Radio QWERTY

Christopher Sholes introduced the Qwerty keyboard on one of his early typewriters, which was patented in 1873. This device and it's patents were sold to the Remington company. No matter what you believe about the origin of QWERTY, this sale to a dominant corporation is how it became a standard. Most people have heard the tale that it was designed to slow down typists. This claim is highly apocryphal.

The first keyboards were in alphabetical order.  This led to a mechanical problem. Many commonly used  letters, that were commonly used in sequence were close together. This led to jamming. Typing the "A" then the "B" because you were sending a letter to ABC, could jam. So by design QWERTY separated these letters more. Vowels are more spread out. But it wasn't perfect. Letters "E" and "R" are awful close together.. so is "E" and "R" not that I mention it, and "I" and "O."  It's enough to cast doubt on even that popular theory.  Another theory states that QWERTY arranged all the letters needed to type the word ‘typewriter’ in one row to aid typewriter salesmen. Clever but also apocryphal.

My favorite theory comes from Koichi Yasuoka and Motoko Yasuoka, two researchers at Japan’s Kyoto University. You can read some of their research here. Back in 2011 they pointed out that there were no professional typists back in 1873. The first patent for a ballpoint pen wasn't issued until 1888, to John Loud. (graphite pencil date back as early as 1500.)  So when Sholes was shuffling the keys around he may have had a specific customer in mind: telegraph operators.

The fi rst customer for Sholes was Edward Payson Porter, the principal of Porter's Telegraph College, in Chicago, IL. At the time it had 28 keys arranged in alphabetical order laid out much like piano keys. Then in September, 1870, Sholes visited New York to meet George Harrington and Daniel Hutchins Craig of the American Telegraph Works. They promised to buy a number of typewriters but required some specific improvements. The "S" key was moved in between Z and E because of the ambiguity of American Morse code. The S key was three dots, and the E a dash, the Z three dots and a dash. The issue was specific to their trade. By 1873 the new Sholes typewriter had 43 keys and was also being used by Western Union Telegraph Co.

The evolution from alphabetical order was a progression and accidentally grew into QWERTY among the different requirements.In 1873 they demoed their now more mature typewriter design to Remington. The current model then was called a Sholes & Glidden Type-Writer. It now even had a special key with three vertical dots indicating a paragraph separator in Western Union code. In 1873 three recent models began QWERTU, QWL-TY and QWERTY.  In December 28, 1874 they began to accumulate patents, the drawing of the keyboard read QWERTY.  Remington bought out Sholes. In 1874 the Remington Type-Writer No. 2 began with the keys QWERTY.  Changes continued to be made, but the basics had been laid out.

Official Telegram Vocabulary

I was somewhat surprised this book exists. It's cumbersome title is New Official Vocabulary For Telegrams In Preconcerted Language Prepared In Accordance With The Decisions Of The International Telegraph Conference At Budapest, By The International Office Of Telegraph Administrations. Lengthy no? It's in the public domain and you can read it here if you feel you need to. It opens with the below diatribe.

"The Official Vocabulary has been created with the object of remedying certain abuses and inconveniences which in course of time found their way into the drawing up of telegrams in preconcerted language. Consequently the vocabulary is destined to serve as a guide for the choice of words to be used in this kind of telegraphic correspondence. in order to adapt it exclusively to this use the Offices of the Telegraph Union have charged the International Office with the Elaboration of a second edition, which differs from the first in this, in that it will be a mere list of words, absolutely free from the dispositions and arrangements which might give it the character of a code and permit it to be used as such."

The book includes the words of eight languages in alphabetical order without any numbering except for page numbers. The idea was that regulations would require all private telegrams to use only words from this massive list. But this effort was not made to prevent coded messages. The IOTA offered to include more words by request and were contacted by 136 publishers of telegraphic codes to include their vocabularies in this master list. If those words met with regulations they laid out at that meeting in Budapest. This tome contained 256.740 words with an estimate their list would grow to include 1.3 million words.

