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Self Winding Stock Ticker

The self-winding ticker was invented by Mr. George B. Scott, Superintendent of the Gold and Stock Telegraph Company in New York, and Mr. W. P. Phelps of the Philadelphia Local Telegraph Company.  Mr. Phelps invented the automatic shift from letters to figures and vice versa by changing the polarity on the second or winding wire.  This was a great improvement over all other styles of printer at that time.   They were first called the Scott-Phelps ticker.

In 1903, Mr. J. C. Barclay, then Assistant General Manager of Western Union, wanted to change the ticker and make it smaller.  He called Mr. Jay R. Page from Chicago to New York for suggestions on the change; and, with Mr. Scott, they decided to put the escapement magnet and adjustment screws inside the ticker frame.   After this change the ticker was called the Scott-Phelps-Barclay-Page ticker, and later came to be known simply as the self-winding ticker, taking it's final shape sometime between 1915 and 1923.

The Thomas Edison Myth

Many people still believe that Thomas Edison invented the Self-Winding Ticker.  In part, because some are marked "MF'D BY T A EDISON INC".  Many self-winders were manufactured in Edison's factory, but he had nothing to do with it's invention.  In fact, when the new self-winder came out, over 30 years had already passed since Edison's last ticker patents and all had expired.  

Furthering the myth, in the 1940's or 1950's, it is believed that at least one retailer purchased many obsolete self-winders from Western Union and sold them as novelties with this brass plaque attached --

In the 1960's, retiring Western Union executives would often receive one of these "Edison" self-winders as a gift from Western Union.   It has come to the point where even the Edison Museum displays one of these tickers with the Edison plaque as one of his first inventions, and they even sell postcards of it.

Self Winding Model Types

Differences in Ink Rollers

European Self-Winders