By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief
LUDINGTON, Mich. — Technology on board the S.S. Badger spans nearly 200 years. One of the oldest forms of technology is the engine order telegraph (EOT), which is used to communicate between the pilot houses and the engine room.
The EOT was created by an engineer and medical doctor named Charles Grafton Page (1812-1868) in the 1850s. The EOT is a device that allows the captain or officers on a ship’s bridge (pilot house) to transmit specific speed and direction orders to the engineers in the engine room, improving navigation safety and efficiency.
The EOT operates with a small black arrow located near the center of the dial, connected by wire to the other telegraph. It shows what the other station’s telegraph handle is set at. When the pilot house crew calls for an order, the black arrow in the engine room moves to that position; a bell rings to notify an order has been given. The engine room crew then answers by moving their handle to match the arrow, which causes the arrow on the pilot house’s telegraph to move to match the handle’s position, acknowledging the command.
Charles Page earned a degree in medicine from Harvard College in 1836 and gave lectures on chemistry. While still a medical student, he conducted a groundbreaking experiment which demonstrated the presence of electricity in an arrangement of a spiral conductor that no one had tried before. The device emitted shocks and Page advocated for it to be used for medical treatment, an early form of electrotherapy. But, his own interest lay in its heightening of electrical tension, or voltage, above that of the low voltage battery input. After improvements, he named it the Dynamic Multiplier.
His experiments led to the invention of the induction coil. His work was cited by Alexander Graham Bell, 30 years later, as an important precedent for Bell’s development of the telephone.
He later invented many other electromagnetic devices and even consulted with Samual F.B. Morse and Alfred Lewis Vail on the development of telegraph apparatus and techniques. He contributed to the adoption of suspended wires using a ground return, designed a signal receiver magnet and tested a magneto as a source of substitute for the battery.
Another one of Page’s inventions included the Axial Engine, an electromagnetic locomotive.
EOTs on the Badger are located in the engine room and both the forward and aft pilot houses. Passengers can witness the EOT in use when the captain moves to the aft pilot house during docking. During this procedure, a series of maritime music occurs as a variety of bells chime from the EOT indicating various communication back and forth between the captain and the engineers. Down in the engine room, two engineers monitor the EOTs — one controlling the starboard side engines, one controlling the port side engines while an oiler keeps watch on the instruments.
The EOTs on board the Badger were manufactured by Chadburn’s Limited of Liverpool, England, which is why they are often referred to as “Chadburns.” Chadburn and its predecessor companies were responsible for 75 percent of the world’s marine telegraph production. The Badger’s Chadburns were installed during her construction in 1952 and continue to be used as a primary source of communications.
EOTs are still used on multiple ships around the globe.
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