Lionel Morse Code Keys

Neither, apparently, have most of the actors portraying vintage telegraphers in the movies, a minor pet peeve of mine. Most pretend to be sending messages by tapping on the top of the key's knob with the index and sometimes the next finger, relying on the spring to return the arm to the top for the next input and sometimes even lifting their fingers at the top. Every accomplished manual telegrapher I've ever known also uses both the thumb and ring finger *under* the top of the knob, to quickly return the arm to its top position *and* provide solid kinesthetic feedback to the telegrapher as to the arm's position, *never* lifting the fingers off the top of the key.

Of course, back in the early '60's in my ham radio days, the switch had largely been made to semi-automatic (horizontal mechanical swing arm for the dots, manual contact for the dashes) and automatic (horizontal contacts for both, with dots and dashes electronically generated) keys, so true high-speed telegraphy with a manual key was a dying art even then.

Thought they made binoculars during the war? Guess they made several things.

 A couple of books on this subject you might find interesting

 My Sisters Telegraphic: Women in the Telegraph Office 1846-1950 - Jepsen.   The book covers women working in all facets of telegraphy including railroads.

  An interesting bit of information from the book: "When James D. Reid, superintendent of the Atlantic and Ohio Telegraph Company, hired Emma Hunter as an operator in 1851, evidently at her suggestion, he did not attempt to put her in a public office but instead ran the telegraph wires into her sitting room, the proverbial center of the domestic sphere: “We remember well that the wires were introduced into a neat sitting room of a home in Westchester, Pa., where, with the instruments on one side and a work basket on the other, our new assistant sent and received her messages, and filled up the interim in fixing here Sunday bonnet, or embroidering articles of raiment which a gentleman editor is not expected to know or name.”

 Reid’s well-intentioned but chivalric attempt to preserved the public/domestic dichotomy was ultimately unsuccessful; women workers, including Hunter, soon entered the public sphere in such large numbers that the public ceased to regard their employment as novel. Ironically, though, Reid’s basic conservative gesture presaged a cultural paradigm shift far more radical than he could have imagined; Emma Hunter, receiving and sending messages in her sitting room in 1851, was arguably the world’s first “electronic commuter.”

The second book is

Singing Rails - Pease   

  Pease began his railroad career in April 1900 at the age of 17 as a night operator telegrapher/station agent for the Chicago and Alton railroad. His first station assignment was Atlanta, Illinois and his first night on the job was the stuff of Hollywood grade B movies – report to work, the relieved station agent walks out on him the minute he arrives, he misses his first OS from dispatch and gets chewed out, has a drunk reel in off the street and try to kill him because he thinks Pease got his sister in trouble (the night operator whom Pease relieved had done that and skipped-Pease was his replacement).

Two years into his work Operator Paralysis, also known as a glass arm (repetitive motion injury) brought his telegrapher career to a halt. Pease wanted to continue working for the railroad and he was able to land a job as a ticket agent and ultimately was promoted to the position of central passenger agent for the Missouri Pacific Railroad.

...and if all you can stand as far as reading is concerned is a short story then the must read in that genre is

 The Night Operator - Packard   - I promise you - you won't soon forget Christopher Hyslop Hoogan.

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When a repeater does an auto identification, I recognized the pattern from different repeaters, but not the call sign of the repeater.

Your right Walt, even after the class I was nervous I was going to have to use it. Although I passed the class I was very slow.  We had a guy who thought the smoke grenades was supposed to be thrown at the helicopter when it was low enough to alert them that we were there, not the sharpest knife in the drawer!! 

Dave