[QCWA] History of "OK" as a telegraph prosig

[marvin bronstein]

Norm,
>From this 'not-so-old' military radio op., the 'INT' preceding a question
"interrogative" was also used in US Army radio comms. & Army MARS as late as
my enlistment 1961~1964.
73,
Marv, K2VHW


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Norm Gertz" <k1aa at cfl.rr.com>
To: "Discussion of QCWA or Ham Radio" <qcwa at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 8:10 AM
Subject: Re: [QCWA] History of "OK" as a telegraph prosig


> Harvey.....from this old man's memory......Navy and Marine Corps radio
> operators used "INT" preceding a query or question to indicate
> "interrogatory" .
> We did not use landline telegraph so I cant comment on that.
>
> 73   Norm   K1AA
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Harvey Chase" <harvey91 at windstream.net>
> To: "Discussion of QCWA or Ham Radio" <qcwa at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Monday, August 11, 2008 4:53 PM
> Subject: [QCWA] History of "OK" as a telegraph prosig
>
>
>     Sometimes lexicographers commit gross errors in tracing the origin of
> words in common use in the English Language. So I believe it is with their
> opinion as to the derivation of "OK" or "okay." For if you look it up in
> your copy of "Webster's" dictionary you will find that it is attributed to
> "Old Kindernook" a nickname for Martin Van Buren or the club that was
> established to support his candidacy for president (O.K. Club) in the 1836
> election. (He served from 1837 to 1841 before Morse's telegraph became the
> popular method of communication.) or to a corruption of "all correct" [oll
> korrect] used as a telegraph abbreviation.
>     I strongly disagree with that My reasoning is as follows:
>         First of all, we must realize that the original "Morse" code
> (invented by Alfred Vail, Morse's partner) did not contain any code for
> punctuation (or numerals, either). so there was no code for "?." A signal
> was invented for this consisting of INT all run together [my computer
won't
> do overlines]. This signal was used to inquire if everything was all right
> on the other end of the circuit. (The US Navy later used this for the
> question mark). That signal (INT) was soon corrupted to UA, with the same
> meaning. The answer to UA was . . -.- [OK] in the old landline code.
Meaning
> "all right."
>     For those not familiar with the American Morse (landline) code, please
> refer to my web page at <hhtp://www.qsl.net/w4tg> there is a link at the
> bottom of that page that will take you to my article "A Brief History of
the
> Telegraph" with addenda.
>     73
>     Harvey/W4TG
>
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