Object Image

Gray telegraph relay patent model

This relay was constructed early in 1867 by noted electrical inventor Elisha Gray to accompany a patent application. He received US Patent 69,424 later that year for an improved telegraph relay. Gray's idea was to use a second set of electromagnet coils rather than a spring to retract the armature after a signal pulse. He wrote that the pulse's strength could vary so much that a relay's spring needed constant adjustment. His design compensated automatically for the variation in pulse strength.
1867
EM.308870
Image and text © National Museum of American History, 2021

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