George May Phelps
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George May Phelps (March 19, 1820 – May 18, 1888) was a 19th-century American inventor of automated telegraphy equipment. He is credited with synthesizing the designs of several existing printers into his line of devices which became the dominant apparatus for automated reception and transmission of telegraph messages.


Biography

George May Phelps was born in
Watervliet, New York Watervliet ( or ) is a City (New York), city in Albany County, New York, Albany County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The population was 10,375 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Watervliet is north of Albany, ...
in 1820. As a youth, he went to work for his uncle Jonas H. Phelps, who made mathematical instruments in Troy, New York. During the 1850s, the Morse system of telegraphy was in competition with the
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chemical system and the
House A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...
printing system. Phelps' first business endeavor appears to be as Phelps and Dickerman in Troy, New York, building the House printing telegraph instruments. By this time his machinist skills had expanded into areas involving work in light machinery, paper sorting machines, and safe locks. Some of his earliest patents were designs on
speed governor A governor, or speed limiter or controller, is a device used to measure and regulate the speed of a machine, such as an engine. A classic example is the centrifugal governor, also known as the Watt or fly-ball governor on a reciprocating stea ...
s.


Printing telegraph

In 1855,
David E. Hughes David Edward Hughes (16 May 1830 – 22 January 1900), was a British-American inventor, practical experimenter, and professor of music known for his work on the printing telegraph and the microphone. He is generally considered to have bee ...
, a music professor, designed a new printing telegraph system. The Hughes system was purchased by the newly formed
American Telegraph Company American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...
, a Western Union competitor, and given to Phelps for refinement. Phelps made two important changes to the printer. He invented a device to re-synchronize both the transmitting and receiving printer after the completion of each character. He also combined both drive mechanisms together to increase the number of characters reaching the platen in the shortest possible time. These improvements made the Hughes printer design viable for commercial use.


Further career

In 1856, the recently organized American Telegraph Company purchased the Phelps and Dickerman shops and made Phelps plant superintendent of its most significant manufacturing operation. Western Union purchased American Telegraph Company following the Civil War in 1866 and positioned Phelps as superintendent of the mechanical department, first in Troy, later in Williamsburg and finally in New York City. Phelps continued to work on printing telegraph systems for many years with full support from Western Union management, who sought any competitive advantage. He also developed stock quotation printers, or '
tickers Ticker can mean: * Ticker tape, the paper strip output by a stock ticker machine * Ticker symbol, codes used to uniquely identify publicly traded companies on a stock market * News ticker, a small screen space on television news dedicated ...
'. In the mid-1870s, Western Union's president William Orton assigned Phelps to experiment with the harmonic telegraph in hopes of extended it to a working telephone. He tried to improve the construction of telephones. In August 1886 he helped Mr. Franklin Leonard Pope to conduct "The Electrician", and "Electrical Engineer". He acquired an interest in that journal. George Phelps was a charter member of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, and was elected one of its managers on May 19th, 1885. At first, he served on the council, and he became a treasurer on May 17th, 1887.


References


External links


George Phelps
at Telegraph-History

at The Telegraph Office
George Phelps
in ''Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography'' 1820 births 1888 deaths 19th-century American inventors American engineers {{US-inventor-stub