An American inventor David Hughes (1831-1900) constructed a type printing telegraph which was very popular in many countries. Letters, numbers and symbols were transmitted by means of piano-like fingerboard. It was possible to transmit more than 10 000 symbols per hour that is three times faster than a Morse apparatus.
In 1865 D. Hughes was invited to Russia and signed a contract for construction of a new telegraph line between Saint-Petersburg and Moscow. He personally supervised installation of his apparatuses. Soon type printing Hughes telegraphs replaced old Morse devises and were widely used in Russia till 1930-th.

In 1897 Russian engineer E. Buchgeim adjusted an electric motor instead of a gravity drive, originally installed by Hughes. His improvement made the job of telegraph offices easier and faster.