The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1890-01-24
1ELEoRAPHIc BLUNDERs.
Some of the Causes from Which Most {
Them Arise.

Some of the Causes from Which Most OF
Them Arise.
"Get rid of Emma at once; exposure
imminent" Such were the contents,
startling and unexpected, of telegram
opened by the wife of one of our city
men during his absence. How many
signs and tears, how much doubt and
anguish resulted, and with what diff
Guilty and persuasion incredulity was
overcome and confidence restored, who
shall tell. Suffice it that tears gave way
to laughter when it was explained that
emma" was the name of big mine in
America, and the mysterious message
only hint to sell out shares in that no.
torious undertaking.
There was no blunder, telegraphic or
otherwise, in the transmission of the
above message, but it will serve as an
example of the ambiguity of the modern
business telegram. Nine out of ten Of
the messages passing to-day between
business houses are so abbreviated, so
full of technical terms, as to be an abb
outside the particular business con-
cerned.
There is no occasion whatever to con-
denim this practice: indeed, the manifold
advantages secured by the use of alb
breviated or code kilograms, principally
as regards economy and secrecy, i'm
measurably outweigh the disadvantages
of occasional misunderstanding. 1t
must, however, be admitted that slight
telegraphic blunder which would not af-
feet the sense of plainly worded mes
sage, might entirely obscure or alter the
meaning of an abbreviated or ambigu-
Gus one. The person who despatched
the comforting assurance, made all
right" could not, of course, foresee that
that the failure of two little signals
would transform his message into the
alarming statement ''mad all night" but
the economist who condensed the same
meaning into the single word settled
could not loudly complain that the mes.
sage as delivered contained the unmean-
ing and somewhat irritating word met
tied"
The blunders of the telegraph arise
from more than one cause. In addition
to those produced by indistinct or illit
crate writing, very large number are
due to mechanical or electrical faults in
the apparatus or on the line. The Morse
code or alphabet, by means of which the
pulsations of the electric current are
read, is, as most people are aware, com.
posed of dots and dashes, or rather short
and long signals, combinations of which
il different orders and quantities form
the letters of the alphabet. These sig
| nails are liable to mutilation in three
ways: BY failing" or the loss of q
signal; by sticking" or the running to-
gether of two signals; and by ''split
ting" or the breaking up of one sigma
into two or more. To illustrate this, LEI
us take the letter r." which is ex
pressed by dot, dash, and dot -
| BY the accidental omission of the frs
or last dot, it would become either n
or - A. BY the running together Of
two signals it would again, although moi
perfectly, become = N, or - A, while
the splitting up of the dash would trans
| form it into HI ----. When it is remem
bered that all of these faults may be-
and occasionally are, present at the same
time, the mystery OF some telegraphit
blunders is explained Jour