[CW] Fons Vanden Berghen's Telegraph History Books
D.J.J. Ring, Jr.
n1ea at arrl.net
Sun Aug 3 14:12:19 EDT 2025
Dear Members of the CW Email Group...
I am happy and honored to be able to announce that Fons Vanden Berghen has
made the English language version of his 7th. and latest Telegraph history
book available at no cost on the internet along with his other books.
These books represent his lifetime of work in collecting, studying and
writing about telegraph instruments and telegraph history.
This book represents an in-depth presentation of the history of the
telegraph starting from the earliest attempts to extend communications
beyond the capabilities of the human voice through the various stages of
the development and evolution of the electric telegraph.
Four of his earlier books are in Dutch and three in English. For details on
his other books I suggest that you visit his very extensive website: “*FORWARD”
*TO THE PAST - https://www.telegraphy.eu
The title of this seventh is ‘Samuel MORSE, HISTORIC CODES and TELEGRAPH
APPARATUS’.
It is a 351-page work with more than 500 illustrations that are mainly
color photographs of the related equipment. The color cover of the book is
inserted below.
It is very wide-ranging (four books in one, so to speak): see the Table of
Contents attached that I have inserted below and that is available on his
website.
One need not read the book “linearly”; one can select (first) from this table
of contents those chapters that the reader finds most interesting. As an
aside: in the freely downloadable online .pdf version of the book, all
lines of the table of contents are hyperlinks to the corresponding chapters.
Since this latest book is mainly aimed at Amateur Radio Operators (HAMs),
it will be of interest to a wide spectrum of people who are involved in
radio-related activities and studies.
It can be downloaded for free from the internet: via BOOK7V2c
<https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/g6izsiiw65or5j2p9lqdd/2.-BOEK-7-EINDVERSIE.pdf?rlkey=oqibdyycw5kp0nbi8wc22j2e6&st=tfwl8qid&dl=0>
“*FORWARD” *TO THE PAST
https://www.telegraphy.eu
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 4
SHORT SUMMARY 6
PART 1: A LOT ABOUT AND AROUND SAMUEL MORSE 7
CHAPTER 1: SAMUEL MORSE, ABOUT THE MAN 7
1.1. HIS YOUTH 7
1.2. THE PAINTER - A CHRONOLOGICAL OVERVIEW 8
1.3. A LOOK AT SOME OF MORSE’S FAMOUS PAINTINGS 13
1.4. THE INVENTION OF HIS ‘MORSE TELEGRAPH’ - A CHRONOLOGICAL
OVERVIEW 17
1.5. HIS PATENTS 24
1.5.1. Overview 24
1.6. “WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT” 30
1.6.1. The meaning: interpretations from the literature 30
1.6.2. The context 30
1.6.3. The Bible 31
1.6.4. The paper tape 31
1.7. SAMUEL MORSE AND LOUIS DAGUERRE 33
1.8. HIS RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL VIEWS 36
1.9. SOME REMARKABLE EVENTS 38
1.10. A BIT ON HIS FAMILY LIFE, LATER YEARS AND DEATH 39
1.11. RECOGNITION, HONOURS AND AWARDS 41
1.12. SOME PERSONAL CLOSING REMARKS. 43
Chapter 2: ABOUT Alfred VAIL 54
2.1. ABOUT HIS LIFE (1807-1859) 54
2.2. HIS OWN INVENTIONS 55
2.3. AGREEMENT BETWEEN SAMUEL MORSE AND ALFRED VAIL (23 September
1837) 56
2.4. SAMUEL MORSE VERSUS ALFRED VAIL 59
2.4.1. Did S. Morse invent the telegraph? 59
2.4.2. Did S. Morse improve his first prototype? 59
2.4.3. Did S. Morse invent the Morse code? 59
2.4.4. Did S. Morse invent the Morse key? 60
2.4.5. Disputes in the press after Morse’s death! 61
2.4.6. My conclusion 61
Chapter 3: SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE EARLIEST APPARATUS 62
3.1. MORSE’S FIRST MODEL (1837) 62
3.2. THE PATENT MODEL (1840) 64
3.3. VAIL’S SECOND MODEL (1844) 65
3.4. THE THIRD MODEL (1846) 67
3.5. THE MODEL FROM 1849? 69
