Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-08-12
THE CLICK OF THE KEY
Reading of Telegraph Messages by
Sound-Story of First Trial.

Sound-Story of First Trial.
! Ezra Cornei is SHOWN in history as
| The father OF Cornell university. as
one of the men who helped 10 build
the first telegraph line and as an ar
dent oeganizer of telegraph systems in
the early days. being instrumental In
the formation Of the now famous
Western Union Telegraph company.
His son. Alonzo b. Cornell, became
ultimately vice president of the West
ern Union and governor of New York
| state-high commercial and political
donors.
Yet he once confessed to me that he
felt he should be credited with the
additional honor of having made the
discovery that telegraph messages
could be read by ear. and he seemed
to take more pride in his part in bring
ing this about than he did in any OF
his other achievements.
81 was trained as a telegraph opera
tor" said Mr.. Cornell in telling me the
story. Il suppose | took to telegraphy
naturally because OF my fathers deep
and large interests in the then new
mode of communication. Anyway. !
learned the Morse key easily. and L
was. in fact. very fond of telcgraphtng
from both the practical and the Scien-
tific standpoints.
"One afternoon, sometime in the ear
ly fifties. when l was stationed at AL
bany. n. Y. there was an unusual in
rush of newspaper dispatches-I was
in charge Of the press key-and in the
midst of the task of receiving them l
hot
out of tape. Before taking my seat
before the key had neglected to re-
plenish the tape reel.
There was bountiful supply of
tape in the cellar of the building. but
1t was a long trip there-there were
no elevators in those days-and l knew
that TO go there / would waste pre-
cious time. And there were those anx-
ious newspaper men hanging over my
shoulder
Suddenly. as l fished about mental
ly for the quickest way out of my
dilemma. this thought popped into my
head: You don't need any tape. Half
the time you don't look at it when the
dispatches are coming in before you
write them out. You trust TO your
ears TO tell what the instrument says
Why not do so now Instantly l de-
termined TO see whether or not l could
take the dispatches by sound alone.
81 put my fingers on the key and
broke in on New York. whence the
dispatches were coming. Send rather |
slowly and very distinctly / asked the |
man at the other end of the wire. he /
at once began 10 do so-not without 1
some curiosity as to my reason. i |
found out later
But l didn't think of that at the |
time. for l was glowing all over with |
the knowledge that / could write out |
the dispatches-and write them cor
rectly, for they made sense-by simply |
listening to the sounds that the key I.
made.
Thus / continued taking the dis |
patches TO the very end. Then the |
New York operator called me. What
are you doing up there?' he asked.
Why did you want me to send slowly
and distinctly
Il answered that / had said goodby !
to the telegraph tape forever and told |
him of the discovery / had made. He
was immediately interested. Send
me slowly and very distinctly fifteen
or twenty words. and I'll see whether
or not can do the same thing he re-
QueSted.
Il did so. full of confidence. and
little later there came to me this mes
sage: I've done it too. Some of the
other boys say they can. ! predict
that within Il month there won't be an
inch Of tape used in the New York
office
Years Iafer." added Mr. Cornell. J
was told that about the time that |
discovered for myself Il new and revo-
lutionary method Of receiving tele
graph messages the same method was
also discovered by an operator in the
main office in Pittsburg. ! have no
doubt that this is true. Sooner or
later the discovery was bound to be
made not only in one. but several
Offices. But have always felt that
was the first to make the discovery
and should be credited with it in teie-
graphic history. Boston Globe.