[GreenKeys] Telegraph...

[Richard Knoppow]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Scott Clark" <olds1960 at hotmail.com>
To: <greenkeys at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Wednesday, December 18, 2013 6:15 AM
Subject: [GreenKeys] Telegraph...



>

Instructograph!  I'm 99% sure that's what it is...I did a 
google search, and found some pictures.  His is the electric 
model.  I haven't seen it in probably 20 years, but I 
remember very distinctly what it looked like.  I remember 
the big knob.  I can also remember pretty clearly the musty 
smell when you opened it lol.  Next time we go visit I'll 
see if he has it somewhere accessible and take a picture of 
it.

I also remember he had a big telegraph key...great big 
chrome thing with a red knob.  Came in it's own 
storage/carry case that opened on the end.  I think it had 
some sort of green fabric lining.  I remember it having an 
oval metal tag on it with a dragonfly or something like that 
on it.  I seem to remember it being more complicated than 
his other one.  Going on some very old memories here...

The sounders he has are pretty old I think...1930s maybe? 
He's got one on a shelf in his office at home.

     As Jeff Angus says the key is a Vibroplex "bug" or 
semi-automatic key. Yours is a fairly late one if it has red 
knobs on it. The deluxe versions were chrome plated all over 
and had red knobs. The external design was modernized 
slightly after about 1945. The older keys have rather square 
edged parts, later ones somewhat rounded edges. I don't know 
what sort of insect was used but it was the long time trade 
mark of Vibroplex and stood for the slang term "bug" used 
for the keys.  I also have never heard how they came to be 
called bugs. Vibroplex keys are still used by radio amateurs 
for code transmission. In fact, they are still made!
     Sounders were used almost from the beginning of the 
telegraph industry. I don't know when the first sounders of 
the familiar type came out but I think in the 1880s, there 
are experts here who will know. Sounders continued to be 
made until perhaps the 1950s since wire telegraphy continued 
to be used in some places, particularly by railroads until 
very late. There were a variety of sounder patterns but most 
look pretty much the same. It was common in telgraph offices 
for the sounder to be in a "resonator" or open box to 
magnify the sound and concentrate it in a particular 
direction. I think this may have originated about the time 
that typewriters came into use but a large telegraph office 
was a very noisy place, what with many sounders and relays 
going, so some means of distinguishing a particular sounder 
was probably necessary.
    People now forget, if they ever knew, that for decades 
most communications was by means of very skilled _people_.


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