3.6 THE FIRST “KEYS” 69
PART 2: MORSE & RELATED CODES 70
Chapter 1. DETAILS AND EVOLUTION OF THE MORSE CODE 70
1.1. THE DIFFERENT MORSE CODES 70
1.1.1. Some observations about those different codes 70
1.1.2. The numerical code of 1832 72
1.1.3. The first Alphabetical Code (1837/1838) 73
1.1.4. The American Morse code (about 1844) 76
1.2. THE GERKE CODE AND THE INTERNATIONAL CODE 79
1.2.1. The Gerke code 79
1.2.2. The International Morse code 80
1.2.3. More code comparison tables 81
1.2.4. About the extended International code 83
1.3. MORE ABOUT CODES 86
1.3.1. A Hundred Years of SOS 86
1.3.2. Morse code for non-Latin alphabets 88
1) Japanese 88
2) Chinese 89
3) Greek 90
4) Russian 91
5) Cyrillic 92
6)
Arabic
92
7) Hebrew 93
1.3.3. SEMAPHORE > signaling Morse codewith flags 94
1.3.4. Some brief (interesting?) facts 96
1) A bit of etymology 96
2) Morse’s second death 96
3) Morse and Colt 96
4) Morse versus SMS… 96
5) Can I send Morse code with my smartphone? 96
6) How to convert text into Morse code and vice versa? 97
7) Records 97
8) Morse over IP 97
9) Carrier pigeon versus Morse code 97
10) Morse code via snail mail.;o) 97
11) Sending Morse code by knocking 98
12) Who coined the term ‘bug’ 98
13) Morse code as "Intangible Cultural Heritage" 98
14) Sending coded timing. 99
15) How to practice Morse code with a spoon? 99
16) Why is a ‘radio amateur’ called a HAM? 99
17) A help for disabled 100
18) Ditti Morse code; what’s that 100
19) A book in Morse code 100
20) Dead Head 101
21) The end of the Pony Express 102
22) Miscellaneous 102
Chapter 2: OTHER CODES 103
2.1. INTRODUCTION 103
2.2. THE OPTIC-MECHANIC TELEGRAPH FROM CLAUDE CHAPPE (1793) 104
2.3. CODES FROM SOME -MORE OR LESS FAMILIAR- OLD SYSTEMS 108
2.3.1. A note on very early electricity 108
2.3.2. Baron Pavel Schilling von Cannstadt (1832) 109
2.3.3. Gauss & Weber (1832/33) 110
2.3.4. Steinheil (1836/1837) 111
2.3.5. Bain (1843) 112
2.3.6. Henley (1848) 114
2.3.7. Other, less important, codes 115
2.3.8. Display at the receiver 118
2.4. THE CODES FROM William Cooke(1806-1879) & Prof. Charles Wheatstone
(1802-1875) 120
2.4.1. The five needle telegraph 120
2.4.2. The two needle telegraph 122
2.4.3. The single needle telegraph 123
2.5. SOME OTHER CODES IN THE WORLD OF TELEGRAPHY 125
2.5.1. Baudot 125
2.5.2. MURRAY 126
2.5.3. EUROPEAN TELEX CODE and AMERICAN TELETYPE 127
2.6. MARITIME SIGNAL FLAGS 128
2.6.1. Alphabet and figures 128
2.6.2. Special meanings of individual flags 129
2.6.3. Naval special flags and pennants 130
2.7. DOCUMENTATION 131
2.7.1. Telegraph Codes of the World 131
2.7.2. The Mc ELROY poster (the details will follow) 139
2.8. HOW DID THEY LEARN THE MORSE CODE 149
2.8.1. Old tools 149
1) Learner sets 149
2) The Omnigraph 150
3) The Instructograph 152
4) Some other 152
2.8.2. More tools that could help 153
1) Learning with the aid of a record player 153
2) Signal Disks 156
3) Old instruction booklets 157
4) Tools to memorize the code and ‘decoder charts’ 159
5) Learning in a classroom 160
6) Talking about OKi….., a personal note. 162
7) At the Scouts 164
8) Miscellaneous illustrations 165
2.8.3. How to learn it today 166
2.9. ABOUT THE EFFICIENCY OF THE MORSE CODE 168
2.9.1. Letter frequency 168
2.9.2. Timing of the signals in the American code 169
2.9.3. Comparison with the International code 170
2.9.4. On practical efficiency and… Paris 172
2.9.5. A late confession by Samual Morse “himself” 173
2.9.6. Some conclusions 174
2.10. COMMENTS FROM COLLECTORS / HAMs 175
PART 3: MORSE APPARATUS 182
Chapter 1: ELEMENTARY WORKING PRINCIPLES 182
1.1. THE BASIC CONNECTION (The ‘European’ way) 182
1.2. SET UP BETWEEN TWO STATIONS 183
Chapter 2: Apparatus using the Morse code 184
2.1. AMERICAN REGISTERS 184
