Review - Two Little Books about Telegraphy

by Jim Haynes

1. Collectors' Reprint of Bunnell Student's Manual of 1884.
   privately printed by L. A. Bailey, 909 S. Evergreen Ave.,
   Clearwater, FL  34616.  48 pp. $8.00 ppd.

2. Railroad Telegrapher's Handbook, by Tom French.  Artifax
   Books, Box 88-D, Maynard, MA  01754. 60 pp.  $11.95 ppd.

I found these books advertised in "Dots and Dashes", the quarterly
newspaper of the Morse Telegraph Club, Inc. (subscription $7.00 per
year to R. A. Iwasyk, 12350 W. Offner Rd., Manhattan, IL  60442)

The "Student's Manual" is a beautiful reproduction of the 1884
original, including the gray cover.  J(esse) H. Bunnell & Co.
was a leading manufacturer of telegraph instruments in the 19th
century and remained in business, doing a lot of contract
manufacturing for Western Union, until, I guess, the 1960s or
later.  In contrast to the reality reported by Edwin Gabler
this booklet suggested excellent employment prospects existed for
telegraph operators.  The first topic covered is the technical
explanation of the telegraph, consisting of battery, line wire,
transmitting key, and sounder.  The battery described in the
wet gravity cell, containing copper sulphate and a zinc "crowfoot"
electrode.  Line wires are usually made of iron, for cheapness
and strength; while copper insulated with silk or gutta-percha
is used inside buildings.  The earth is used as one conductor,
so that a single wire may be used per circuit.  They key and
sounder are described next.  Earlier practice was to use a register
to record signals on paper tape. After several years of
practical telegraphy operators discovered they could read the
characters by the sound of the instrument as easily as by
looking at the marks on the tape;  so registers fell into disuse.

Next the student is instructed in detail how to set up and care for
the battery and connect and adjust the instruments.  Then he
or she is to practice alone sending, practice sending and receiving
with a companion, and practice sending and receiving with
the companion in another room, or in another house.  Several
pages are devoted to details of learning the code.  This is
followed by examples of messages and discussion of common abbreviations
and telegraph office practices.  The popular amateur radio signal
'73', now usually rendered as "best regards", was in use in that
day as "accept my compliments."  Then there is a discussion of
how to construct private lines, and the need for a lightning
arrestor.  It is noted that the total resistance of the sounders
should nearly equal the total resistance of the line wire, showing
that the maximum power transfer theorem was known (whether by
theory or by trial-and-error) in that day.  The book concludes
with a catalog of instruments available from J. H. Bunnell, and
page of testimonials to the excellence of Bunnell's keys.  Keys,
sounders, batteries, etc. are all illustrated.  The back cover shows
the appearance of Bunnell's store and factory at 112 Liberty Street,
New York.

The Railroad Telegrapher's Handbook is a newly-written (1991) book
that tells all about how Morse telegraphy was used on railroads
until nearly the present time.  (An article in Dots and Dashes
reproduces a train order that was received by Morse in 1982,
on the Burlington-Northern, and may have been the last train
order so transmitted.)  Lists of operating rules are given,
presumably taken from the rule books of actual railroads, along
with sample train order messages.  Railroad telegraphy is a
lot more complicated than the ordinary Western Union office.
Railroad messages are critical to safety; some messages are
not complete until they have been repeated back to the sender,
delivered to the addressees, read and signed by the addressees,
and the signatures transmitted back to the sender.  Most require
multiple copies.  A railroad operator would write with a stylus
on thin, translucent paper, using double-sided carbon paper.
Semaphore signals and the hooks for delivering messages to
the crews of moving trains are described.

Wiring diagrams are given for an operating table connected to
several circuits, and for a Morse repeater.  There is a map
of the New Mexico Division of AT&SF, showing how various offices
are connected to several line circuits.  A selector system is
described, which allows calling up a particular telegraph office
without requiring operators to listen constantly for their
office call letters.  (Most circuits were "way" operated,
meaning that several offices were connected by the same circuit
and sounders at all responded to all the traffic on the line.)

The book is made all the more enjoyable with reproductions of
advertisements that appeared in trade magazines: typewriters,
telegraph instruments, Vibroplex keys, swivel chairs, shorthand
instruction, and an attachment to enable a bicycle to be ridden
on the railroad rail.  The Denver and Rio Grande Western
Railroad was advertising for operators "able to copy Morse
at 25 words per minute, and should be in good physical condition."
as recently as 1954.  Of considerable interest in this day when
we hear so much about repetitive motion injuries and carpal
tunnel syndrome, there is an advertisement for Telegrapher
Liniment, which never fails where directions are followed
implicitly.  "Operator's Paralysis or Writer's Cramp comes like
a thief in the night, and almost before you are aware of it you
find it impossible to send any kind of readable Morse."
Another advertisement is for the "Operator's Friend"
a massage or exercise device whidh "prevents and cures
telegrapher's paralysis and writer's cramp."  The front cover
reproduces an artist's illustration from the front cover
of a 1904 telegrapher's magazine, showing a young man clad in
white shirt, high collar,  and vest working at his key while a
uniformed trainman waits at his elbow for orders.  There are
two pages of railroad slang and two pages of bibliography.
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