[f. SOUND v.1]
1. One who makes or utters a sound or sounds; one who causes something, esp. an instrument, to sound.
1591. Percivall, Sp. Dict., Tañedor, a plaier or sounder of any instrument, cantor.
1648. Hexham, II. Een Luyder, ofte Luyer, a Ringer, a Sounder.
1809. W. Irving, Knickerb., IV. iv. (1848), 216. This sounder of brass moreover was a lusty bachelor.
1831. Scott, Ct. Robt., xiii. In the front … stood the sounder of the sacred trumpet.
1859. Dickens, T. Two Cities, II. i. The sounders of three-fourths of the notes in the whole gamut of Crime were put to Death.
2. A telegraphic device that enables the communications or signals to be read by sound.
1860. G. B. Prescott, Electr. Telegr., 91. Since the adoption of the method of reading by sound, another apparatus has taken the place of the register, or recording apparatus, called the sounder.
1870. F. L. Pope, Electr. Telegraph, iv. (1872), 32–3. The Sounder consists simply of the electro-magnet, armature and lever, fixed upon a base.
1876. Preece & Sivewright, Telegraphy, 246. The Sounder, on account of the extreme simplicity of its mechanism, is less liable to faults than any of the other forms of instruments which are employed.
attrib. 1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2247/2. Sounder-magnet.… The magnet which operates the sounder in the receiving apparatus.
b. A telegraphist who operates or has experience with this.
1887. Daily News, 2 May, 7/3. Telegraphist (sounder) desires engagement.
3. A device or instrument that gives a signal, etc., by sounding; also, the signal so given.
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., Suppl. 832/1. Sounder. An alarm or call, made by closing an electric circuit.
1891. Pall Mall Gaz., 1 June, 7/1. An electric sounder, too, is so arranged that it commences to ring if everything is correct, directly the gun is loaded and in the firing position.
