Partrick & Carter pocket telegraph key and sounder

Telegraph Pocket Sounder and Key, hard rubber base 2 1/2" x 5 3/4 ", horizontal rubber covered electro-magnets, with key 3"L above them, armature provided with a lever set at right angles to act as a sounder lever, metal parts nickel-plated, small circuit-closer. Marked: "Partrick & Carter, Phila. 175 ohms." This instrument is not a relay. It is a Morse sounder and key made in compact form for easy carrying in the pocket.

Description found in file as follows:

"This instrument,called a pocket relay, represents an improved model of the Railroad Pocket Relay, Bunnell Pattern, illustrated in the 1873 Catalogs of Charles T. Chester of Philadelphia (p.5) and Partrick, Bunnell & Co. of Philadelphia (p.16). The price was listed as $22 in the latter catalog. This specimen seems to have appeared in its present form between 1881 and 1885. In 1885 a similar instrument is illustrated in the Partrick & Carter Catalog of that year priced at $8.00, a "remarkably low price", for a nickel plated pocket instrument. This instrument was probably designed to compete with the L. G. Tillotson & Company's Caton Pattern Pocket Relay which sold for $12 (nickel plated) in 1880-1881. The object of the Bunnell Pattern pocket instrument was to provide all the parts of a standard combination set (key, relay, sounder) in as small a space as possible, yet retaining the "natural" or full size of standard instruments as nearly as possible.

"The most distinguishing feature of the Bunnell Pattern Pocket Relay is the large size of the key compared with the Caton Pattern. The sounding lever attached to the electro-magnets or relay magnets was also a little larger (3/8"). Like the other pocket instruments this one was for testing, military and railroad use. The name relay is not strictly accurate as these instruments are composed of a key and circuit closer, and, a sounding relay or sounder. These instruments however were attached in a fashion similar to mainline relays and provided an emergency telegraph station whenever necessary. The development of telegraph lines along railroad right-of-ways made this a valuable instrument. Thus the names Railroad and Wrecking Set indicate their use. The date of this instrument is sometime between 1885 and 1900, most likely in the 1880's and was made and sold by Partrick & Carter. See two other pocket instruments Cat. Nos. 181,773 and 201,355."

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