[CW] Fwd: SideSwiper Net History

[D.J.J. Ring, Jr.]

Years ago, Bob Schrader, W6BNB (ironically the photo dated below was taken
of Bob in his radio officer merchant marine officers cap the day before his
death <https://qcwa.org/w6bnb-13090-sk.htm>.

Bob started a sideswiper net on 80M in California, it was still going on in
the 1980s when I came across it. I joined in when sailing upstream along
the California coast headed for Alaska. I checked in using a Vibroplex, and
I probably mistakenly thought they were irritated that I did so, but in
reality, no one cared, they were just delighted that I checked in, cootie
senders are like that I found out, but I had a chance to listen to some
awesome cootie operators (all of whom I've forgotten names, calls, except
Bob who was legendary and very generous with his time. He wrote "Electronic
Communication" which was the bible especially for those taking the
Telegraph FCC element 5 (telegraph procedure) and 6 (radiotelegraph
circuits and theory), in fact his edition 1 and 2 carried information about
Spark and Arc - both of which Bob had learned on and used on his trips with
Dollar Line - which was the predecessor of American President Line.

From
https://www.gjenvick.com/OceanTravel/SteamshipLines/DollarSteamshipLine.html
>
> Dollar Line continued expanding its business in the late 1920s, buying
five more "535 President Type" ships in 1926. In that year, Dollar Line
carried over 45,000 passengers and had gross revenue of $6 million. Dollar
encouraged others to invest in Asia with his booklet, "Have You
Investigated the Oriental Market for Your Product?", helping to open up
Asia to 20th-century industry. The Merchant Marine Act of 1928 (also known
as the Jones–White act) also helped Dollar Line, allowing it to sign a
lucrative new mail contract and requiring it to build new ships to meet
demand.
> On May 16, 1932, Robert Dollar died at the age of 88 and was succeeded by
his son, Robert Stanley Dollar. Following Robert senior's death, the
company began a steady decline. In 1938. American Mail Line became American
President Lines.

Bob was also active in the Society of Wireless Pioneers "Intercontinental"
net which was run by Hank W1HRQ who had  two 120 foot towers and strung 130
feet of wire between them. He showed me what a great signal can be had if
you just spend the attention and money on a dipole like you usually do when
you put up a beam.  How true.
Hank W1HRQ taught electronics for RCA and he was outstanding say the many
R/O's who took his class, no elitism of "the educated" was his, which is
fabulous and a wonderful refreshment from the constant elitism we find
today where people who didn't pursue degrees are marginalized.  Hank sent
with a Yaesu FT-101 and he inserted a 1 mfd capacitor across the keyline to
give the transmissions a wonderful bell shaped tone like the old KFS (ITT
Mackay San Francisco) transmitters on 22515 and 17026 kHz - the
transmitters are the old "Globe Wireless / Press Wireless Transmitters used
at the South of San Francisco harbor site near Palo Alto, CA, receiver site
at Half Moon Bay.

Bob was well educated but by the Trade Schools, I don't know about Hank but
they both were experts and they knew what they were talking about, not just
"about" something.  That was my reaction when I saw Bob's book at the
Harvard Coop Book Store in 1977, it was over my budget - probably nearly
$40.00 but I knew he knew what he was talking about, it reeked of "real
knowledge" so I bought it and I never regretted doing so, in fact I bought
his 2nd edition just to read what he said about Spark and Arc.

Some more info on Palo Alto KFS that had that beautiful bell shaped tone
that is preserved at several of the KPH/KFS transmitters now in use (except
QRT for the duration of the Pandemic.)

Voice of America: Palo Alto in California
A Story of an International Shortwave Broadcasting Station in California
That Was on the Air During the Intense Days of the Decisive Pacific War

by Adrian M. Peterson, 3.01.2007
Dr. Adrian M. Peterson is a board member of the National Association of
Shortwave Broadcasters. He was born in South Australia in 1931; since 1944
he has since written several thousand articles on radio history, which have
been published in 25 languages. He is advisor to the program “Wavescan” and
coordinator of international relations for Adventist World Radio. He wrote
“The 'Isle of Dreams' Goes Shortwave” here last fall.