The eight languages included English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portugese and Spanish.  You certainly could not transmit a message in Russian, Swahili, Mandarin, or even Polish under these constraints. However, you could still transmit "artificial words."  Those words could contain up to 10 letters. It's hard to say what all his accomplished.

Simplex and Phantom Circuts

Here is a War Department video about balanced circuits used in telegraph circuits. It relates to come of the modem history I covered over the last two days.

THEORY OF SIMPLEX AND PHANTOM CIRCUITS - PART I

THEORY OF SIMPLEX AND PHANTOM CIRCUITS - PART II

The Origin of the Word "Telegraph"

The word "telegraph" was coined around 1792 by Claude Chappe. He was a french physician and inventor. You will notice this is not only before Morse patented  the telegraph in 1837. It's also worthwhile to point out that Morse still in diapers at the time as he was only 1 year old. If that's not explicit enough let me reiterate... Morse didn't invent the telegraph — he stole it. 

Chappe didn't invent it either for the record. He only combined the Greek word tele meaning "far" and graphein meaning "to write." Chappe worked in semaphore, another form of encoded communication intended to transmit messages over distance quickly. In 1792 his new semaphore system was the first practical telecommunications system in Europe. Chappe also coined the word semaphore.

During the French revolution Claude's brother, Ignace was a member of the Legislative Assembly. The fix was in and Claude was hired as their Ingénieur-Télégraphiste. The Chappe semaphore system used a set of black wooden arms whose position indicated alphabetic letters. It used counter-weights to ease use and was easily manipulated with just two handles. Both of the arms had seven positions, and the cross bar connecting the two arms had four different angles. The developed a code book that used 92 of the basic symbols two at a time to yield 8,464 coded words and phrases.

With government help, a relay line was built from Paris to Lille, a distance of 120 miles to relay military information from the front with Austria. By 1824 the "telegraph" had diversified into personal messages. At it's peak the Chappe network (Le systeme Chappe) contained 556 stations stretching over a distance of 3,000 miles. Napoleon Bonaparte saw it's utility and some history books also refer to it as the Napoleonic system.  But in the 1840s the French government invested in wired, electrical telegraph systems ending the semaphore based system. The Chappe network closed up in 1852.

But Claude Chappe himself saw very little of this transpire. He had committed suicide in Paris in 1805 by throwing himself down a well at a hotel.  It was said he was depressed by claims that he had plagiarized from existing military semaphore systems.

Forty-Five Q-Codes

Q codes pre-date much of radio history. They are a good example of a brevity code. These are not typical telegraphic codes which which encoded for privacy, and to reduce the number of characters with the end goal of reducing cost. Brevity codes function just to reduce length and increase speed usually for safety reasons. A S.O.S. message would be a perfect example of a brevity code.

The original Q codes began with a proposal at a 1906 conference in Berlin. They were created in1909, by the British government. It began with a handbook, the  Handbook for Wireless Telegraph Operators Working Installations licensed by His Majesty's Postmaster-General. It included the single paragraph of instruction which clearly predates their use internationally:

"The following list of abbreviations has been prepared for the use of British ships and coast stations licensed by the Postmaster-General on the lines of proposals made at the International Conference at Berlin in 1906. They may be used in communication between British coast stations and British ships or between British coast stations and foreign ships equipped with Marconi apparatus, but not at present between British coast stations and other foreign ships, or between British ships and foreign coast stations.  In the use of these abbreviations, the signal employed should be repeated three times. "

Because the Q codes eased communication between radio operators speaking different languages they were quickly adopted internationally. Informal use probably began earlier but international use was somewhat codified by 1912. A total of forty-five Q codes were codified by the Service Regulations that came with the third International Radiotelegraph Convention. It was held in London in 1912 and enacted in 1913. Each phrase can be a statement or a question and I include both below. The addition of the code ..--.. changed the code into a question. Those first codes are as follows:

CODE	Phrase	Query
QRA	Here the _______	What ship or coast station is that?
QRB	My distance is _______	What is your distance?
QRC	My bearing is ______	What is your bearing?
QRD	I am bound for ______	Where are you bound for?
QRF	I am bound from ______	Where are you bound from?
QRG	I belong to the ______ line	What line do you belong to?
QRH	My wave length is _____ metres	What is your wave length in meters?
QRJ	I have _____words to transmit	How many words have you to transmit?
QRK	Signals are satisfactory	How are signals ?
QRL	I am receiving badly	Are you receiving badly?
QRM	I am being interfered with	Are you being interfered with?
QRN	Atmospherics are very strong	Are atmospherics strong?
QRO	Increase your power	Shall I increase power?
QRQ	Transmit faster	Shall I transmit faster?
QRS	Transmit slower	Shall I transmit slower?
QRT	Stop transmitting	Shall I stop transmitting?
QRU	I have nothing for you	Have you anything for me?
QRV	All right now, everything is in order	Is everything in order?
QRW	Engaged.  Please do not interfere	Are you busy?
QRX	Stand by. I will call you when required	Shall I stand by?
QRY	Your turn will be number _____	When will be my turn?
QRZ	Your signals are weak	Are my signals weak?
QSA	Your signals are strong	Are my signals strong?
QSB	Your spark is bad	Is my spark bad?
QSC	Your spacing is bad	Is my spacing bad?
QSD	My time is ______	What is your time?
QSF	Transmission will be in alternate order	N/A
QSG	Transmission will be in seriesof 5 messages	N/A
QSH	Transmission will be in series of 10 messages	N/A
QSJ	Please give me your rate to ________	Do you want my rate to _______?

Although Q codes were created when radio was only capable of transmitting Morse Code, they continued to be used in the era of voice-transmission. It is interesting to note that to prevent confusion call signs are restricted in ways to avoid Q-code confusion.

Telegraphic Codes

I've written a bit about Telegraphic codes in the past. You can read about one here. But I recently came across a list of other telegraphic codes. These are for the most part utterly obscure and I will spend years searching for more information, possibly to no end. I can't emphasize this enough... there were hundreds of these code books, each with numerous improved, expanded, specialized and updated editions.Not all of them were in widespread use (some surely weren't used at all). To the contrary, most of them appear to specialize in niche-markets. There were code books for mining, leather, shipping, lumber, stock prices and many others. As archaic as this practice is, some code books remained in print into the 1940s!

This list below draws strongly on a Lloyd's Shipping Register of1921. I also used Palmer & Howe's 1906 List of telegraph codes, the digitized code books on Archive.org and the 1911 edition of the Declaration of London which lists off telegraph codes in print at that time. I also referred to the very impressive website of John Mcvey here and some of S.Tomokiyo's writing here. I've omitted police and fire codes as well as non-English language code books from this list for space reasons.

