The question came up as it does often about the term "lid" and where it came from. I sent out one set of ideas once before and I did some more digging. The usual reference to the can of Prince Albert is found and then I found this interesting blog of thoughts. So interpret it in whatever way you like. Thanks to Elliot KB2TZ for getting this ball rolling...I think. And Kai  for asking the origin.

Below is the blog of ideas and another I found also. I included a couple of other interpretations on various sites at the bottom. You can Google the term and read a bunch. I liked these two best...so fa.
-Bill W2CQ

How did the word "lid" come to mean "poor operator" (in the context of telegraphy and amateur radio)?

This sense of lid is still common today in Amateur ("Ham") Radio (in the United States, at least), usually as "they're a lid", meaning "they're being a rude or unobservant person." It doesn't refer to new operators, usually, as much as someone who is willfully ignoring convention.

I can't really see how this originates from any meaning of lid; the most plausible origin to me seems the phrase "put a lid on", because as an operator, a lid "silences" others or "puts a crimp" in their operating.

Boys' Life, Feb 1932 is one of the earliest mentions I can find of a lid in radio:

"...taking care not to play the lid—"
"Lid?" questioned Soc.
"A lid is a radio operator who is either fresh from school or hasn't taken the trouble to learn to use his head and his fist at the same time."

Popular Science, Feb 1933 also shows lid used around the same time for the telegraph:

He uses a bug, but it runs away with him. As a sender he's a lid. He can't read ahead and has combinations.

This discussion about "lid" in amateur radio references some of the popular origin theories, such as the idea that

operators would put the lid of a tobacco can on the mechanical sounder to make it easier to hear

and also references a 1919 letter published in QST, from W. L. Matteson. Multiplex Plant Dept. W. U. Tel. Co., that suggests lid came into the amateur radio vocabulary from telegraphy.

So, then, it makes sense for the meaning to carry over from telegraph to ham radio. But how on earth does a "lid" come to refer to a person in the first place?


  • It occurred to me that early use of "lid" isn't really about personal character - it seems to be saying someone is a newbie or has bad operating technique. The way I hear it used today is more about being a jerk (for example, a fellow ham remarks, "What a lid!" in regard to a guy who complains it's difficult to copy one of our female operators' voices compared to a male one). This mention from early 1900s, though it seems to paint all hams with the same brush, does seem to show a bit of that "unsophisticated/ignorant jerk" connotation.

1912 antedating

I couldn't find an origin but did find a slight antedating of the 1919 letter.

The Railroad Telegrapher in 1912 printed a humorous poem/prayer. Here's an extract:

And if some "Ham" who sounds insane,
Should move me to say things profane
O stay my hand upon the key
And may I not get "H" for "P."

May I refrain to ope my door
And kick through it some tedious bore.
Who brings to me his half-wit kid
To be transformed into a lid.

A slight variation appears in Telephony of 1913, which gives us the full text and quotes around jargon terms, and a source:

Help ! Help !

Poetry will out, sometimes in the most unexpected places and occasionally from unusual sources, says the Los Angeles (Cal.) Times. One of the latest devotees of the muse and one who has been creating considerable comment around the Alexandria is little Miss Vivian Ewing, Postal Telegraph operator in the hotel. After months of viccisitudes and troubles caused principally by the patrons of the little station in the marble corridor, Miss Ewing evolved the following prayer to assist her through her hours of toil:

Help me this day, O, Lord, to be
Kind and gentle with my key.
Help me earn my wage this day
And tempt me not to ask more pay;
And if some man who sounds insane
Should move me to hot things profane,
O stay my hand upon the key
And may I not make "H" for "P".

May I refrain to open my door
And kick through it a weary bore
Who brings to me his darling “kid”
To be transformed into a “lid”.
And may I gently treat the cranks
Who, after spoiling twenty blanks,
Fold up a lot of callow slush
And sternly bid me, “send it rush".

And when the clock points five to eight,
O, help me then to calmly wait
While some proud dad leans on the booth
And wires baby has a tooth.
In short, pray make me what I ain't,
An understudy of a saint,
That I may hold this job of mine
Till time gives me the "30" sign.