*This is the second in an occasional series on the stories behind shortwave
broadcasting stations in the United States and its territories; it is
published in cooperation with the National Association of Shortwave
Broadcasters. Some stations are gone and almost forgotten, others can be
heard today.*

*KROJ QSL card, VOA-OWI*That is the story of an important international
shortwave station that was on the air during the intense days of the
decisive Pacific War. Programming from this station was beamed south to the
Pacific and north to Alaska and it was made up of relays from OWI-VOA and
also AFRS.

We take a look at the known information, admittedly a little sketchy, about
this significant shortwave relay station, and we begin way back nearly 100
years ago.

*Federal Telegraph*

There was a maritime wireless station established on Ocean Beach in San
Francisco near what became the southern end of the Golden Gate Bridge back
in the year 1910. During the American involvement in World War I, this
Morse Code wireless station was taken over by the Navy for naval
communication, and in 1921, it was handed back to Federal Telegraph.

During the following year, another maritime station with updated electronic
equipment was erected further south at a new location in the marshy areas
of the inner harbor at Palo Alto. At the time, both of these stations were
owned by the Federal Telegraph Company, which also owned a wireless
equipment factory in the Palo Alto area, and both stations identified on
the air in Morse Code as KFS. Over a period of six years, the maritime
wireless communication service from the older Ocean Beach station was fully
phased out in favor of the newer Palo Alto station.

Soon afterwards, the communication radio station at Palo Alto was sold to
the Mackay Wireless & Cable Company, though the station still identified on
air as KFS. That was its main call sign, and back in those days, every new
channel in the shortwave spectrum was officially allocated a new three
letter call sign. In the mid 1930s, most of the channel call signs from
Palo Alto Radio were in the KW series, such as KWA, KWB, KWC, etc.

Immediately after Pearl Harbor, rapid moves were made in the United States
to increase the number of shortwave transmitters on the air with
international radio programming from a dozen up to about three dozen. In
fact, on the West Coast at that time, there was only one regular station on
the air with international shortwave programming; that was station KGEI, at
Belmont, also south of San Francisco. It is true, special programs were
broadcast from some of the communication transmitters operated by RCA
(Radio Corporation of America) at Bolinas, but the scheduling was only
occasional and spasmodic.

Quite quickly, additional shortwave transmitters were installed at various
locations in California and brought into service as soon as possible to
give international coverage into the Pacific and Asia, as well as to
Australia and New Zealand.

Among these new stations back in the early days of the Pacific War were
KWID and KWIX at Islais Creek, KRCA and KRCQ at Bolinas, and an additional
unit at Belmont, KGEX. In addition, two new broadcasting units were made
available at KFS, the Mackay maritime station at Palo Alto, and these
identified on air with the four letter broadcast call signs, KROJ and KROU.
A third unit, KROZ, was quickly commandeered for the surrender broadcasts
in August 1945.

*KROJ*

The first of these new transmitters at Palo Alto was KROJ, and according to
published information at the time, the transmitter was a 50 kW Press
Wireless unit, manufactured in the United States, sent to England, and
re-imported back into the United States.

However, another report states that the new KROJ was in reality an RCA
unit, already available, that was quickly installed at Palo Alto and
pressed into service. Notwithstanding these published reports, experienced
radio personnel in the San Francisco area state that they consider the new
shortwave service was transmitted from communication units already on the
air at the Palo Alto station, and perhaps modified for broadcast usage.

Experienced international radio monitors in Australia and New Zealand who
tuned in daily to the many shortwave stations in California during the
Pacific War noted the strong signals from station KROJ and estimated the
power output to be at 50 kW. The signal strength surely indicated that the
power output of this strong new station could not be less than 20 kW, and
certainly not at 100 kW.

Without ceremony or prior publicity, transmitter KROJ suddenly appeared on
the shortwave bands with a relay of programming from VOA, the Voice of
America and AFRS, the Armed Forces Radio Service. The first known
monitoring of this new unit was in Australia in June 1943.

