Electrical dial telegraph

The electric dial telegraph, designed by Charles Wheatstone in 1838, indicates the letters of the alphabet using a keyboard, transmitting and/or receiving them at a speed of thirty per minute. A bell announced the arrival of a dispatch. This telegraph went into service on the Paris–Rouen railway in 1845, and was principally used to signal a train’s departure. This example, made by the Breguet company, was donated by the Compagnie de l’Ouest at the request of Arthur Morin. When Wheatstone visited the museum’s physics gallery, he was surprised by the absence of the devices he thought he had donated. Morin contacted the Compagnie de l’Ouest, which fortunately had kept this historic equipment in its storerooms, and the gift filled this ‘very regrettable’ gap in the collections.