[CW] Morse code for ! and #

[Richard Knoppow]

    I found in my computer two editions of _Modern Practice 
of the Electric Telegraph_ Franklin L. Pope.  Both are from 
Google books so are available free.  The editions are from 
1891 and the other from 1872.  The older one states that 
punctuation was not much used in the United States, rather 
operators stressed various letters and words to make them 
stand out. The later edition has a long list of conventional 
signals for all sorts of punctuation.  Its made clear in a 
footnote that the convention for a capital letter; CX, is to 
be sent before each letter.  The same is true for some other 
conventional signals.
   The Phillips code was devised by Walter Phillips in 1879, 
there is some biography of Phillips on the web, for instance 
at; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_P._Phillips
 and the code is described at
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillips_Code
which also has links to the code.  So, the older edition of 
Pope's book was published prior to the publication of the 
Phillips code and the newer edition afterward.  The Phillips 
code was designed largly for transmission of press material. 
The interesting side light on the philosophy of sending 
given in the older edition of Pope's book is in contrast to 
the later idea of perfect hand-sent code sounding as though 
it was machine sent. I guess the old time wire operators 
liked to get a little individuality into their sending.
    I think there is a good deal more telegraph stuff at 
Google Books and also probably at http://www.archive.org
    There were a lot of interesting and curious people 
involved with early telegraphy.


--
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles
WB6KBL
dickburk at ix.netcom.com