Just prior to Pearl Harbor, OWI, the Office of War Information in
Washington, established a branch office in San Francisco. The location was
111 Sutter Street, the well known home for NBC around that era. West Coast
programming for the VOA-OWI transmitters was produced in the Sutter Street
studios, and also in studios established in two hotels on Nob Hill,
Fairmont and Mark Hopkins.

The OWI-VOA office in Sutter Street sent me a copy of their official
schedule for the California stations, effective Aug. 1, 1945, just a few
days before the surrender broadcasts. This schedule included the
programming from all of the California shortwave stations that were active
in the VOA network at the time. These stations were KROJ and KROU, as well
as KGEI and KGEX, KWID and KWIX, KCBA and KCBF, and KNBA/KNBI/KNBX, as well
as the new Hawaiian station KRHO. (Over a period of time, we hope to look
here at the history of all of the shortwave stations in the United States,
including the California stations.)

This VOA schedule shows such familiar programs from the wartime era as
“World News,” “Concert Hall,” “Your Marine Corp,” “G. I. Jive” and “Hymns
from Home.” Commentaries from major sporting events were also included in
their regular programming. This schedule shows only the English language
programming, and none of the programming on the air in the foreign
languages of Asia and the Pacific.

It is probable that the broadcast call signs for the relay transmitters at
Palo Alto were derived from KRO. The call sign KRO had been in use
previously with the RCA shortwave communication station at Kahuku on the
island of Oahu, Hawaii and it was recycled into use at Palo Alto in early
1943. Hence, from communication KRO was derived the broadcast call signs
KROJ, KROU and KROZ.

*Footprint*

The intended coverage areas for the transmissions from KROJ were the South
Pacific, coastal Asia, New Guinea, Alaska and the Aleutians. Shortwave
frequencies were chosen accordingly, to ensure propagation at the required
distance and at the time of day in the reception areas.

The signal strength in the target areas was usually very good. In fact, an
army officer serving in North Borneo stated on one occasion, as reported in
a radio magazine in Australia, that he was hearing the broadcasts from KROJ
via a local medium-wave (AM) station. It is probable that this off-air
relay from KROJ in San Francisco was heard from an AM medium-wave station
located on Labuan Island, North Borneo, that had been captured from the
Japanese just a few days earlier.

A sister transmitter, KROU, suddenly appeared on the radio dial in April
1945, equally unheralded and unpublicized. Programming for this unit was
also drawn from VOA and AFRS sources and beamed to similar areas as KROJ,
north to Alaska and south to the Pacific. The planned scheduling for these
two transmitters was announced ahead of time on air, and in radio magazines
in the United States and Australia, and it was also sent to listeners in
duplicated form.

At the time of the surrender broadcasts from Tokyo Bay in 1945, another
Palo Alto transmitter suddenly joined the network, and this was identified
as KROZ. This unit was already in service with communication traffic across
the Pacific, it was stated, and because of the sudden requirements at the
end of the Pacific War, apparently it was hurriedly given another broadcast
call sign in the Palo Alto sequence and brought into service. Maybe this
call sign with its very brief usage was even unofficial. Who knows?

Programming from KROZ was in parallel with KROJ. Station KROZ was on the
air for a few days only, and at the most, just a week or two.

The last known program broadcasts from KROJ and KROU took place around
November or December 1945. The war was over, and the two new and very large
stations, VOA Delano and VOA Dixon, both in California, were already being
phased into service. The temporary units at Palo Alto were no longer needed
for broadcast service, and we would guess that they were quietly taken back
into the regular communication service from Radio Palo Alto, station KFS.

The total time of on-air service from KROJ/KROU/KROZ was less than 1-1/2
years, and they vanished as they began, unheralded and unannounced.

N0UF has this on his website which I believe is part of what used to be
posted on our website.  He quotes "World Radio" June 1988.

June, 1988             Worldradio                               page 62
         Sideswiper Net             by Bob Shrader, W6BNB

The Society of Amateur Radio Operators (SARO), formed in 1937 in the San
Francisco Bay Area, has recently reached back into the far distant past to
come up with a "Sideswiper Net."