2.1.1. The earliest models 184
1) From Samuel Morse/Alfred Vail (1837) 184
2) A Tillotson 187
3) A Chester 188
4) And this special design is from Frederick Pearce 188
2.1.2. Later models 189
1) One from Bunnell 189
2) Phelps 189
3) Bunnell 189
4) Greeley 189
2.2. EUROPEAN MORSE RECEIVERS (a lot) 190
2.2.1. From Belgium 190
2.2.2. Embossers 1) to 6) are weight driven! 191
2.2.3. Ink writers 199
2.2.4. Automatic start/stop function. 207
2.2.5. Portable and army telegraphs 208
2.2.6. Demo and toy telegraphs 218
2.3. SOUNDERS AND KEY ON BOARDS (KOBs) 220
2.3.1. Sounders 220
2.3.2. Key On Board 224
2.3.3. UK “Baseboards” 226
2.3.4. Repeaters 227
1) A classic repeater 227
2) A more complex British model 228
2.4. EXAMPLES OF MY KEYS 229
2.4.1. Introduction 229
2.4.2. The beginning: Morse & Vail 230
2.4.3. Double tappers (or pedal keys) 230
2.4.4. ‘Camelbacks’ 231
2.4.5. Dual-lever keys (‘reverse polarity keys’) 234
2.4.6. Two remarkable keys 236
2.4.7. Special (G)PO keys. 237
2.4.8. Keys from Breguet 241
2.4.9. Keys from various countries. 242
2.4.10. The ‘Belgian’ Victor key 251
2.4.11. Miscellaneous keys 253
2.4.12. Marconi (replica) keys 254
2.4.13. Some toy keys 255
2.4.14. Very special keys. 257
2.4.15. Addendum: “Key & Telegraph” 260
2.5. OTHER SYSTEMS WORKING WITH THE MORSE CODE 263
2.5.1. Typical old British apparatus 263
1) Single needle telegraphs 263
2) Bright’s Bells 264
3) The double plate sounder 264
2.5.2. Professor Wheatstone’s high-speed automatic system 265
1) The perforator 265
2) The transmitter 266
3) The receiver 266
2.5.3. Mirror galvanometer 267
2.5.4. Undulators / Siphon recorders 269
2.5.5. The Aldis lamp 271
2.5.6. Heliograph 272
2.5.7. Transmission via the earth 273
2.5.8. Early alarm systems 274
2.5.9. Early wireless Morse from Guglielmo Marconi 275
1) the 10-inch induction coil 275
2) the replica ‘grasshopper’ Morse key’ 275
3) the ‘guillotine’ Morse keys 275
4) the “coherer” (an original one) 276
5) the coherer receiver (a working replica made for me, with my
original coherer) 276
6) magnetic detector 277
7) multiple tuner 277
8) My coherers from Telefunken, Ducretet and Bing 278
9) Other Marconi items 279
2.6. TELEGRAPHS USING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT TECHNOLOGIES 280
2.6.1. ABC telegraphs (also called ‘dial’-telegraphs and ‘pointer’
telegraphs 280
1) SIEMENS & HALSKE 280
2) BREGUET 280
3) DIGNEY 282
4) LIPPENS 283
5) WHEATSTONE 283
6) BENEVOLO (not complete) 284
7) HAGENDORF 284
2.6.2. Printing telegraphs 285
1) The three generations of HUGHES from my collection 285
2) BAUDOT 287
3) WRIGHT & NIGRON 288
4) FERNDRUCKER AG (1898) 288
5) “STOCK TICKERS” (stock exchange telegraph 288
6) EXTEL 290
7) STELJES 291
2.7. LIST OF EARLY INVENTORS (1835-1885) 292
2.7.1. In Europe 292
2.7.2. In the U.S. 293
PART 4: MISCELLANEOUS 294
1.1. BELGIAN APPARATUS IN USE 294
1.2. SKETCHES AT THE “CENTRAL TELEGRAPH OFFICE”, GENERAL POST OFFICE,
LONDON 295
1.3. A CONSIDERATION ABOUT THE RADIO AMATEURS (HAMs) 297
1.4. IDDY UMPTY … 298
1.5. MORSE; YOU SAID MORSE? 300
1.6. A GUIDED TOUR OF LOCUST GROVE, ERSTWHILE HOME TO THE MORSE
FAMILY 304
1.7. TELEGRAPHY AND WOMEN IN DAYS GONE BY 305
1.8. SOME TALES OF THE TELEGRAPH 305
1.9. TED McELROY, THE CHAMPION 308
1.10. RELAX! > Illustrations: all related to Morse and morse 309
1.10.1. Some stamps 309
1.10.2. Some ‘chromos’ (trading cards) 314
1.10.3. Some letter covers 316
1.10.4. Some old photographs with Morse telegraphs 318
1.10.5. Phone cards 323
1.10.6. Miscellaneous 324
1.10.7. Questions 325
1.10.8. Humor 326
BIBLIOGRAPHY 332
WEBOGRAPHY 339
THANK YOU 342
TABLE OF CONTENTS 343
Number of illustrations: over 600
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