C. A. Shock, of Sherman, Texas, sent this to TELEPHONY with the suggestion that variations might be rung on it to make it apply to the telephone operator. So, “potes," sharpen pencils and have at it!

These are from snippets, so the years could be wrong, but it appears to have been reprinted in other magazines published between 1912-1914.

Lid operator

A lid operator, or lid, was originally a novice operator, rather than any poor operator.

Some quotations:

Telegraph Workers Journal, 1924:

Did you see Joe McKenua's lid? Some plush. Bill Hartley is still ...

QST, 1925:

The "lid" operator can be told very quickly when he makes a mistake. He does not use a definite "error" signal but usually betrays himself by sending a string of dots. The good operator sends "I ?" after his mistakes and starts sending again with ...

QST, 1927:

When you have traffic and want to get it off, DO NOT give it to a "lid" operator. If you do, the chances are that It will die right there. Many times I have become QSO with several stations in one direction, with the intention of QSRlng, only to find ...

QST, 1928:

We plead guilty to "getting quite a kick out of" operating our radio phone sets. The idea seems to prevail that no one except a "ham", a "lid" or a rank beginner even fools with phone. Unfortunately this is true to some extent but there are old ...

And:

... I flatter myself that I have become more than just a lid operator. I hold a commercial license, am an ORS and have made a fair showing in traffic, and to you, OM, I owe a great part of my success. You were my first schedule and I have tried to ...

And:

... gave several humorous anecdotes of his first trip as a "lid" commercial operator on the Great Lakes.

Telegraph Workers Journal, 1930:

Can it be a New Year's resolution, and that he is starting at the bottom like an inexperienced "lid"? Two nasty accidents occurred in "Mu" since the advent of the New Year. Andy and Archie fell off the booze-wagon. Nothing serious happened ...

However, Popular Science (1933) quoted in the question is all about trade jargon, and includes an English translation of "Telegrapher's Lingo". The full description is of a novice, but specifically translates lid as poor, showing the meaning is changing:

He uses a bug, but it runs away with him. As a sender he's a lid.

...

Translated, this queer language means:

He uses a semi-automatic key, but keeps it adjusted at a speed greater than that at which he can manipulate it properly. As a sender of messages he is poor.

It goes on to praise him for being able to receive at the fastest speeds and for never interrupting. (It also explains what "30" means, as mentioned in the 1919 poem.)

Sitting on the lid

This may be unrelated, but I'll include it on the off chance. The Railroad Telegrapher included reports of union members' work situation ("In 1920, there were 78,134 telegraphers on all railroads represented by The Order of Railroad Telegraphers. Membership in the union had peaked."). Some of these would include the phrase "is sitting on the lid". Here are some examples.

From the preceding 1913 Telephony:

I. S. Johnson and Leo Smiddy are working extra there, while Bro. Bob Fountaine sits on the lid.

The Railroad Telegrapher in 1911:

Bros. Packard, Wilson and Nickel sat on the lid while Bro. Hook attended the TOI'0.'ll0 [?] convention and took a trip through the East. He was relieved by Bro. _l. L. Druley, from the \'abash [?].

And here:

... rear brakeman on the division correspondent's motorcycle for several miles. I introduced him to the high and low crossings at a speed of 30 miles per, when we stopped he had both legs wrapped around the gas tank, and was settin' on his lid.

And here:

Mr. John Dalzell, Chairman of the Rules Committee, sat stubbornly "on the lid" and refused to budge. He believes that free trade in labor is the safest bulwark of tariff protection for employers.

The Railroad Telegrapher, 1914 (date verified):

Two operators taken off at Merino, making it a one-man station, with Bro. Johnson on the lid. Bro. Doherty to second Brighton, bumping Bro. Baker to second Carr, vice Bro. Seeley bumping Bro. Rotenbaum; Dent nights to the extra list.

I'm not entirely clear what this sitting on the lid refers to, but for the work reports, I get the impression it's similar to sitting on the bench, being held as reserve.