Old-timers may know what a sideswiper is, but for the younger members of
the fraternity, it is a key that operates somewhat like a bug or an
electronic keyer. On such keys - as you probably know - a push of the thumb
produces a series of dots, and a push of the first finger produces a dash
on a bug, or a series of dashes with an electronic keyer. But the
sideswiper, or "cootie" key, makes a dash with either the thumb or first
finger.

To make a dot, you just tap either side of the paddle(s) lightly. To make
two dots, you tap first the left side and then the right side. To make an
"S" you tap left-right-left, or you may make it by tapping
right-left-right, and so on. For a "K" you can make a dash with the finger,
a dot with the thumb, and the second dash with the finger; or again, you
can reverse it and make a dash with the thumb, dot with the finger and dash
with the thumb.

Sounds easy, doesn't it? Well it isn't. If you don't believe me, try it.

To try to send with a cootie key, you can use one of several types of keys.
One of the easiest is to use an electronic key paddle that has a center
lead and two outside leads (to the right and left contacts). By tying these
two outside leads together, the center and outside leads make up a cootie
key circuit. Or you can homebrew a short piece of hacksaw blade held at one
end above a base board, that can be pushed against a contact to the right
or against a contact to the left.

You can fashion your own paddle out of a piece of 1/8" 3-ply and glue or
bolt it to the end of the hacksaw blade. You can also bolt two hand keys
together, base-to-base, and fix them so the bases are at 90º from a wooden
- or better yet, a heavy metal - base.

By far the simplest cootie key is made by tying the end of the vibrating
end of a bug to its backstop with a rubber band so that the rod cannot move
off of the backstop. Then with the thumb pushed to its stop, adjust the dot
contact until it makes a solid electrical connection - and you have an
excellent working sideswiper.

These keys were used 100 years ago by telegraphers, and later by the
early-day radio operators. Around the '30s they began to disappear, and it
is unusual to hear an old-timer pounding brass on a sidewinder any more.
Once in a while you will hear one, probably on 40 or 80 M. They have a
distinctive sound because it is extremely hard to make similar dots with
both thumb and first finger, or similar dashes with thumb and finger. In
most cases, a computer will not copy transmissions made by cootie key
because of the "swing" of the sending. It tends to separate the men from
the boys as operators. You usually can't cheat by copying cootie key
operators with a computer; you have to be able to read the stuff by ear.

Actually, it requires many hours of practice on THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPED
OVER THE LAZY DOGS BACK 1234567890.?, BT AR AS and SK before an operator
dares to put his sending on the air. However, if you are one who enjoys a
challenge, you will find your match in a sideswiper.

The SARO Sideswiper Net is on 3668.5 kHz at 9 a.m. Pacific Time on Tuesday
mornings if you are interested and live in the central California area. If
out of the area, you might try setting up a net of your own, if you can
find any people crazy enough to check in with you.

It is a little painful to transmit with these keys. It is surprising how
hard it is for an old-time bug or electronic key operator to train the part
of his brain that the cootie key operates from. That old thumb just won't
make dashes correctly!

I thought some would enjoy a bit of history.  Nice memories from our
departed cootie pioneers!