Adam's Cable Codex
Anderson's Expert Cypher Words
Anglo-American Cable Code
Anglo-International Cable Code
Atlantic Cable Directory
Atlantic Cotton Telegraph Code
Atlas Universal Travelers' Telegraphic Cipher Code
Ager's Shipping Telegram Code [LINK]
Ager's Standard Telegram Code
Ager's Alphabetical Telegram Code
Australian railway telegraphic code
AYZ Telegram Code
Broomhall's Comprehensive Cipher Code
Baltimore Export Cable Code
Bedford McNeil's Mining and General Telegraphic Code
Beith's 10-Letter Combinations 
Bentley's Complete Phrase Code [LINK]
Bennett's Cypher Code for Steamship Owners and Brokers
Bentley's Baltic and White Sea Code [LINK]
Berne's Official Vocabulary
Bi-Literal Telegraph Cipher for Code Messages
Billionaire Phrase Code
Bink's Cut-Rate Cable Code
Bishop's Travellers Telegraph Code
Bloomer's Commercial Cryptograph [LINK]
Brentano’s Telegraph and Cable Code [LINK]
British and Foreign Trade Shipping Code
Broomhall Miniature Code
Century Standard Code
Cheeseborough Private Telegraphic Code
Chestnutt, Cooper & Co. Bristle Code
Clare's Telegraphic Code for Black Sea and Mediterranean Trade
Clauson-Thue A.B.C. Universal Commercial Electric Telegraphic Code
Clauson-Thue A1 Universal Commercial Electric Telegraphic Code
Corby's Code for Drapers
Cornforth Telegraphic Code
Crossley's Cable Code
Cook's Unicode
Dieckelmann's Code
D.M. Ferry & Co Wholesale Trade List & Telegraphic Code [LINK]
Dunn's Cypher Code
Durst Telegraphic Code
Figure Code for Stocks and Shares
Gallesi's Commercial Telegraphic Code
Gerrish System Telegraphic Cipher Code 
Gilburt's Tourists Telegraphic Code
Globe Commercial Telegraph Code [LINK]
Glover Brothers Telegraphic Code
Grain Trade Standard Code
Great Western Railway Telegraphic Code
Hamilton's Telegraphic Code of Numeral Quotations
Hancock Telegraph Code
Hartfield's Wall Street Code
Harvey's Cosmopolitan Cable Code
Hawke's Tables for Telegraphing
Hawke's Inland and Foreign Telegram Code
Hawke's Maximum Cyphers
Heath Telegraphic Cipher [LINK]
Heath & Finnemore Private Telegraphic Code
Hendiploun, a Telegraphic Code
Herbert's Universal-Simplex Code System
Hinrich's Shipbrokers' and Steamship Cable Code
Igha Telegraph Code and Tables
Ironscrap Telegraph Code
International Telegraphic Code
Jeweller's Telegraphic Code
Jones's Universal Shipping Telegraph Code
Kraipnos Telegraphic Shorthand
Keegan's International Three-Letter Code
Kerr & Gordon Private Cipher Code
Kendell's Figure Cypher Code
Kolkenbeck's Ideal Code Condenser
Laurie's Universal Code
Lawrie's Pocket Telegraphic Code
Lieber's Standard Telegraph Code [LINK]
Leviathan Cable Code
Lieber's Standard Telegraphic Code
Longford Wire Cable Code
Low's Pocket Cable Code
Lumberman's Standard Telegraphic Code  [LINK]
Maguire’s Code of Ciphers
Mackay's One Word Telegraph Code
Manchester Piece Goods and General Phrase Code
Massey-Harris Telegraphic Code
McNeill’s Code [LINK]
McNichol's Nine Figure Code
Mercury Code
Meyer's Atlantic Cotton Code
Meyer's Anglo-American Cotton Code
Meyer's Commercial Telegraph Code 
Meyer's International Mercantile Telegraph Code
Murray's Insurance and Maritime Telegraphic Code
Marconi International Code
Miners and Smelters Code (aka Master telegraph Code)
Mitchell's Code
Montgomery Code
Moreing & McCutcheon's General Commercial and Mining Telegram Code
Moreing & Neal's New General and Mining Telegraph Code
Musgrove Private Telegraphic Code
National Tube Works Pocket Companion Telegraphic Code
Nattini Codice Telegráfico Commerciale e Mercantile
Pain's Directory Code
Pacific Railway Company Private Mining & Metallurgical Telegraphic Cipher Code
Parker's Economical Code for Piece Goods Code (aka Parker’s Combination Code)
Patakys Telegraphic Code
Penny's Cipher Code
Perfect Cypher Code
Peycke's Abbreviation Key [LINK]
Peycke's Ekonomik Telegraphic Cipher Code
Phillip's Telegraphic Code for Rapid Transmission [LINK]
Pieron's Code Condenser
Piggott's Cable Code
Premier Cypher Telegraphic Code [LINK]
Prentice's Cable Code
Private Cable Code for the Timber Trade by Price and Peirce [LINK]
Repetition Code
Riverside Code
Rohde's Code Words and Terminal Key
Ross-Moss Phrase and Combination Code
Everybody's Pocket Code by W.M. Saunders
Scattergood's Fruit Merchants Cable Code
Scott's Shipowners' Telegraphic Code [LINK]
Schnore's Telegraphic Code
Shepperson's Telegraphic Cipher Code (cotton trade)  [LINK]
Simplex Telegraphic Code
Slater's Telegraph Code [LINK]
Southard & Co.'s Telegraphic Cypher
Spalding’s Telegram Guide [LINK]
Standard Shipping Code
Steven's Engineering Telegraph Code
Stewart's Five Letter Telegraph Code
Stockbrokers Telegraph Code
Sutherlands K.K. the Complete Code
Swift's Private Telegraphic Code
Tahl's Telegraphic Code
Timber Trades Universal Code
Timber Trades Journal New Zebra Code
Tracey's Tenmil Code 
Tybo Code
Unicode Universal Phrase Book [LINK]
Universal Alphabetical Figure and Column Cable Code
Universal Shipping Telegraph Code
V.A.J. Figure Code for Stocks
Victoria Code
Vicker's Mariners and Family Cable Code
Voller's 12-Figure System
Voller's 9-Figure System
Victorian Railways' Telegraph Code Book [LINK]
Watkins' Code, 1881 (aka Shipbrokers' Telegraphic Code)
Watt's Telegraphic Cypher (multiple editions)
Watkins' Universal Shipping Code (multiple editions)
Watson Cable Code
Wray's Telegraphic Code
Western Union (Five Letter)
Wetmore's Commercial Telegraphic Code
Western Union Telegraphic Code and International Cable
Whitelaw's Telegraphic Cyphers with Terminal Order
Widebrook's Code
Williams & Brown Private Telegraphic Code
Wilson's Ship Brokers Telegraph Code [LINK]
Whitelaw's  Telegraph Cyphers
Whittingham’s Skeleton Telegraph Code [LINK]
Wilson's Shipbrokers' Code
Wood's Bohemian Telegraph Code
U.S. Steel Corporation Private Telegraphic Code

