The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1885-07-21
TELEGRAPHERS' PARALYSIS.
A New York Operators Theory of the Cause
of the Disease.


A majority of telegraph operators
sooner or later become ''paralyzed."
There seems to be no specific cause for
the complaint, though it is generally
attributed to Overwork. 1t certainly
can not be due to d ;ssipation alone. as
there are hundreds of eases where men
who have been hard drinkers for many
years still rank as experts in the pro-
feSsiOn. while on the other hand men
who have led strictly moral and tenn
perate life have lost entire use of their
arms after comparatively short expe-
rience in the business. Nor does dis
ease-nervOuS or Otherwise-seem to be
the prime factor. as it is very common
to see strong, robust man suffering
from it. 1t is fact that many opera
tors have been troubled with it from
the moment they commenced to learn,
and there is no doubt that it has pre-
vented many from becoming first
class" operators. 1t has been said that
paralysis is the cause of MANY of the
plumbers made by good men. To a GER
tain extent this is surely true. 1t must
be understood that the sO-called paral-
ysis from which operators suffer is
really weakness of the muscles and
nerves generally from the elbow to the
ends of the fingers. In its early stages
1T takes the form of cramps, causing
great pain in the wrist and hand, or q
numbness of feeling such as one feels
from bad circulation of the blood. 1t
gradually develops until the fingers
seem to lose the sense of touch, and,
without warning, they will Flip up"
and utterly refuse to be governed by
the mind. Now. if these ''flips" or
parOxysms should occur very often
while an operator is being rushed"
il is bound to cause him a great
deal of annoyance. He VIII get be-
hind. say ten or fifteen words. and
# he has the reputation OF being q
good man his pride will keep him at il
until the sender is finally so far ahead
that he is compelled to open the key.
In the meantime he has possibly left
out a word or half-spelled one, which.
If he is careful. can be corrected, but
the sender is impatient by the time he
has ''caught up" and he casts but a
rapid glance over his copy and COM
mences the struggle once more. Thus,
through inability to form the letters
and words as fast as he formerly did.
he makes errors uncOnSciouSly, through
getting behind. while at the same time
giving the work his entire attention.
The only remedy for him is to ''break,
break, break" or take some second
class wire. with reduction of wages
and loss of his professional reputa-
ton as a fast one" This is a hard
thing to do, and many a man is to-day
called ''tirst-class" who has seen his
best DAYS as an operator.
There is another reason why first
class men make errors. Although the
words are sent letter by letter. the
operator receives them apparently in
their complete form only. frequently
having several words in his head at
one time. Through the loss of sensi-
tiyeneSs in his fingers he is unable TO
form the characters with his former
ease and precision, and will very often
change the word entirely by the sub
stitution or omission of n letter. For
instance. thing" will be made to read
'think," Dough for bought" and
other common errors. Of course, the
misspelling of words is mostly caused
through ignorance, but cases of this
kind occur where the men have had
long experience and are well educated.
The most common reason why first
class men make errors is that they are
generally overworked. After working
hard for seven or eight hours, if they
are partially paralyzed, their arms be-
come heavy and tired, and no doubt
the brain is also affected. Every word
is put down with an effort, and it is a
wonder there are not more mistakes
than usually occur.-COr. Chicago .