73

DR







On Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 06:26 BURNS MARTIN JR <w4foa at comcast.net> wrote:
>
> Morning David,
> I hope you have had a restful night's rest.
> Yes, I bought my GHD SS many years ago when they were still using hacksaw
blade, or at least is looks like that is what they used.  I bought it from
the key guy out in Colorado.  I also have the GHD GT-501M, which I think is
somewhat rare and such a wonderful SK.  I guess the thing that I am also
very impressed with the GHD line is the finish.
> Years ago I had a new Camelback from Begali and I was every so
disappointed in the finish.  You could easily see the saw/sanding marks
throughout the entire key.  A couple of years ago I bought an exquisite
Camelback made by hand by Kelly K7S.. (forgot his call).  It is HEAVY and
the finish is almost as good as GHD.
> Yes Pete is an excellent op.  I haven't heard him in months but we used
to cross paths often on the SKCC events
> Well we are getting a super heavy rain this morning.  No lightning or
thunder just heavy rain.
> OK my friend, I so enjoy our email exchanges and so miss our on the air
chats.
> God Bless
> Tony W4FOA
> PS: The Begali, all of them, are just beyond my reach, hi.
>
> On 08/23/2020 5:11 AM D.J.J. Ring, Jr. <n1ea at arrl.net> wrote:
>
>
> Did you get the sideswiper when GHD introduced one specifically as a
sideswiper?
>
>
> I understand that was the best, probably second in the world to the
Begali Sculpture which has this complicated "drive" system to give the key
a blade feeling but a hard stiff lever accuracy.
>
> It's expensive!
> https://youtu.be/PiIIO-IbCdQ
>
> Pete has a nice fist.
> 73
> DR
>
> On Sat, Aug 22, 2020 at 6:18 PM BURNS MARTIN JR < w4foa at comcast.net>
wrote:
>
> David,
> Thanks for your analysis.   I had figured as much but as you say, the
previous owner did a magnificent job with the key. The base is HEAVY and
probably made of pig iron?  I have another Bunnell type W cootie which I
will be selling soon along with a bunch of other keys.  I've been selling
off my collection over the past few years but typically I would answer a
request for a key type rather than advertise for sale.
> My go to cootie is the GHD single lever....love it.
> I've saved the info you included in your email for future reference.
> Thanks again....73 and God Bless
> Tony W4FOA
>
> On 08/22/2020 5:52 PM D.J.J. Ring, Jr. < n1ea at arrl.net> wrote:
>
>
> Pretty snazzy. The owner had that base made, it's very beautiful but I
never saw Bunnell make one - they made one that was cast iron like this one.
>
>
> The Bunnell DSK (Double Speed Key) came in two versions, the G version
(1904) and the W version (1907.)  Your key is type W as is mine, that's the
better one with the adjustable tension - blocks move and change the
mainspring length.
>
>
>
> Somewhere around 1950 the shorting lever knob was changed to a
cylindrical type - a barrel with a flat top.  I had one on my key which was
missing a shorting lever and I got a "bishop" type as shown from Joe
Jacobs, father of the Bunnell, Inc. company (two lawyers who write cease
and desist letters if you say anything about making a modern version.
>
> John Casale, W2NI is the expert on these:
http://www.telegraph-history.org/bunnell-double-speed-key/index.html
> Pasted below my signature.
>
> 73
> DR
>
>
>
>
> The Bunnell Double Speed Key:
>
> Was it Really Introduced in 1888?
>
> ________________________________
>
> The Bunnell Double Speed Key has been used as a milestone in the
evolution of the key by many historians. It is considered the first
successful manual key that operated horizontally and is placed as the
precursor to the semi-automatic key. Yet, the oldest examples of this key
do not really have the appearance of a key that was manufactured during the
1880s. You might be saying that it has been well documented by contemporary
authors both in print and on the web that Jesse Bunnell invented this key
and that J.H. Bunnell & Co introduced it in 1888. But, did this really
happen?
>
>
>
> The first ad showing both the "W" and "G" styles.
> From the Journal of the Telegraph, October 21, 1907.
>
>
>
> Looking through the telegraph journals from the late 19th century you
would think J.H. Bunnell & Co. would be heavily touting a key that could
help telegraphers suffering from the strain of using a conventional Morse
key. But, not a single Double Speed Key ad was found. No evidence was found
in the text books of this era either. One of the most comprehensive books
on telegraph technology was,  American Telegraphy  by William Maver Jr. The
first edition of this book was actually published by J.H. Bunnell & Co. in
1892. In this edition, Maver illustrates Bunnell Steel Lever, Steiner and
Victor keys, but there is no mention of the Double Speed Key. You would