One of these is not a work report but a political report: "Mr. John Dalzell, Chairman of the Rules Committee, sat stubbornly "on the lid" and refused to budge." This has a political meaning, according to A Desk-Book of Errors in English (1906, 1920) by Frank Horace Vizetelly:

lid: A slang term for cover, hat, etc., used especially in the phrases keeping the lid down, sitting on the lid, political colloquialisms for closing up places of business, as pool-rooms, saloons, etc., or keeping a political situation in control.

This fits for the stubborn chairman of the rules committee, and speculating, perhaps this "keeping control" sense was applied to reserve workers patiently waiting their turn. Or perhaps the union work reports are telling us those workers were taking care of union business and keeping their local situation in control.

In any case, the political phrase "sitting on the lid" originated or was at least popularised by President Theodore Roosevelt when describing Secretary of War, William Howard Taft:

Taft as Secretary of War became the administration's "trouble shooter" at home and abroad. During the years between 1904 and 1908 Taft had direct charge of the construction of the Panama Canal. Roosevelt considered Taft one of his most valuable assets, so able was Taft that Roosevelt felt free to leave the capital whenever he wished, because he had "left Taft sitting on the lid." As Roosevelt's personal emissary Taft was sent on many diplomatic assignments.

The New York Times, April 1905:

It was suggested to the president that things would go along in a smooth manner, even if he was absent.

Oh, things will be all right," he said. "I have left Taft sitting on the lid keeping down the Santo Domingo matter."

Roosevelt commented in a May 1905 letter to his son:

Yes, I have been much amused with the cartoons about my remarking that I had "left Taft sitting on the lid". Some of the cartoons about the bear and wolf hunting have been really funny.

A The Evening News of 1922 commented:

This phrase went around the country at the time, and the fact that Mr. Taft's physical weight was such that we all had a feeling that if he were sitting on the lid, the lid must be geld down pretty firmly, undoubtedly had much to do with the success of the great phrase-maker's remark at that time.

More speculation: "sitting on the lid" was a metaphor for "sitting on a hat" meaning "keeping control" and the meaning passed to "sitting as a reserve on the bench". Operators sitting in reserve are often novice operators, or "lid operators". A lid operator was then originally a novice worker, and as novice workers would make more mistakes, the meaning then changed to refer to any poor operator.


  • Thank you so much for all the research! It didn't even occur to me that QST might be in Google Books. It's fascinating to see the evidence that "lid" meant "newbie operator" almost a hundred years ago.

The truth is that nobody knows. It is an inherited title from the land-line (wired) Morse telegraphy days; that much is certain. But why "lid"?

I find the tobacco lid explanation unconvincing. The need to bring the annunciator's click frequency down using a mechanical resonator may indicate aged or damaged hearing, but it doesn't even imply incompetence on the operator's part.

The most convincing explanation I've heard is that a sender with poor rhythm sending "dd" (a common double letter, and the commonest with possible ambiguity) would send something that sounded like dah...dit-dit...dah-dit-dit ("l-i-d") rather than dah-dit-dit...dah-dit-dit ("d-d"). But that's just conjecture with a bit of history behind it, just like the Prince Albert tobacco theory.


  • It does seem plausible that lid could be mistaken for dd and vice-versa in American Morse: L in this alphabet is a double length 'daaah' that doesn't exist in the International Morse used today. Now at least I don't have to worry whether you said daaah dit dit or dah dit dit :)

Many answers, and probably most of them right, in context of their times and origins / applications. Just as a throw-in, there was a phrase, "sitting on the lid of the chanty", which referred to doing something as much use as perching on the cover of the lavatory.

Another one might be relating to 'lid' as a cover, in that a 'lid' operator is assuming the cover and appearance / behaviour of a competent keyer, but his/her operating deficiencies soon betray him/her, and I'm sure we've all known bluffers like that.

