[PPRAANet] Morse Code Plays Role in New Spielberg Movie

[Rick WØRIC]

For those of you club members who remember getting your email via
telegraph............

73
Rick
W0RIC

Morse Code Plays Role in New Spielberg Movie
**
11/27/2012

Producer Steven Spielberg has used Amateur Radio or Morse code in three of
his last four movies: *Super 8* (2011), *The Adventures of Tin Tin* (2011)
and *Lincoln* (2012). Members of the Morse Telegraph Club
(*MTC*<http://www.morsetelegraphclub.org/>)
-- an association of retired railroad and commercial telegraphers,
historians, radio amateurs and others with an interest in the history and
traditions of telegraphy and the telegraph industry -- played an integral
part in the production of *Lincoln*.

According to International President of the Morse Telegraph Club James
Wades, WB8SIW, several MTC members -- including Tom Perera, W1TP; Derek
Cohn, WB0TUA; Kevin Saville, N7JKD, and Roger Reinke -- provided telegraph
instruments to equip the 16 operating positions portrayed at the War
Department set. Jim Wilson, K4BAV, and his son Matt had roles as extras.
Wilson also worked with production staff and the actors to explain
telegraph technology and the role of the telegrapher in the 1860s.

“Nine of the 16 telegraph positions depicted in the War Department were
fully operational,” Wades said. “These instruments could be operated in any
combination through the use of a specialized computer program and custom
built terminal units for the process. When necessary, a hand key could be
inserted in the individual telegraph loops so messages could be improvised.”

Wades, who was employed as a Technical Advisor for the production, worked
with set designers over a period of months to develop the War Department
telegraph scenes, coordinating the process of procuring the necessary
instruments and serving as an historical consultant as the telegraph scenes
were developed. He also worked the producers to develop historically
appropriate message traffic that fit the sequence of the script; however,
as the movie was edited, he explained that the final product evolved into a
more generic facsimile of Morse traffic. “Those with a background in
landline telegraphy will hear the occasional snippet of message traffic in
the audio track of the movie,” he said. “We are very pleased that Mr
Spielberg and his staff took the time to treat the telegraph with dignity
and respect. It is a pleasure to be associated with a high quality motion
picture that can genuinely be classified as not just entertainment, but as
a work of art.”