"and there the problem would be detected and could be remedied from there." - Maybe

The military and WU wanted to be sure messages got through and not lost - so all messages were numbered.

I am working at the AWA Museum trying to restore the last AN/TGC-1, the first torn-tape relay cabinet. When I get it working, I'll put our a video of it. This cabinet, and the operators of it, provided the first digital message router in 1944.

Have fun,

Duncan

On 7/25/2026 7:09 PM, Jim Haynes via GreenKeys wrote:

On Fri, 24 Jul 2026, Nick England via GreenKeys wrote:

The messages were sequentially numbered on each outgoing channel. The header
contained station and channel ID characters plus the message number.
The receiving station checked the numbers to detect missing or garbled
messages and request retransmission if needed. This was particularly
valuable for RTTY channels.

It's interesting that W.U. and the military systems all used message
numbers and checked them. Some Bell Labs guys wrote that they didn't
need message numbers because any incorrectly addressed messages would
be delivered, either to the wrong place or to an intercept position,
and there the problem would be detected and could be remedied from there.
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