The Kleinschmidt keyboard perforator is a

telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...

instrument invented by

Edward Kleinschmidt Edward Ernst Kleinschmidt (September 9, 1876 – August 22, 1977) was one of the inventors of the teleprinter, and was a prolific inventor who obtained 118 patents in the course of his 101-year life. Career Born in Bremen, Germany, in 1876, Klein ...

which prepares

punched tape Five- and eight-hole punched paper tape Paper tape reader on the Harwell computer with a small piece of five-hole tape connected in a circle – creating a physical program loop Punched tape or perforated paper tape is a form of data storage ...

for telegraph transmission. A

QWERTY QWERTY () is a keyboard layout for Latin-script alphabets. The name comes from the order of the first six keys on the top left letter row of the keyboard ( ). The QWERTY design is based on a layout created for the Sholes and Glidden ty ...

keyboard operate

hole punch A hole punch, also known as hole puncher, or paper puncher, is an office tool that is used to create holes in sheets of paper, often for the purpose of collecting the sheets in a binder or folder. A ''hole punch'' can also refer to similar t ...

es that prepare a Wheatstone slip. Each

Morse code Morse code is a method used in telecommunication to encode text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code is named after Samuel Morse, one ...

of the dots and dashes for the letter is selected by projecting tongues on the key bar. The centre holes used for the paper feed are punched first, then the lower holes, and then the upper holes. The upper holes are the mark holes, which indicate when the symbol (dot or dash) starts, and the lower hole tell when to terminate the symbol. This keyboard can be operated at up to 80 words a minute by a skilled operator. The Kleinschmidt keyboard perforator was first invented and constructed by Kleinschmidt in 1911. Kleinschmidt wanted to develop a product that could be sold to telegraph companies rather than just selling patents.

Western Union Telegraph Company The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services company, headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the company ch ...

was the first to purchase 50 units. As a result of this order, the Kleinschmidt Electric Company was formed to manufacture the perforator. F. G. Creed ordered ten machines for the "Creed high-speed Continental Morse code system". The

British Post Office gd, Oifis a' Phuist kw, Sodhva an Post ga, An Post Ríoga , logo = Post Office Logo.svg , type = State-owned private company limited by shares , genre = , predecessor = General Post Office , foundation = 1987 , founder = , location_c ...

ordered 20, and then later in 1914 ordered another 100. Later the

Teletype Corporation The Teletype Corporation, a part of American Telephone and Telegraph Company's Western Electric manufacturing arm since 1930, came into being in 1928 when the Morkrum-Kleinschmidt Company changed its name to the name of its trademark equipment. ...

also made this machine. In London they were sold by Creed & Co, which had a sales contract with the Kleinschmidt Electric Company.

References

{{Reflist Telegraphy