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Stock Ticker

American History Museum

This media is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions). You can copy, modify, and distribute this work without contacting the Smithsonian. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Open Access page.
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    Object Details

    maker

    Edison, Thomas Alva

    Description (Brief)

    Until the decade of the 1990s, when traders adopted the Internet, tickers provided vital stock market information to businesses and news organizations. Stock tickers were a special type of telegraph receiver designed to print an alphabetical company symbol and the current price of that company’s stock on a paper roll called ticker tape. Thomas Edison made his early reputation as an inventor by designing an improved stock ticker for the Gold & Stock Telegraph Company. The company submitted this ticker to the U.S. Patent Office during the process leading to the issue of patent number 140,488 in 1873 .

    Location

    Currently not on view (ticker tape)

    date made

    1873

    ID Number

    EM.252616

    catalog number

    252616

    patent number

    140488

    accession number

    49064

    Object Name

    telegraph ticker receiver
    stock ticker
    telegraph printer
    printing telegraph
    telegraph ticker
    ticker

    Object Type

    Patent Model

    Other Terms

    telegraph ticker receiver; Telegraphy; printer

    Physical Description

    iron (overall material)
    brass (overall material)
    glass (overall material)
    paper (overall material)

    Measurements

    overall: 16 1/2 in x 15 1/2 in x 14 in x 15 in; 41.91 cm x 39.37 cm x 35.56 cm x 38.1 cm

    Related Publication

    Sewer, Andy; Allison, David; Liebhold, Peter; Davis, Nancy; Franz, Kathleen G.. American Enterprise: A History of Business in America

    See more items in

    Work and Industry: Electricity
    Communications
    American Enterprise

    Exhibition

    American Enterprise

    Exhibition Location

    National Museum of American History

    Data Source

    National Museum of American History

    general subject association

    Telegraph
    Stock Markets
    Patent Models

    Metadata Usage

    CC0

    Link to Original Record

    https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746ab-8256-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

    Record ID

    nmah_703474

    Discover More

    Smithsonian Open Access

    Open Access Highlights

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