Prototype Semi-automatic Telegraph Key
date: label: date made
content: 1941
name: label: maker
content: Lynn G. Heatherly
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: This prototype wireless telegraph key is from 1941. Until recently “wireless” meant radio and operators used keys to send radio messages via Morse code. The key is a semi-automatic device made by Lynn G. Heatherly. While working for the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad Company in Jacksonville, NC, Heatherly received US Patent #2,323,133 for this improved key. A semi-automatic key repeated the Morse code dots rapidly, much like holding down a key on a keyboard for repeated letters. The operator still keyed the dashes but could work much faster.
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
label: See more items in
content: Communications
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: from Oliver Clyde Burnette in memory of Lynn G. and Lois C. Heatherly
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2003.0235.01
label: accession number
content: 2003.0235
label: catalog number
content: 2003.0235.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: bug
label: Object Name
content: sending key
label: Object Name
content: semi-automatic key
label: Object Name
content: telegraph key
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: steel (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: chrome (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: cloth (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: rubber (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 2 7/8 in x 3 5/8 in x 8 in; 7.3025 cm x 9.2075 cm x 20.32 cm