Telegraph Register

Curtis, Lucius G. · 1849

In 1849 Lucius G. Curtis received U.S. patent #6,040 for this “indicating telegraph.” This patent model demonstrated his idea, a toothed wheel and rotary mechanism that transmitted electrical pulses corresponding to numbers. Combinations of numbers represented letters that the receiving operator would decode. Two units were to be connected to the line since the device served as both transmitter and receiver. His idea never gained acceptance as his system proved no real advance on the dots and dashes of Morse code.