The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1912-10-22
PIONEER OPERATORS
ARE STILL LIVING
Tell of Their Early Exper-
fences with Telegraph and
Their Successes.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 22.-"What
God hath wrought" the brief but i'm
pressive text of the first telegraph
message sent over the experimental
line from this city to Baltimore in 1874
was printed in every periodical in the
land at the time. Along with the text
of the celebrated message was pub
lished full account Of the changes in
social and business life it was predict
ed the new method of communication
would accomplish, and also a history
of the trials. and struggles of the in
ventor, Samuel Brinton Morse.
Although Morse had perfected the
system of telegraphy that now bears
his name as early as 1885, it was nine
years before he was able to induce the
Congress of the United States to ap-
propriate the $4,000 needed to con-
struct the worlds first telegraph line.
When Morse attempted to show that
his proposed system of communicating
the medium of dots and dashes, cleo
trically transmitted, was a universal
necessity instead of the hopeful dream
of an enthusiast private capitalists
laughed at him and hard headed con-
gressmen waved him aside. But he
persisted and finally congress was in
duced to grant the appropriation.
Stirs Boys Mind.
Among those who read the stirring
details of the initial success of the
great invention and the marvels it
tn
thirteen-year-old boys, in the far-off
village of Vassalboro, Kennebec Coun-
ty, Maine, with the boys, G. Alfred
Hall, and Albert G. Hall, twin broth
ers, born in the little New England
town in 1881, the thrilling story was
something more than nine days Won
der; to master the art of telegraphy
became then an ambition with them.
They came to Washington in 1S49,
when they were eighteen, and were
put to work at the key in local tele-
graph office. They are now celebrat-
ing thir eighty-first birthday at the
home of G. Alfred Hall, No. 1916 Six
teenth street, northwest, this city,
happy in the belief that they are the
oldest living telegraphers.
While they are willing to concede
that vast improvements have been
made in telegraph instruments and
Geographic methods since 1849, they
vigorously deny that present day tele-
graphers are better workmen than
they and their associates were in the
early days of the craft.
Newspaper editors, they say, have
told them that while they are pleased
with the speed of the typewriter, they
often long for the care and attention
bestowed upon their copy" by the old
time expert pen operator.
Took Much Pride.
When they were at the key, the
Halls declare, most telegraphers con-
sidered their vocation a profession,
taking great pride in writing perfect
ly legible copy" and keeping their
messages free from errors. Today. on
the ether hand, too many operators
look upon their work as purely me-
chanical haste being the main re-
quisite.
When the Halls entered the bust.
ness messages were received on an
instrument that recorded the dots and
dashes on paper tape. The operators
translated, and copied the indenta-
tons In the course of time the more
experienced telegraphers observed
that the dots made a sharp, clicking
sound when striking the tape, while
the dashes were perceptibly duller,
and the experts with some practice
found they could interpret messages
by sound without consulting the char
acters on the tape at all
Learning to read by sound, the
twins proudly assert, was as big a
stroke of enterprise as the discovery
of the so-called Philips Code system