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From: gabe@sirius.ctr.columbia.edu (Gabe Wiener)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Telegraph History....Again!
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Date: 25 Sep 89 02:54:59 GMT
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Organization: Columbia University Center for Telecommunications Research
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X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 405, message 2 of 5

With all this talk of Western Union history and whatnot, I thought that
these little anecdote might be appropriate.

When Thomas A. Edison was a teenager in the 1860's, he used to work in
a telegraph office.  At one point, he was assigned to work the
graveyard shift.  Now in those days, a telegraph operator would have
to send a six over the line (represented at the time by the morse
signal ......, although the MODERN morse signal is -....).  Anyway,
there was very little traffic over the circuits in those days was very
light in the wee hours.  Now it is a well known fact that Tom Edison
liked to sleep during his work.  However, he was often admonished for
nodding off durning his operating hours when he failed to send the
six.  So he rigged a six notched gear to the movement of a nearby
clock, and whenever the clock would reach the hour, the gear would
promptly roll over the telegraph key sending the six, and permitting
Edison to get a good night's sleep.

One of the first telegraph services in the world opened in England in
the early 19th century.  It was based on an electric telegraph, not a
magnetic one. It was called the Lawyer's Telegraph Service.  It
connected up the various attorney's firms through a central
switchboard.  The calling operator would signal the switchboard via
handeles, spelling out the name of the party to be called.  The
operator would make the appropriate connections, and the two firms
could communicate.  Certain movements of the handles would cause a
bell to ring at the exchange, signalling the operator to take down the
connection.

Gabe Wiener - Columbia Univ.      "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings
gabe@ctr.columbia.edu              to be seriously considered as a means of
gmw1@cunixd.cc.columbia.edu        communication. The device is inherently of
72355.1226@compuserve.com          no value to us."