think such a radical new key design would be mentioned by Maver in book
published by the Bunnell company. It was not until several years later when
Maver started mentioning its existence. Even more glaring, a search of the
full catalogs from J.H. Bunnell & Co. for the years 1889 and 1898 do not
show a Double Speed Key. And finally, a search of patents issued during
this era found none resembling a Double Speed Key that were either granted
to Jesse Bunnell or assigned to the Bunnell Company.
>
>
>
> So when was it introduced? The reason might be best understood by
considering why the country's largest telegraph instrument manufacturer was
motivated to introduce a horizontally operated key. The very first ad that
I could find for the Double Speed Key was in the  Journal of the Telegraph,
 dated November 20, 1904. If you think about what was going on in the
telegraph industry in 1904, the Double Speed Key's arrival at this point in
time makes a lot of sense. The wave of horizontally operated semi automatic
keys and the interest in them was rapidly growing. Horace Martin's patent
for his Autoplex was granted in June of 1903 and during 1904 he was
actively selling them. In January of 1904, William Coffe filed for his
patent for an all mechanical vertical key and beginning in January of 1905,
the Mecograph Company, operating initially off of Coffe's patent, were
advertising a semi automatic key. All this followed by Martin's spring 1905
introduction of the Vibroplex.
>
>
>
> Two weeks after that first Double Speed Key ad, (November 20, 1904) a
business announcement was published in  The Telegraph Age  on December 1,
1904 formally introducing the Double Speed Key. Under the title of, "A New
Telegraph Key," the following was announced : "J.H. Bunnell & Co., 20 Park
Place, New York, have brought out a new telegraph key, to which has been
given the name of "Double Speed." The following month, on January 28, 1905,
John Ghegan, a long time telegrapher and inventor, who was the president of
J.H. Bunnell & Co. filed for a patent for a legless, horizontally operated
"Telegraph Key." The object of his invention was "to provide a cheap,
efficient, and simple telegraph key of the kind in which the lever is
elastically mounted at one end and is preferably provided with a pair of
contacts at the other end."
>
>
>
>
> Above: a Bunnell Double Speed Wireless Key.
> Below: the "Style W" landline key.
> From the AWA Electronic History Museum Collection.
>
>
>
> The first Double Speed Key as introduced in 1904 was an all metallic
version. It had a large hole in its brass base and had an adjustment for
the lever's spring tension. It is exactly what is shown in the Bunnell ad
in this article as, "style W." But when it was first introduced, the Double
Speed Key had no "style" designation. The "W" designation did not come
about until 1907 to distinguish it from a second key in this series called,
"style G." Some collectors have mistakenly claimed that the "W" stands for
wireless but both the "W" and "G" styles were introduced as landline
telegraph keys. The true Bunnell Wireless Double Speed key, a third key in
this series, did not show up until the 1920s. It had larger contacts, no
spring tension adjustment and was mounted on a heavy base.
>
> The most intriguing part of the Double Speed Key's history to me, is the
meaning of the "W" and "G." At first I thought they were just arbitrary
letter designations, similar to what Bunnell used in their catalogs to
identify different dealer discount schedules. But, I believe their meaning
is much deeper than that and at the very root of the Double Speed Key's
origin. It appears the designations represent the last names of the
inventors who designed the lever styles used in the two keys. In the "style
G," the lever's leaf spring is anchored to a block of ebonite and it has no
spring tension adjustment. This style is precisely the one shown in John
Ghegan's patent granted on March 20,1906. I believe the "style G" was named
after Ghegan.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Drawing from Roye M. Wood's November 29, 1904
> patent showing the "Style W" lever and
> spring tension adjustment.
>
>
>
> The "style W" has a spring tension adjustment and the lever's leaf spring
is anchored to a block of brass. The person who designed this lever was
Roye M. Wood from Chicago Ill. On November 29, 1904, within days of the
Double Speed Key's formal introduction, he received a patent for a
horizontally operated leg key that had a unique spring tension adjustment
for its lever. A single thumbscrew holds two small brass blocks that grip
the lever's leaf spring from both sides. When the thumbscrew is loosened
the blocks can slide forward to increase the stiffness of the spring. There
