[GreenKeys] Telegraph...

[Scott Clark]

> 
>      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_.
>
Wow, thanks for all the great info guys!  So funny...I can't remember what I did last week, but I can remember that telegraph key pretty clearly lol.  Must have made a real impression on me.  I do remember my dad calling it a bug when I was kid.   

 		 	   		  
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