In 1856 The American Telegraph Company purchased the Phelps and Dickerman factory in Troy and placed George Phelps as its Superintendent. Phelps, utilizing his experience with the House and Hughes instruments, continued to conceive improvements to a printing telegraph system and what eventually evolved in 1859 was one of his most notable inventions.
The Phelps Combination Printer or, The American Combination Printer, as it was sometimes called. Although very different from previous printers, it was called The Combination because Phelps took certain features of the House and Hughes printer and then added his own improvements. This printer would become recognized as the most successful type printing telegraph in the world. Phelps used a piano-like keyboard similar to the one on the House printer. It consisted of 28 keys, including a dot and a space key. He retained the improved synchronization concept of the Hughes. He also used his newly invented electro-magnetic governor to obtain higher stable speeds and made provisions for a choice of available power sources.( air, steam, and later electric motor) Soon after its introduction this printer was put to heavy use for nearly twenty years on some of the more important circuits in the East between Boston, Albany, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington . Two leading authorities on telegraph technology in the 19th century had the following to say about this printer. Franklin Pope: " As an example of consummate skill in mechanical design, this apparatus stands unapproached in its department of technology." George Prescott: " The operation of this instrument becomes more and more satisfactory every day, and is looked upon by all who have become familiar with its performances as the best telegraphic apparatus which has yet been produced." Its output was once measured during a eight and a half hour period between New York and Philadelphia. It transmitted 670 commercial length messages during that period and part of the time the instrument sat idle. Some of the instruments showed only minimal wear after printing over 5000 miles of paper. It should also be pointed out that in comparing the efficiency of this printer with conventional Morse transmission, that it typically takes multiple pulses of current to send a character using Morse Code on a circuit. With this printer, a single pulse can produce any character.
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In 1861, The American Telegraph Company placed George Phelps as Superintendent of their largest factory in Williamsburg, N.Y. (Brooklyn). At that same time American also purchased the rights to Phelps' more important patents. With American Telegraph's well established lines along the entire east coast, Phelps would design and build any instrument required for the company's system. It was here that his artistic and mechanical skills would be applied and become more recognized with conventional Morse instruments. With the outbreak of The Civil War, The American Telegraph Co. contributed instruments, manpower, operators, and new lines to support the War effort. Accordingly, Civil War era instruments made by Phelps had American Telegraph Company markings on them.

In the late 1860's, the heading of one of the more popular telegraph journals in the U.S.,
The Telegrapher, illustrates Phelps' influence in the industry. The table on the left has a full
compliment of Phelps' Morse instruments, and on the right, his Combination Printer.

Western Union, meanwhile, by continually absorbing other telegraph companies , was on the road to become the dominant telegraph company in the U.S. One of the last consolidations occurred with the acquisition of The American Telegraph Company in 1866. With this acquisition, Western Union now had the Williamsburg factory, along with George Phelps and his patent rights. With the huge volume of instruments required by this company, Western Union eventually designated three sites to be "Western Union Shops" : Williamsburg, N.Y., Ottawa, Ill., and Louisville, Ky.. In 1869 the Williamsburg factory moved into larger facilities in New York City.

Phelps / Western Union weight-driven register, late 1860's.

Phelps' career with Western Union found him working on any technology new or old that would ensure Western Union's dominance in the industry. In addition to being the Superintendent of Western Union's New York factory, he was also their Chief Machinist. In 1870, Phelps' design of a stock ticker later called the "Financial Instrument", proved valuable to Western Union in forcing a merger of The Gold and Stock Telegraph Company. Gold and Stock , the only company transmitting market information from the New York Stock Exchange, negotiated with Thomas Edison for the production of his Universal Private Line Printer to compete against Western Union. After several set backs, Edison's printer only had moderate success at this time. Western Union, threatening to enter the New York market with a new and faster printer from Phelps, arranged a merger with Gold and Stock in 1871. After the merger, the original Phelps stock ticker became their "Financial Instrument". With the design of his newest stock ticker, Phelps created a machine that was faster, very efficient, and more reliable compared with previous ticker designs. This instrument is one example of Phelps' artistic talents. He was noted for building machines and instruments that were considered beautiful.











Phelps' transmitting apparatus used with
the stock ticker above. One operator
could simultaneously transmit stock
information to hundreds of different offices.