Telegraph Key
date: label: date made
content: ca 1917
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: Telegraph keys are electrical on-off switches used to send messages in Morse code. Radio, or "wireless" as is was then called, played only a minor role in World War I, but land-line telegraphy connected commanders to troops in the trenches. According to the Western Union catalog, "This Key [was] picked up in a German Post Command Dug-Out on the Western Front near Fey-en-Haye, France on Sept. 13, 1918, after the first day of American operations to eliminate the St. Mihiel salient. Received from E.T. Rickard, Radio Detail, 307 F.A. Headquarters Co, American Expeditionary Force."
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
label: See more items in
content: Telegraph Keys
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content: Communications
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: from Western Union Corporation
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: EM.331832
label: accession number
content: 294351
label: catalog number
content: 331832
objectType: label: Object Name
content: key
label: Object Name
content: telegraph key
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 2 in x 2 1/8 in x 5 in; 5.08 cm x 5.3975 cm x 12.7 cm