It could boil down to a particular case. It could be one operator was known as a jerk, and also well known for using the tobacco lid trick. The person known as "lid" could have become an archetype for idiocy, just like Einstein is an archetype for genius. Again, this is conjecture without some record of such a person.

https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/31818/how-did-the-word-lid-come-to-mean-poor-operator-in-the-context-of-telegraph

AND FROM:

HAM RADIO HISTORY

http://w2pa.net/HRH/liberty/

Posted on

QST, Nov. 1919, cover.Finally, nearly one year after the armistice, a breakthrough: A single, tacked-on page, after the end cover of October QST, a hastily added special announcement proclaimed:  “BAN OFF! THE JOB IS DONE AND THE A.R.R.L. DID IT. See next QST for details”

The HR Hick cover drawing for the November issue depicted a joyous ham bursting from the top of a can, popping off the lid (which, just to make sure the metaphor was understood, is labeled “the lid”)—he clutches a copy of QST in one hand, a certificate in the other. The can’s label reads “LIBERTY NUMBER” in big letters.

The issue opened with Maxim writing on the importance of organization, citing both the establishment of the League and radio clubs1 as prime examples. Only by having a national organization were hams able to influence the government on the one hand by preventing legislation that threatened amateur radio’s existence, and assist it on the other by providing wartime operators on very short notice. “It was a noble effort for all concerned, and lifted amateur radio from the realm of toyland to the dignity of a valuable National asset.” Aside from self preservation, another benefit of organization was to enable doing momentous things, such as the transcontinental relay work, impressive to outsiders. “Up to the time that we amateurs began relay work, the limit which one could transmit intelligence without paying tribute either to the Government or the Western Union or the Postal Telegraph Company, was the distance one’s voice would carry.”

QST, Nov. 1919, p. 5 (top).

William S. Greene

Amateurs also had received help from friends in Congress. William Steadman Greene, the 78-year-old Chairman of the House Committee on The Merchant Marine and Fisheries, representative from Massachusetts, and “loyal protector of amateur rights,” was credited with the successful reopening.2 Greene had been the one who introduced the resolution, on the League’s behalf, asking the Navy to supply a reason for the continuing ban. Receiving no reply, he had then introduced Joint Resolution 217 directing the secretary of the Navy to remove the restrictions.

The League headquarters staff had to scramble to add the “ban off” insert to the previous issue when the news arrived just at press time.3 It would now take some hard work to get everything and everyone up and running again. “The days of real sport are at last with us,” noted ARRL secretary Kenneth Warner, directing readers to “Come on, fellows, and get into the air again.” An incredible array of new gear developed and manufactured during the war was becoming available, and that meant increased advertising revenue for QST—its life blood. The editor predicted a day when QST could be 132 pages long—twice the size of this issue. It would actually take until September of the following year for the magazine to again reach 100 pages, a size previously seen in April 1917, nearly three and a half years earlier.

Getting back on the air meant everyone had to be relicensed. Though some still had unexpired commercial licenses which the government would count as operator licenses, all amateur operator and station licenses had expired.4 As before the war, a Second Class license would be granted without examination to applicants located more than 50 miles from a district office. One could take a test given by the district inspector by appointment, and receive a First Class amateur license on successfully passing it. The new test format was a bit different, requiring longer answers from the applicant to demonstrate depth of understanding. The government published a document called “Radio Communication Laws of the United States,” containing the regulations one must know for the test.

On receiving an operator license you could next apply for a station license using a form to describe various aspects of your station. That information, and how well you had complied with the law in building it, determined whether or not the license would be granted. Radio Inspectors were authorized to disclose the call sign that an applicant would be issued once a station license was granted. The licensee would then be permitted to begin operation without waiting for the actual license to arrive in the mail. Hams were encouraged to send their new call signs to ARRL as they were issued so that they could be published and help everyone to once again recognize one another on the air.

The first directory of calls appeared in December, listing only new first district stations, apparently the only district reporting new licenses to that point. The list included the Harvard Wireless Club, 1AF, M.I.T., 1AN, Maxim, 1AW and Tuska, 1AY. Some stations in other districts had been given permission to use their old calls, possibly because they held unexpired commercial licenses. Some of these stations were prominent pre-war relayers, organizations, and operating department officers, including Mrs. Candler, 8NH, F. H. Schnell, 9AH, R. H. G. Mathews, 9ZN, J. O. Smith, 2ZL and Charles Service, 3QZ.

