[bikerhifinut]

Originally Posted by kellys_eye

You may be mistaking that for the Morse (Telegraph) used between wheelhouse and engine room to communicate engine demand. The 'morse' in this case is the name of the cable used to connect the two telegraph devices together - basically a sheathed steel wire physically connecting the two handles on the telegraph unit.

The wheelhouse would crank one handle to the required speed/direction and the engineroom would 'reply' by copying the handle position to acknowledge the call.

This was necessary as there is no direct connection between the wheelhouse and the engine (like a throttle cable and carburettor!) - the engineers had to make the necessary adjustments to the main engine in regard to speed and rotation direction.

I never saw such a device on any vessel I was on that didnt have direct bridge control of the engine.
The Telegraph was an electrical device that worked on the principle of the "Powerotor" .
A permanently polarised armature, bearing mounted, and moved by the electromagnetic field produced by interconnected coils in the stator section forms the receiver part of the system. And in the same manner, the transmitter section which is moved by the bridge control lever rotates an armature in the field produced in the transmitter stator, causing an imbalance in the field which is transmitted by wires to the engine room control platform. So the pointer in the ER moves and the imbalance is also used to operate a relay to sound a buzzer. When the command is acknowledged, the lever in the ER is moved and the pointer on the bridge receiver moves to match the engine movement commanded, and the buzzer stops.
Thats a rough precis I just dug out of my old cadet workbook, now falling apart.....................

Andy.