to imply the presence of _permanently_ magnetized steel as an element of the construction.

In its early form, the magneto-generator consisted of the arrangement shown in Fig. 17, wherein a permanent magnet can rotate on an axis before an electromagnet having soft iron cores and a winding.

Reversals of magnetism produce current in alternately reversing half-cycles, one complete rotation of the magnet producing one such cycle. Obviously the result would be the same if the magnet were stationary and the coils should rotate, which is the construction of more modern devices. The turning of the crank of a magneto-bell rotates the armature in the magnetic field by some form of gearing at a rate usually of the order of twenty turns per second, producing an alternating current of that frequency. This current is caused by an effective electromotive force which may be as great as 100 volts, produced immediately by the energy of the user. In an equipment using a magneto-telephone as both receiver and transmitter and a magneto-bell as its signal-sending machine, as was usual in 1877, it is interesting to note that the entire motive power for signals and speech transmission was supplied by the muscular tissues of the user--a case of working one's pa.s.sage.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 18. Extension of a Permanent Magnet]

The alternating current from the generator is received and converted into sound by means of the _polarized ringer_, a device which is interesting as depending upon several of the electrical, mechanical, and magnetic actions which are the foundations of telephone engineering.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 19. Extension of a Permanent Magnet]

"Why the ringer rings" may be gathered from a study of Figs. 18 to 21.

A permanent magnet will impart temporary magnetism to pieces of iron near it. In Fig. 18 two pieces of iron are so energized. The ends of these pieces which are nearest to the permanent magnet _1_ are of the opposite polarity to the end they approach, the free ends being of opposite polarity. In the figure, these free ends are marked _N_, meaning they are of a polarity to point north if free to point at all.

English-speaking persons call this _north polarity_. Similarly, as in Fig. 19, any arrangement of iron near a permanent magnet always will have free poles of the same polarity as the end of the permanent magnet nearest them.

A permanent magnet so related to iron forms part of a polarized ringer. So does an electromagnet composed of windings and iron cores.

Fig. 20 reminds us of the law of electromagnets. If current flows from the plus towards the minus side, with the windings as drawn, polarities will be induced as marked.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 20. Electromagnet]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 21. Polarized Ringer]

If, now, such an electromagnet, a permanent magnet, and a pivoted armature be related to a pair of gongs as shown in Fig. 21, a polarized ringer results. It should be noted that a permanent magnet has both its poles presented (though one of the poles is not actually attached) to two parts of the iron of the _electro_-magnet. The result is that the ends of the armature are of south polarity and those of the core are of north polarity. All the markings of Fig. 21 relate to the polarity produced by the permanent magnet. If, now, a current flow in the ringer winding from plus to minus, obviously the right-hand pole will be additively magnetized, the current tending to produce north magnetism there; also the left-hand pole will be subtractively magnetized, the current tending to produce south magnetism there. If the current be of a certain strength, relative to the certain ringer under study, magnetism in the left pole will be neutralized and that in the right pole doubled. Hence the armature will be attracted more by the right pole than by the left and will strike the right-hand gong. A reversal of current produces an opposite action, the left-hand gong being struck. The current ceasing, the armature remains where last thrown.

[Ill.u.s.tration: OPERATOR'S EQUIPMENT Clement Automanual System.]

It is important to note that the strength of action depends upon the strength of the current up to a certain point only. That depends upon the strength of the permanent magnet. Whenever the current is great enough just to neutralize the normal magnetism of one pole and to double that of the other, no increase in current will cause the device to ring any louder. This makes obvious the importance of a proper permanent magnetism and displays the fallacy of some effort to increase the output of various devices depending upon these principles. This discussion of magneto-electric signaling is introduced here because of a belief in its being fundamental. Chapter VIII treats of such a signaling in further detail.

_Telephone Receiver._ The telephone receiver itself serves a useful purpose as an audible signal. An interrupted or alternating current of proper frequency and amount will produce in it a musical tone which can be heard throughout a large room. This fact enables a telephone central office to signal a subscriber who has left his receiver off the switch hook, so that normal conditions may be restored.

Visible Signals. _Electromagnetic Signal._ Practical visual signals are of two general kinds: electromagnetic devices for moving a target or pointer, and incandescent lamps. The earliest and most widely used visible signal in telephone practice was the annunciator, having a shutter adapted to fall when the magnet is energized. Fig. 22 is such a signal. Shutter _1_ is held by the catch _2_ from dropping to the right by its own gravity. The name "gravity-drop" is thus obvious.

Current energizing the core attracts the armature _3_, lifts the catch _2_, and the shutter falls. A simple modification of the gravity-drop produces the visible signal shown in Fig. 23. Energizing the core lifts a target so as to render it visible through an opening in the plate _1_. A contrast of color between the plate and the target heightens the effect.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 22. Gravity-Drop]

The gravity-drop is princ.i.p.ally adapted to the magneto-bell system of signaling, where an alternating current is sent over the line to a central office by the operation of a bell crank at the subscriber's station, this current, lasting only as long as the crank is turned, energizes the drop, which may be restored by hand or otherwise and will remain latched. The visible signal is better adapted to lines in which the signaling is done by means of direct current, as, for example, in systems where the removal of the receiver from the hook at the subscriber's station closes the line circuit, causing current to flow through the winding of the visible signal and so displaying it until the receiver has been hung upon the hook or the circuit opened by some operation at the central office. Visible signals of the magnetic type of Fig. 23 have been widely used in connection with common-battery systems, both for line signals and for supervisory purposes, indicating the state and the progress of the connection and conversation.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 23. Electromagnetic Visible Signal]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 24. Lamp Signal and Lens]

