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Submarine wired telegraph key with two bronze arms on a Bakelite base. The supports are tall in order to facilitate the transmission of electricity at high voltage, as required by submarine telegraph communications. It was a characteristic sample of a submarine telegraph key of the American company Western Union Transatlantic. If the left contact is depressed a positive deflection occurs, sending the dots of the Morse code. If the right contact is depressed, a negative deflection occurs sending the dashes of the Morse code. The submarine telegraph cables were too long therefore the keys served also as capacitors. Messages were usually recorder by separate devices connected to the reception-transmission telegraph system, capturing on rotating paper tapes the dashes and dots.