Word Meanings - TELEGRAPH - Book Publishers vocabulary database

An apparatus, or a process, for communicating intelligence rapidly between distant points, especially by means of preconcerted visible or audible signals representing words or ideas, or by means of words and signs, transmitted by electrical action.

Additional info about word: TELEGRAPH

An apparatus, or a process, for communicating intelligence rapidly between distant points, especially by means of preconcerted visible or audible signals representing words or ideas, or by means of words and signs, transmitted by electrical action. Note: The instruments used are classed as indicator, type-printing, symbol-printing, or chemical-printing telegraphs, according as the intelligence is given by the movements of a pointer or indicator, as in Cooke & Wheatstone's , or by impressing, on a fillet of paper, letters from types, as in House's and Hughe's, or dots and marks from a sharp point moved by a magnet, as in Morse's, or symbols produced by electro-chemical action, as in Bain's. In the offices in the United States the recording instrument is now little used, the receiving operator reading by ear the combinations of long and short intervals of sound produced by the armature of an electro-magnet as it is put in motion by the opening and breaking of the circuit, which motion, in registering instruments, traces upon a ribbon of paper the lines and dots used to represent the letters of the alphabet. See Illustration in Appendix. Acoustic telegraph. See under Acoustic. -- Dial telegraph, a telegraph in which letters of the alphabet and numbers or other symbols are placed upon the border of a circular dial plate at each station, the apparatus being so arranged that the needle or index of the dial at the receiving station accurately copies the movements of that at the sending station. -- Electric telegraph, or Electro-magnetic telegraph, a telegraph in which an operator at one station causes words or signs to be made at another by means of a current of electricity, generated by a battery and transmitted over an intervening wire. -- Facsimile telegraph. See under Facsimile. -- Indicator telegraph. See under Indicator. -- Pan-telegraph, an electric telegraph by means of which a drawing or writing, as an autographic message, may be exactly reproduced at a distant station. -- Printing telegraph, an electric telegraph which automatically prints the message as it is received at a distant station, in letters, not signs. -- Signal telegraph, a telegraph in which preconcerted signals, made by a machine, or otherwise, at one station, are seen or heard and interpreted at another; a semaphore. -- Submarine telegraph cable, a telegraph cable laid under water to connect stations separated by a body of water. -- Telegraph cable, a telegraphic cable consisting of several conducting wires, inclosed by an insulating and protecting material, so as to bring the wires into compact compass for use on poles, or to form a strong cable impervious to water, to be laid under ground, as in a town or city, or under water, as in the ocean. -- Telegraph plant , a leguminous plant native of the East Indies. The leaflets move up and down like the signals of a semaphore.

Related words: (words related to TELEGRAPH)

• COMMUNICATIVENESS
  The quality of being communicative. Norris.
• TRANSMITTER
  One who, or that which, transmits; specifically, that portion of a telegraphic or telephonic instrument by means of which a message is sent; -- opposed to receiver.
• DISTANT
  stand apart, be separate or distant; dis- + stare to stand. See 1. Separated; having an intervening space; at a distance; away. One board had two tenons, equally distant. Ex. xxxvi. 22. Diana's temple is not distant far. Shak. 2. Far separated;
• PROCESSIVE
  Proceeding; advancing. Because it is language, -- ergo, processive. Coleridge.
• REPRESENTABLE
  Capable of being represented.
• PROCESSIONALIST
  One who goes or marches in a procession.
• WORDSMAN
  One who deals in words, or in mere words; a verbalist. "Some speculative wordsman." H. Bushnell.
• REPRESENTANT
  Appearing or acting for another; representing.
• ACTION
  Effective motion; also, mechanism; as, the breech action of a gun. (more info) 1. A process or condition of acting or moving, as opposed to rest; the doing of something; exertion of power or force, as when one body acts on another; the effect of
• PRECONCERTED
  Previously arranged; agreed upon beforehand. -- Pre`con*cert"ed*ly, adv. -- Pre`con*cert"ed*ness, n.
• AUDIBLE
  Capable of being heard; loud enough to be heard; actually heard; as, an audible voice or whisper.
• VISIBLE
  1. Perceivable by the eye; capable of being seen; perceptible; in view; as, a visible star; the least spot is visible on white paper. Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. Bk. of Com. Prayer. Virtue made visible in
• AUDIBLENESS
  The quality of being audible.
• INTELLIGENCER
  One who, or that which, sends or conveys intelligence or news; a messenger. All the intriguers in foreign politics, all the spies, and all the intelligencers . . . acted solely upon that principle. Burke.
• DISTANTIAL
  Distant. More distantial from the eye. W. Montagu.
• ACTIONABLE
  That may be the subject of an action or suit at law; as, to call a man a thief is actionable.
• TRANSMITTIBLE
  Capable of being transmitted; transmissible.
• POINTSMAN
  A man who has charge of railroad points or switches.
• PROCESSIONARY
  Pertaining to a procession; consisting in processions; as, processionary service. Processionary moth , any moth of the genus Cnethocampa, especially C. processionea of Europe, whose larvæ make large webs on oak trees, and go out to feed in regular
• COMMUNICATIVE
  Inclined to communicate; ready to impart to others. Determine, for the future, to be less communicative. Swift.
• INDIVISIBLE
  Not capable of exact division, as one quantity by another; incommensurable. (more info) 1. Not divisible; incapable of being divided, separated, or broken; not separable into parts. "One indivisible point of time." Dryden.
• REACTIONIST
  A reactionary. C. Kingsley.
• INTERCOMMUNICATION
  Mutual communication. Owen.
• MADEFACTION; MADEFICATION
  The act of madefying, or making wet; the state of that which is made wet. Bacon.
• REDACTION
  The act of redacting; work produced by redacting; a digest.
• CHYLIFACTION
  The act or process by which chyle is formed from food in animal bodies; chylification, -- a digestive process.
• SELF-COMMUNICATIVE
  Imparting or communicating by its own powers.
• FACTION
  One of the divisions or parties of charioteers (distinguished by their colors) in the games of the circus. 2. A party, in political society, combined or acting in union, in opposition to the government, or state; -- usually applied to a minority,
• ACID PROCESS
  That variety of either the Bessemer or the open-hearth process in which the converter or hearth is lined with acid, that is, highly siliceous, material. Opposed to basic process.
• DISTRACTION
  1. The act of distracting; a drawing apart; separation. To create distractions among us. Bp. Burnet. 2. That which diverts attention; a diversion. "Domestic distractions." G. Eliot. 3. A diversity of direction; detachment. His power went out in
• SWORDSMANSHIP
  The state of being a swordsman; skill in the use of the sword. Cowper.
• REFACTION
  Recompense; atonemet; retribution. Howell.