Galvanometers and the Invention of Self-Balancing Recorders

Abstract

This paper describes the history of ink recorders from their use with the first submerged transatlantic cable to the invention of self-balancing recorders. At the time of submarine telegraphy, Kelvin galvanometers, as well as siphon recorders, were used as telegraphic receivers. Direct-driven thread recorders and self-balancinig recorders, such as the Callendar recorder and the mechanically sensing potentiometric recorder, also employed galvanometers as detectors. Before the advent of vacuum tubes and semiconductors, the galvanometer was the key component of measuring instruments.