The Albright license plate e census.
In highlights
This page is dedicate to the legalized bustards bugs.
After Horace Martin and J.E. Albright commercial agreement, Martin closed the U.E.M. work shop and back in New York.
Here found the Vibroplex Company.
After this J.E. Albright start the license war.
First Albright makes agreements with the largest US communications companies for exclusive use of the Vibroplex bugs, so banning all other bugs.
Albright as a good trader thought of affixing on the bastard bugs, a legalization plate with cost of two dollars for each bastard bug.
This guaranteed the telegraphist the use of his instrument, but without guaranteeing construction defects.
The dear Tom French W1IMQ had initiated an interesting census for the bastards bug. After two years since his death I decided to take Tom's job in the hands to make it available again.
As Tom wrote "use for non commercial collector", this will be the policy of this page.
I thanks here Tom French for the great job that he has given us, for this I will leave his AtoZ page with detailed along with his census.
Helpful and memory for us HAM and collectors of key.
I will leave its pages intact, each new addition in teh census will be in blue color.
Please, if you have unlisted a legalized bug, I invite you to contribute to the census.
Thank you in advance for this.
All best de Claudio IZ0KRC.
Note : all new add are in blue color.
26 October 2018
Artifax Books
151 Barton Road, Stow MA 01775 USA
Albright license telegraph keys
This page was most recently added to / updated in September 2015.
Copying this page for non-commercial collector use is permitted; kindly credit: Tom W1IMQ.
As soon as Horace Martin started producing his "Vibroplex" telegraph key, others began copying it. But between about 1911 and 1915 or so, James Eugene Albright, a typewriter and telegraph instrument shop owner located at 235 Broadway, and Martin's "sole selling agent," threatened and prosecuted the manufacturers of these illegal bugs.
Albright might also have sued the individual owners of these "bastard bugs," but he had a better idea: He allowed the operators to use their bugs if they paid a two dollar license fee. Upon payment, a plate was affixed to the instrument allowing its continued use.
Because the maker's tag was removed from the bug when the Albright plate was attached, determining the maker of these keys can be difficult. The most common one was the "Improved Vibroplex" made by Max Levy's ATOZ Electric Novelty Company. And there were many others.
ATOZ copy of Vibroplex, with type 1 Albright plate
But the maker of an illegal bug is not as important to the Vibroplex collector as the license plate on it. Such a key makes an historical addition to a collection of Vibroplex keys. These are commonly called "Albright bugs" today, with the understanding that Albright did not (as his nameplate says) make them, but that they are only licensed by him.
There are at least two types of the Albright license plate. Here is a photo of the most common, and probably the first, type:
First type Albright plate.
A typical first type plate reads:
this machine is NOT guaranteed NOR made
but only licensed by
J. E. ALBRIGHT
253 Broadway, New York
Special No. 1234
The underlined number in the fifth (last) line is a stamped serial number. All the other information on the plate is engraved as an original part of the plate.
Here is a photo of a second type Albright plate:
Second type Albright plate.
The second type plate reads:
this machine is licensed
but NOT guaranteed NOR manufactured by
J. E. ALBRIGHT
253 Broadway, New York
No. 123
Note that the principal difference in the two types of Albright plate is in the wording of the first two lines. And there are variations in the fifth line, as seen below.
Here are some of the plates with their serial numbers that I am aware of (again, the underlined information is stamped on the plate):
___________________________________
C E N S U S
___________________________________
Plate type 1
"this machine is NOT guaranteed ...":
· Special No. 1083 WUTCO ... ebay 9/09, won by K5VT ==> IZ0KRC 2012
___________________________________
Plate type 2
"this machine is licensed":
It appears that on the type 2 plate the company for which the operator worked (or which owned the key?) is stamped on the plate, following the serial number space (see above photo). I have no idea what company "C" might stand for.
Last Update census to Nov. 2019 from Mar. 2023 - V 00.03