[GreenKeys] Telegrapher's "Mill"

[Richard Knoppow]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Derek Cohn/WB0TUA" <vibroplex at mindspring.com>
To: <greenkeys at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sunday, August 07, 2011 5:17 PM
Subject: [GreenKeys] Telegrapher's "Mill"


Hi Everyone,

As the resident "telegrapher" on this mailing list with
precious little to contribute for teletype matters, I think
I can help here.

Though I can't speak to the origin of the word "Mill", I can
help with the definition.  A telegraph "mill" is an All Caps
typewriter (which I collect in addition to telegraph
instruments).  Telegrams were required to be typed in upper
case and the railroads and Western Union furnished all caps
typewriters for the purpose.  They came in a variety of
flavors......some had shift keys and would type the same
character when shifted no matter what key was pressed.  I
have several that print a tilde whenever you hit a key when
shifting.  Others, have no shift key at all.  Here is a
photo of one in my collection and you can see there is no
shift on either side of the keyboard.

http://www.mindspring.com/~vibroplex/mill.jpg

If the telegraph office also had to do billing, a standard
typewriter was furnished and the morse op had to make sure
to copy messages only in upper case.

Hope this helps!

     The zero key does not have the slash on it, does the
actual character have the slash? Perhaps slashed zeros were
not used in wire telegraph service as they were in radio.
     It does have the numeral 1.


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

Derek Cohn
Amateur Radio Station - WBØTUA
Morse Telegraph Club - Office UD, Sine DJ
______________________________________________________________
GreenKeys mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/greenkeys
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:GreenKeys at mailman.qth.net

This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list:
http://www.qsl.net/donate.html