--------------------------Update--------------------------

I am continuing this research on a page here.

Lumbermans Standard Telegraph Code

In my radio research sometimes I unearth something so obscure I surprise even myself. Lumberman's Standard Telegraph Code is a artifact from another era of data transmission and data encryption. The book above is copyrighted to 1885. It's pre-broadcasting, pre-computer, pre-WWI and really a relic from another era of codetext cipher. (More here) Before things like ASCII and SSL, many codes were based on simple substitution as is this one. But this one is very specialized.  The Lumberman's Standard Telegraph Code is, and I quote:

"A practical system of telegraphing in cipher, especially adapted to the requirements of the lumber trade; with phrases and technical terms so arranged as to make it universally applicable to all branches of the trade, and interchangeable throughout all sections of the United States."

This edition was published in 1899, and it cost $3.00; which at the time was fairly pricey for a book. It had been in print as early as 1892. The preamble in my edition states that the purpose of the code was not secrecy but making business less expensive. Western Union had made a rule that when transmitting code, only words could be used, not numerals. This was probably more about billing practices than secrecy. The ruling also required that if prefixes were added to words to make them meaningless they would be billed at the rate of one word per letter. Western Union was trying to prevent what this guide was doing... shortening messages to save money. The company had strong incentive to try to stop it. In the year 1900, they carried 63.2 million messages on their network. More here.

So the purpose of the code was to condense a message through encryption. It was a simple form of analog data compression. An advertisement in the American Lumberman Magazine in 1899 sold it with the following language:

"The mail is quick, Lumbermans Standard Telegraph Code is quicker. It will save the cost of the book every few days. A telegram containing 50-100 words can usually be brought within 10 with it's use..."

The book includes tables of types of wood, sizes, lengths, thicknesses, grades, dates, times, numbers, percentages, railroads, and phrases. The word "Transfix" replaces the entire phrase "The stock inquired for is scarce here; will do best we can."  The cipher is structured sensibly variations on a word cover similar phrases

• Rust - Use our judgement?
• Rusticate - The prices quotes are good for this day only
• Rustication - The prices quoted are good until notice
• Rustiness - The prices quotes are subject to change without notice
• Rustiness - The prices are subject to change occasioned by fluctuations in freights before receiving your order
• Rusting - The____ are too green to deliver there at the price you name
• Rustle - Think it best to sell now at what we can get
• Rustling - Think market will be better

The book gives this simple example showing how it reduced the size of a message. the first message below is a commercial order for doors and windows as one might for building a house. It has 82 words by the Western Union definition.