is nothing documenting that the Bunnell Company acquired his patent or
obtained a license to use it. But, there is no question that Wood's lever
and spring tension adjustment are incorporated in Bunnell's, "style W" key.
A strong argument could be made that J.H. Bunnell & Co.'s development of
the entire Double Speed Key series evolved from Wood's patent.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> The right image shows brass blocks of a "Style W" Double Speed Key
adjusted for maximum tension.
> This lever and spring tension adjustment was patented by Roye M. Wood,
November 29, 1904.
>
>
>
> The Bunnell company had high hopes for this key that they termed, "the
coming key." Like the semi-automatics, it had the potential to help a
telegrapher achieve two of his goals - high speed with less physical
strain. "Don't pay a big price for a mechanical transmitter until you have
seen the merits of this simple, low-priced device...," early Bunnell ads
stated. There is evidence it was initially peddled to the "A1" telegrapher
market. A popular dealer in Chicago during this era who catered to first
class operators was O.T. Anderson. His name should ring a bell with
Vibroplex historians. He was a 26 year old telegrapher and typewriter
dealer who was an early agent for Horace Martin. In January of 1905, he was
specifically mentioning only two keys in his ad, the Autoplex and the
Double Speed key.
>
>
>
>
>
> A "Style W" Double Speed Key shown with its portable base, cord and wedge.
> In this configuration, it could be transported by a telegrapher just like
a "bug."
>
>
>
>
> Originally, the Double Speed Key was offered in three patterns: leg,
legless, and portable. The portable pattern sold for $6.50 and came with a
cord and wedge (and later a base) with the idea it could be carried to work
by a telegrapher just like a bug. When considering the rarity of the leg
pattern today it appears most telegraphers did try to use them as
portables. Another rarity is a Double Speed "KOB". Bunnell built sets that
included a legless, "style W," Double Speed Key with an aluminum lever
sounder on one base. Their nickname of a "sideswiper" simply grew out of
the the way it was operated - the "sidewise rocking movement of the hand."
The key's high speed, explained by the Bunnell Co., was the result of the
key requiring about half the motions of a conventional Morse key. For
example, the letter "P" in American Morse (five dots) required ten
movements of the hand, five down and five up. The Double Speed Key required
only six. (including the final release)
>
> By 1914, Ghegan and the Bunnell Company were still trying to get a piece
of the semi automatic key market with ads like : "For only 2.40 you can get
a Double Speed Key and with a little practice do better work than with a
high priced bug." This seems a reasonable statement but the key was unable
to take on the popularity and speed capabilities of the bug. The "style G"
as it turned out was short lived and is difficult to find today. The "style
W" with the spring tension adjustment proved to be the more popular style
and was produced by Bunnell for many years with some minor variations.
Today it is still sought after by collectors and continues to have a loyal
following of users.
>
>
>
>
>
> A late "Style W" Bunnell Double Speed Key.
>
>
>
> The bottom line in all this is that J.H. Bunnell & Co. introduced the
Double Speed Key in late 1904  (not in 1888)  at the same time when the
semi automatic key was emerging. Is was offered as a simple alternative in
a new and competitive key market. Credit for introducing all three Double
Speed Keys should go to John Ghegan. History seems to have over looked the
Ghegan era of the Bunnell Company. Part of the problem is the interchanging
of the names, Jesse Bunnell vs. J.H. Bunnell & Co. in respect to what was
introduced. Ghegan's tenor as president and head of manufacturing at J.H.
Bunnell & Co. was actually longer than Jesse Bunnell's. (Jesse Bunnell
passed away in 1899) And if you consider the number of different telegraph
instruments that were signed off by Ghegan to go into production between
the years 1899 to 1926, it really represents an incredible list of
products...
>
>
>
> ________________________________
>
> Sources :
>
> American Telegraphy,  William Maver Jr., 1892, 1897, 1912
> The Telegraph Age  : March 1, 1900, June 1, 1902, December 1, 1904,
> January 1, 1905, April 1, 1906, September 16, 1906
> J.H. Bunnell & Co. Catalogs : #10, 17, 28, 29, and 30
> The Western Union Archives, National Museum of American History,
Washington, D.C.
> Journal of the Telegraph  : November 20,1904, October 21,1907, October
20, 1914
> U.S. Patents :
> John J. Ghegan, 815,809, March 20, 1906
> Roye M. Wood, 776,160, November 29, 1904
>
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