_Electric-Lamp Signal._ Incandescent electric lamps appeared in telephony as a considerable element about 1890. They are better than either form of mechanical visible signals because of three princ.i.p.al qualities: simplicity and ease of restoring them to normal as compared with drops; their compactness; and their greater prominence when displayed. Of the latter quality, one may say that they are more _insistent_, as they give out light instead of reflecting it, as do all other visible signals. In its best form, the lamp signal is mounted behind a hemispherical lens, either slightly clouded or cut in facets. This lens serves to distribute the rays of light from the lamp, with the result that the signal may be seen from a wide angle with the axis of the lens, as shown in Fig. 24. This is of particular advantage in connection with manual-switchboard connecting cords, as it enables the signals to be mounted close to and even among the cords, their great visible prominence when shining saving them from being hidden.

The influence of the lamp signal was one of the potent ones in the development of the type of multiple switchboard which is now universal as the mechanism of large manual exchanges. The first large trial of such an equipment was in 1896 in Worcester, Ma.s.s. No large and successful multiple switchboard with any other type of signal has been built since that time.

Any electric signal has upper and lower limits of current between which it is to be actuated. It must receive current enough to operate but not enough to become damaged by overheating. The magnetic types of visible signals have a wider range between these limits than have lamp signals. If current in a lamp is too little, its filament either will not glow at all or merely at a dull red, insufficient for a proper signal. If the current is too great, the filament is heated beyond its strength and parts at the weakest place.

This range between current limits in magnetic visible signals is great enough to enable them to be used direct in telephone lines, the operating current through the line and signal in series with a fixed voltage at the central office being not harmfully great when the entire line resistance is shunted out at or near the central office.

The increase of current may be as great as ten times without damage to the winding of such a signal. In lamps, the safe margin is much less.

The current which just gives a sufficient lighting of the signal may be about doubled with safety to the filament of the lamp. Consequently it is not feasible to place the lamp directly in series with long exposed lines. A short circuit of such a line near the central office will burn it out.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 25. Lamp Signal Controlled by Relay]

The qualities of electromagnets and lamps in these respects are used to advantage by the lamp signal arrangement shown in Fig. 25. A relay is in series with the line and provides a large range of sensibility.

It is able to carry any current the central-office current source can pa.s.s through it. The local circuit of the relay includes the lamp.

Energizing the relay lights the lamp, and the reverse; the lamp is thus isolated from danger and receives the current best adapted to its needs.

All lines are not long and when enclosed in cable or in well-insulated interior wire, may be only remotely in danger of being short-circuited. Such conditions exist in private-branch exchanges, which are groups of telephones, usually local to limited premises, connected to a switchboard on those premises. Such a situation permits the omission of the line relay, the lamp being directly in the line. Fig. 26 shows the extreme simplicity of the arrangement, containing no moving parts or costly elements. Lamps for such service have improved greatly since the demand began to grow. The small bulk permitted by the need of compactness, the high filament resistance required for simplicity of the general power scheme of the system, and the need of considerable st.u.r.diness in the completed thing have made the task a hard one. The practical result, however, is a signal lamp which is highly satisfactory.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 26. Lamp Signal Directly in Line]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 27. Lamp Signal and Ballast]

The nature of carbon and certain earths being that their conductivity _rises_ with the temperature and that of metals being that their conductivity _falls_ with the temperature, has enabled the Nernst lamp to be successful. The same relation of properties has enabled incandescent-lamp signals to be connected direct to lines without relays, but compensated against too great a current by causing the resistance in series with the lamp to be increased inversely as the resistance of the filament. Employment of a "ballast" resistance in this way is referred to in Chapter XI. In Fig. 27 is shown its relation to a signal lamp directly in the line. _1_ is the carbon-filament lamp; _2_ is the ballast. The latter's conductor is fine iron wire in a vacuum. The resistance of the lamp falls as that of the ballast rises. Within certain limits, these changes balance each other, widening the range of allowable change in the total resistance of the line.

CHAPTER IV

TELEPHONE LINES

_The line is a path over which the telephone current pa.s.ses from telephone to telephone._ The term "telephone line circuit" is equivalent. "Line" and "line circuit" mean slightly different things to some persons, "line" meaning the out-of-doors portion of the line and "line circuit" meaning the indoor portion, composed of apparatus and a.s.sociated wiring. Such shades of meaning are inevitable and serve useful purposes. The opening definition hereof is accurate.

A telephone line consists of two conductors. One of these conductors may be the earth; the other always is some conducting material other than the earth--almost universally it is of metal and in the form of a wire. A line using one wire and the earth as its pair of conductors has several defects, to be discussed later herein. Both conductors of a line may be wires, the earth serving as no part of the circuit, and this is the best practice. A line composed of one wire and the earth is called a _grounded line_; a line composed of two wires not needing the earth as a conductor is called a _metallic circuit_.

In the earliest telephone practice, all lines were grounded ones. The wires were of iron, supported by poles and insulated from them by gla.s.s, earthenware, or rubber insulators. For certain uses, such lines still represent good practice. For telegraph service, they represent the present standard practice.

Copper is a better conductor than iron, does not rust, and when drawn into wire in such a way as to have a sufficient tensile strength to support itself is the best available conductor for telephone lines.

Only one metal surpa.s.ses it in any quality for the purpose: silver is a better conductor by 1 or 2 per cent. Copper is better than silver in strength and price.