The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-03-19
SLANG WORDS
FROM THE WIRES
Queer Expressions Used Every Day
by Telegraph Operators.
DISTINCT MEANING IN EACH
TIME AND SPACE SAVED BY
SENDERS OF MESSAGES.

In the rush of every day commercial
life hundreds OF kilograms pass into
and out of the telegraph offices in Salt
Lake City. yet it is doubtful If one per-
son out of a hundred gives more than
a passing glance to the curious cabals-
tic letters which the operators insert
at the head of all outgoing or incom-
ing messages. Beyond those seemingly
meaningless letters and figures, there
is however, a vocabulary peculiar to
the profession which the general public
does not understand.
People In the telegraph business, like
those Of other trades or lines of bust
ness. become more or less ciannish,
and. aSsOcbating amongst themselves
so closely, have developed a great many
slang words and phrases peculiar to the
business they are in and which to most
people are quite unintelliSible.
The meeting Of ordinary slang is
quickly grasped by the general run of
Americans, it having no reference TO
any particular business, but slang as
sociated with any one branch of bust
ness is not 50 readily understood and
the telegraph business has great deal
of it.
Use of Slang Words
Words like ham and plug" are
now common to all trades n few
years ago they were used principally
teIegraDhers. Both have the same
meaning. being used to designate a per
son incompetent in his position. The
former probably originated with the
theatrical profession, while the latter
had its origin in the ranks of the teleg-
rauhers. Tue word now used in the tel
egraph business in place of these two
words is lid" This word contains
more sarcas IN than the others, and IS
very eXaspel-ating to an operator, Tor
-.,+ I'd T0neasaT mir
1t means an Incompetent workman and
q person ignorant of everything in gen
eraI.
If one Of two operators engaged in
conversation should ask the other If
ne had ever met or heard Of-Johnny
Gilbert for fnstanCe-he would prob
ably ask: What does he sign?" (teI-
egraphically spelled "sine.D n great
many operators have d wire acquaint-
auce hut have never met each other
personally. one in San Francisco may
work daily with one in New York Tor
years. and each would be ignorant of
the name Of the other. simply know
ing each other by the sine" by which
operators are identified That Is what
UouId bring forth the inquiry: What
does he since" \ "sine," or, more prop
erlv speaking. a signal. is a letter or
letters used by operators in sending
or receiving messages and each mes
sage handled by an operator must pear
his sine order lhdJ tAlt tBSA dtoi
handling it may be identified should 1t
become necessary to trace the mes
sage.
To get a ''sine'' means TO be given a
position in an office and To be assigned
= signal or sine" by the chief operator
An operator remarking that he once
Tad a sine in Chicago would mean
that he was once employed in that Of
fee"
one Of the group might make the
remark that BIN was lifted from
Oh today" by which he would mean
that the operator using BIN as a signal
had been taken of the Chicago circuit
during the day, for, presumably. un-
satisfactory work
great many operators become af-
fccted with what is generally known as
operators paralysis, AS a result OF
which their sending becomes uneven
and hard for the receiving operator TO
read at the other end of the circuit. a
person 50 affected IS usually referred TO
a. having a glass arm or as being a
man killer"
Bunch of indians.
NIGHT rate messages which are at
times referred to by the general public
as red messages, are sometimes re-
feIred to by telegra piers as Indians
and when. several have accumulated.
they are referred to as q bunch Of
Indians
Practically all long telegraph cir
cults are equipped with automatic re-
peaters, which are Instruments placed
at certain points for the purpose of
uicIting up a weak current and
strengthening it by automatic re-trans-
mission These are referred TO as
peters and when at times they be
come affected in such a way as TO re-
cord false signals they are, III the
Geographic vernacular said to be
buggy" 1t requires a firm sender to
get tclegraDhiC signals through a wire
having several sets OF rcpeaters on IT,
but sometimes an operator whose send
inc is not firm gets to such a wire and
the sending is not easily received at the
other end. \ sender Of this kind IS
known as a "chippy sender or as one
who drops off at the first pole"
Should the circuit happen to be weak
from an insufficient amount of electric
current, il is said that it needs more
Juice" An operator using a type
writer for copying messages from the
wire Is said TO use "mllI' while one
using a pen or pencil Is known as using
:; stick" When one is told Ito sit in
II means that he IS TO take the place OF
some other operator at the wire. An
"OS'r' Is Il term used IS applying to
an operator formerly employed on the
railroad. "OS' being the signal 10 re-
port trains as used on train dispatch
ing wires.
How Small offices Are Classe0.
1.-THE woods" is that section of a tel
eeraph Office i'm which way wires are
assembled each wire carrying from
five to thirty Offices or small towns
within a radius of from 200 TO 400 miles
The Met" (MetrOpOlitan) is that sec
ton Of the Office assigned to the assem-
bly, of wires leading TO numerous
branch offices within the city
If during a conversation between op-
orators on the wire. one of them wishe:
10 end the conversation he viii usual
~ say "25' signal meaning I an
busy An expression of regard be
tween operators is conveyed in the fig
ures 90" meaning my compliments.
or best wishes"
Another we'll known signal is con-
veyed in the figures go meaning the
end This signal is used in newspa
per press report. the last sheet always
containing '30' to indicate the close 70
the day. This signal also has touch
ing meaning at times. often being wo-
ven into floral pieces contributed by %
orators at the funerals Of deceased
members Of the craft.