Caton pocket telegraph instrument

Pocket Telegraph Instrument, oval mahogany case, silver plate on top inscribed: "D. W. Smith". Catalog sheet found in file reports: "This type of instrument is variously referred to as a pocket instrument, a sounding relay, or a pocket relay. These instruments were intended for cutting-in on a main-line at any point, or in any office without a local battery. As such these instruments were used in testing telegraph lines, in military field lines, and on railroads. On railroad telegraph lines these instruments were sometimes referred to as wrecking sets, which indicates one of their uses. They also were used on railroads to accompany trains and provide a means of communication should the train not stop at a telegraph station.

"This particular instrument was called by its owner D. Wilmot Smith, a Pocket Telegraph Instrument. In a letter from Washington, D.C., dated March 9, 1899, Smith wrote that this was the first such instrument made. He believed that it was made at Ottawa, Illinois and it was presented to him by [John Dean] Caton, President of the Illinois and Mississippi Telegraph Company in May 1856. This instrument was used to accompany Abraham Lincoln from his home in Springfield, Illinois to Washington on his trip to [his] first Inauguration March 4, 1861.

"This instrument is composed of a key and circuit closer, and a relay of miniature size. This instrument represents the first step in the development of pocket instruments, especially the style known as the Caton Pattern."

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