On the air, things were still very quiet even though the winter, the prime radio season, approached. The Atlantic Division manager reported hearing mostly silence on the first night of reopening, and only a few locals. Activity returned gradually as everyone worked to connect equipment and erect antennas. Licensed or not, amateurs had refrained from reassembling their stations before the reopening, perhaps due to uncertainty about when it would occur given the long delay, or perhaps because they stuck to the letter of the law that prohibited even assembling a station during the shutdown.

“In Memoriam” for December listed 11 more amateurs, some killed while serving in the military.

BT sep sm

WCC on Cape Cod had a long history in a medium with a short one. Wired telegraph services such as the transatlantic cable were Marconi’s natural initial competition. In 1914 he established a station at Chatham, Mass., to replace his earlier one in Wellfleet. That one had made history in 1903 by relaying a message from President Theodore Roosevelt to the King of England directly via wireless using its 35-kW spark transmitter feeding a 200-wire conical antenna supported by four, 210-foot towers.5 WCC—originally simply “CC” for Cape Cod—became one of the most prominent wireless stations in the United States, and Irving Vermilya had been a station manager there since early 1916. Answering the Navy’s call for radio operators, he enlisted in 1917, served during the war, and then returned home to Massachusetts and WCC.

Feb. 1920 QST page 25

Irving Vermilya in 1920

He was back on the air and in print again in December 1919, publishing another QST humor article, “S.O.L.” (meaning “shit outta luck,” though not labeled as such in the article), telling of his early days in the Navy.6 By this time he had become well enough known among hams to be often identified by his last name alone. Everyone else in QST was referred to as Mr. so-and-so, or by their complete name—but “Amateur Number One” was just Vermilya. Everyone finally got a look at him in the February 1920 issue’s installment of Who’s Who in Wireless,7 identified as a shift engineer at the Marconi station. The article paraphrased him as admitting that “he’d rather fuss with wireless than eat, and his record shows it.”

In October, pictures of his station appeared too—he was now 1HAA, “a good call for a funny man”—in Marion, Massachusetts.8 His antenna was a fan array of vertical wires, narrow spaced at the base and wide at the top, connected to a horizontal wire suspended between wooden supports, very similar to Maxim’s antenna and considered a leading-edge design. Two interior pictures depict a neatly arranged, high-power spark station. Another change in call sign came in July 1921, when he received a special station license and QST announced that “1HAA is no more. Vermilya is now 1ZE, using 200, 250, and 375 meters.”

He continued to work for United Wireless after its acquisition by Marconi, working as manager of WCC until he left the Radio Corporation in 1922 to become manager of the radio department at Slocum & Kilburn, a parts and equipment company.

Vermilya would continue to play a role in two camps—as professional and amateur.

AR sep sm

de W2PA

  1. Hiram Percy Maxim, “The Importance of Our ARRL,” QST, November 1919, 3. ↩
  2. “The Champion of the Amateurs,” QST, November 1919, 5. ↩
  3. “At Last!,” Editorial, QST, November 1919, 13. ↩
  4. “Getting Your Licenses,“ QST, November 1919, 12. ↩
  5. “In Search of Guglielmo,” ARRL Web, 17 Mar 2005 ↩
  6. Although it was billed as the first of a two-part article, the second part never appeared. ↩
  7. Who’s Who in Amateur Wireless, QST, February 1920, 25. ↩
  8. Amateur Radio Stations, QST, October, 1920, 35. ↩

http://w2pa.net/HRH/liberty/

MORE:

https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-use-of-the-term-lid-in-amateur-radio/311139

https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/31818/how-did-the-word-lid-come-to-mean-poor-operator-in-the-context-of-telegraph

https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/31818/how-did-the-word-lid-come-to-mean-poor-operator-in-the-context-of-telegraph

http://w2pa.net/HRH/liberty/