Work and Fall begin in Rural Retreat (Telegraph)

[NW Mailing List]

Abram,
Thank you VERY much for the detailed battery information, and the additional 
info on the sounder.  There is a photo of J.L. typing at his desk with what I 
assume is the sounder in the background.  He made a great point to tell me that 
stuffing a Half and Half tobacco can behind it amplified the sound, and you can 
see the can in the photo.  I have his telegraph key that you see in the photo.  
You can also see a conduit feeding an electrical junction box over his right 
shoulder--the imprint of that box is still on the wall in the Rural Retreat 
depot.

Thank you again for the great info.
Best,
Frank Akers
www.ruralretreatdepot.org

 



________________________________
From: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Sent: Mon, October 8, 2012 12:32:31 PM
Subject: Re: Work and Fall begin in Rural Retreat (Telegraph)


Mr. Frank Akers wrote/asked:   


>>  I recall PawPaw (J.L.Akers) tending to

the batteries, glass battery jars with crow's feet, but can't recall where
the batteries were housed.  Seems to me they were in the 'luggage' area or
perhaps in a closet there?  Was there a 'standard' place where the
batteries were kept?  Also, what all did the batteries power--just the
telegraph or some of the signals?  <<

Answer:  
 
It's good that you have this memory of your Grandfather !  

The batteries in the stations were "local telegraph batteries."  Since they 
contained sulphuric acid and were "made up" in open top glass jars, with loosely 
fitting porcelain tops laid across the jars, there was a good bit of acid 
evaporation and that eventually corroded everything within a number of feet.  
Therefore, they were usually placed in the "ware room" (freight section) of a 
combination station.  In the very old days, they were sometimes placed under the 
telegrapher's desk.  Ugh!

Why were "local telegraph batteries" used?  Could the telegraph instruments not 
be worked off the "line voltage" of the telegraph wires?  Without getting into a 
lot of technical explanation about  the electrical properties of telegraph lines 
and telegraph instruments, suffice it to say that the general practice at "way 
stations" was to have only a telegraph RELAY on each telegraph wire passing 
through the station (and on the N&W, there were generally three or four wires.)  
But a relay gives only a quiet tick-tick as the telegraph circuit transmits its 
dots and dashes, not the loud clack-clack that is necessary for the telegrapher 
to copy messages (especially if there is noise in the station or an engine 
passing by.)  Therefore, each way station is equipped with a "local" telegraph 
SOUNDER which can be "cut in" (using a jack box) on any of the telegraph wires 
the operator wants to work.

Normally the telegraph operator would keep his "local sounder" plugged into the 
Train Dispatcher's wire.  But if he heard the call for his station (say "AY," 
which was the telegraph call for Rural Retreat) on one of the other relays (say 
the relay on the Message wire or the Western Union wire,) he would use his jack 
box to plug his local sounder into that particular wire and copy the message.

The "local sounder" was almost invariably an instrument wound with 4 ohm coils, 
requiring 0.250 amps DC (that's one quarter of an amp) to operate.  Voltage to 
operate the local sounder was made using the glass jar primary cells you 
remember your grandfather tending.  Each glass jar was a "cell," and each cell 
gave about 1.2 volts.  Generally about 4 volts was needed to operate the local 
sounder, which meant that about four "cells," wired in series, were needed.  If 
four cells yielding 1.2 volts are wired in series, you get 4.8 volts or so.  
(The current [amps] is no problem, as each cell of a primary battery will easily 
output a quarter amp.)

Each cell consisted of a round, open-top glass jar, perhaps 10 inches in 
diameter and about 14 inches high.  One "plate" of the battery was a chunk of 
copper (generally hung down the inside of the jar,) and the other plate was a 
large piece of zinc cast into a crow's-foot pattern and resting on the bottom of 
the jar.  The electrolyte was sulphuric acid plus water, poured into the open 
top of the jar.  One wire from the local sounder was hooked to the copper, and 
the other to the zinc, using thumb screws.  Then a circular, flat porcelain lid 
was laid across the top of the jar.    Usually the lineman would pour a film of 
"Edison Battery Oil" on the top of the acid/water mix, to keep down 
evaporation.  But over time, some of the water and sulphuric acid would 
evaporate, and what you observed was your grandfather adding water to the cells 
to bring them up to the proper level.  Eventually both the copper and the zinc 
would be consumed by the galvanic process, at which point the telegraph lineman 
would dump out the entire contents of each cell and re-build the battery with 
fresh coppers, zincs and acid.

Remember, all this technology was refined and put in place long before the days 
of storage batteries and trickle charging... and there was no such thing as 
"rural electrification."  If you needed voltage out of the railroad, you "made" 
it with primary battery cells !  The low voltage/low current requirement of the 
early track circuits for railroads (which originated in 1872) is precisely the 
historical reason that track circuits even today generally operate at less than 
4 volts !

-- abram burnett
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