cal paper and earth.

The auxiliary or opposing battery was placed in the same circuit with
the transmitting battery, and the currents which were transmitted from
the latter through the receiving instrument reached the earth by passing
directly through the opposing battery.

The circuit of the opposing battery was permanently completed,
independently of the transmitting apparatus, through both branch
conductors and artificial resistances.

The auxiliary battery at the receiving station normally maintained upon
the main line a continuous electric current of a negative polarity,
which did not produce a mark upon the chemical paper.

When the transmitting battery was applied thereto, the excessive
electro-motive force of the latter overpowered the current from the
auxiliary battery and exerted, by means of a positive current, an
electro-chemical action upon the chemical receiving paper, producing a
mark.

Immediately upon the interruption of the circuit of the transmitting
battery, the unopposed current from the auxiliary battery at the
receiving station flowed back through the paper and into the main line,
thereby both neutralizing the residual or inductive current, which
tended to flow through the receiving instrument, and serving to clear
the main line from electro-static charge.

The following diagram illustrates my method:

Referring to this diagram, A and B respectively represent a transmitting
and a receiving station of an automatic telegraph. These stations are
united in the usual manner by a main line, L. At the transmitting
station, A, is placed a transmitting battery, E, having its positive
pole connected by a conductor, 2, with the metallic transmitting drum,
T. The negative pole of the battery, E, is connected with the earth at G
by a conductor, 1. A metallic transmitting stylus, t, rests upon the
surface of the drum, T, and any well known or suitable mechanism may be
employed for causing an automatic transmitting pattern slip, P, to pass
between the stylus and the drum. The transmitting or pattern slip, P, is
perforated with groups of apertures of varying lengths and intervals as
required to represent the dispatch which it is desired to transmit, by
an arbitrary system of signs, such, for example, as the Morse
telegraphic code.

At the receiving station, B, is placed a recording apparatus, M, of any
suitable or well known construction. A strip of chemically prepared
paper, N, is caused to pass rapid