From: haynes@cats.ucsc.edu (Jim Haynes)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Book Review - Two Books about Telegraphy
Date: 15 Nov 92 09:15:22 GMT
Organization: University of California; Santa Cruz
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 851, Message 4 of 6

Review - Two Little Books about Telegraphy

1. Collectors' Reprint of Bunnell Student's Manual of 1884.
   privately printed by L. A. Bailey, 909 S. Evergreen Ave.,
   Clearwater, FL  34616.  48 pp. $8.00 ppd.

2. Railroad Telegrapher's Handbook, by Tom French.  Artifax
   Books, Box 88-D, Maynard, MA  01754. 60 pp.  $11.95 ppd.

I found these books advertised in "Dots and Dashes", the quarterly
newspaper of the Morse Telegraph Club, Inc. (subscription $7.00 per
year to R. A. Iwasyk, 12350 W. Offner Rd., Manhattan, IL 60442)

The "Student's Manual" is a beautiful reproduction of the 1884
original, including the gray cover.  J(esse) H. Bunnell & Co.  was a
leading manufacturer of telegraph instruments in the 19th century and
remained in business, doing a lot of contract manufacturing for
Western Union, until, I guess, the 1960s or later.  In contrast to the
reality reported by Edwin Gabler this booklet suggested excellent
employment prospects existed for telegraph operators.  The first topic
covered is the technical explanation of the telegraph, consisting of
battery, line wire, transmitting key, and sounder.  The battery
described in the wet gravity cell, containing copper sulphate and a
zinc "crowfoot" electrode.  Line wires are usually made of iron, for
cheapness and strength; while copper insulated with silk or
gutta-percha is used inside buildings.  The earth is used as one
conductor, so that a single wire may be used per circuit.  They key
and sounder are described next.  Earlier practice was to use a
register to record signals on paper tape. After several years of
practical telegraphy operators discovered they could read the
characters by the sound of the instrument as easily as by looking at
the marks on the tape; so registers fell into disuse.

Next the student is instructed in detail how to set up and care for
the battery and connect and adjust the instruments.  Then he or she is
to practice alone sending, practice sending and receiving with a
companion, and practice sending and receiving with the companion in
another room, or in another house.  Several pages are devoted to
details of learning the code.  This is followed by examples of
messages and discussion of common abbreviations and telegraph office
practices.  The popular amateur radio signal '73', now usually
rendered as "best regards", was in use in that day as "accept my
compliments."  Then there is a discussion of how to construct private
lines, and the need for a lightning arrestor.  It is noted that the
total resistance of the sounders should nearly equal the total
resistance of the line wire, showing that the maximum power transfer
theorem was known (whether by theory or by trial-and-error) in that
day.  The book concludes with a catalog of instruments available from
J. H. Bunnell, and page of testimonials to the excellence of Bunnell's
keys.  Keys, sounders, batteries, etc. are all illustrated.  The back
cover shows the appearance of Bunnell's store and factory at 112
Liberty Street, New York.

The Railroad Telegrapher's Handbook is a newly-written (1991) book
that tells all about how Morse telegraphy was used on railroads until
nearly the present time.  (An article in Dots and Dashes reproduces a
train order that was received by Morse in 1982, on the
Burlington-Northern, and may have been the last train order so
transmitted.)  Lists of operating rules are given, presumably taken
from the rule books of actual railroads, along with sample train order
messages.  Railroad telegraphy is a lot more complicated than the
ordinary Western Union office.  Railroad messages are critical to
safety; some messages are not complete until they have been repeated
back to the sender, delivered to the addressees, read and signed by
the addressees, and the signatures transmitted back to the sender.
Most require multiple copies.  A railroad operator would write with a
stylus on thin, translucent paper, using double-sided carbon paper.
Semaphore signals and the hooks for delivering messages to the crews
of moving trains are described.

Wiring diagrams are given for an operating table connected to several
lines, and for a Morse repeater.  There is a map of the New Mexico
Division of AT&SF, showing how various offices are connected to
several line circuits.  A selector system is described, which allows
calling up a particular telegraph office without requiring operators
to listen constantly for their office call letters.  (Most circuits
were "way" operated, meaning that several offices were connected by
the same circuit and sounders at all responded to all the traffic on
the line.)

The book is made all the more enjoyable with reproductions of
advertisements that appeared in trade magazines: typewriters,
telegraph instruments, Vibroplex keys, swivel chairs, shorthand
instruction, and an attachment to enable a bicycle to be ridden on the
railroad rail.  The Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad was
advertising for operators "able to copy Morse at 25 words per minute,
and should be in good physical condition."  as recently as 1954.  Of
considerable interest in this day when we hear so much about
repetitive motion injuries and carpal tunnel syndrome, there is an
advertisement for Telegrapher Liniment, which never fails where
directions are followed implicitly.  "Operator's Paralysis or Writer's
Cramp comes like a thief in the night, and almost before you are aware
of it you find it impossible to send any kind of readable Morse."
Another advertisement is for the "Operator's Friend" a massage or
exercise device whidh "prevents and cures telegrapher's paralysis and
writer's cramp."  The front cover reproduces an artist's illustration
from the front cover of a 1904 telegrapher's magazine, showing a young
man clad in white shirt, high collar, and vest working at his key
while a uniformed trainman waits at his elbow for orders.  There are
two pages of railroad slang and two pages of bibliography.


haynes@cats.ucsc.edu haynes@cats.bitnet