"Ship by express, 10 8x10, 12-light, plain rail glazed windows; 5 14x32, 4-light check rail glazed windows, plowed and bored; 4 2-6x6-6 4 panel No. 1 doors, 1 1/8th inches thick; 6, 2-6x6-6 5 panel No. 2 doors 1 1/8th inches thick; 1 3x7 4 panel, circled top panel door, 1 3/4 inches thick, raised moldings 1 side; 4 pair blinds, 4-light, 14x32."

When compressed into the Lumberman's code it contains only 19 words:

"Refuse, mask, raindeer, raphelite. Martyrology, raidzy, ravage. Martyrdom, recusancy, redient. Marvel, recuperationaly, redient. Martin, redargutionky, redly. Martyrdom, ramble, ravage.

While some spellings have changes, and some words are now archaic... the code works. It's over 70% shorter. At the end of the book is an appendix listing hundreds of lumberyards ostensibly using the code. I'm sure they all made the Western Union enemies list but I'm not sure how they countered the maneuver.

Competing Telegraphs

It wasn't much after Samuel Morse invented the first electrical telegraph in 1837 that competing systems first began to appear. But the first recorded instance of the transmission of an electrical signal across wire was patented in London in 1750 by Benjamin Franklin. Yes, that Ben Franklin. He just detonated a blasting cap there was no message per se but the concept is similar. Another early experiment was in 1804 by Francisco Salva Campillo. He used multiple wires to represent letters in signals conveyed over a distance and the signal was received with each wires immersed in a separate glass tube of acid. The current would create bubbles which would indicate the letter. In 1809 German inventor Samuel Thomas von Sömmering re-worked the Campillo design so the signal could travel over a mile.

These do all sound ridiculous and impractical configurations, but the point is that the Morse system won out because it was the first practical system. he didn't invent it in a void.  That is evidenced by the fact that Prof. Charles Wheatstone, Charles T. Jackson  and David Alder all "invented" the telegraph around the same date.  Only a few years before the Morse system debuted, Carl Friedrich Gauss showed off a semi-practical electrical telegraph. He and and Wilhelm Weber built connected the Gottingen Observatory and the Institute of Physics; a distance of about half a mile.

Their prototype consisted of a coil which could be moved up and down over the ends of two magnetic bars. This motion generated an induction current that was transmitted through two wires to a galvanometer. They could also toggle the direction of the current. Using positive and negative states they encoded the alphabet in binary code. In 1832  Pavel Shilling revised an 8-wire model down to two. It was tested in Russia over a distance of 3 miles. The British government was interested in buying the design. Had Morse not had his own breakthroughs, either of these could have been a usable systems.

But what about afterwards?  The early success of the Morse system brought out as many imitators as innovators as money often does. Morse's patents were often licensed.. though sometimes not hence the lawsuits. Morse himself failed to credit Vail for the electromagnets in his model and that too was a point of legal contention. The first Morse-Vail telegraphers marked down code with pen and paper to be interpreted visually. It was only later that engineers realized they could just interpret the sound alone. As telegraph networks were built, some companies used a printing telegraph.

The first of these was developed by Mr. Royal E. House. His printers used paper tape not unlike early stock tickers. In 1846 a Scottish scientist, Alexander Bain, sped up the Morse system with a paper tape soaked in a mixture of ammonium nitrate and potassium ferrocyanide, which gave a blue mark when zapped with the current. But this was too fast so he re-engineered it as punched paper. His unit managed a top speed of 282 words in under a minute. This was more than 4x the speed of Morse's telegraph. Morse sued him of course claiming ownership of the paper tape idea. In 1848 Friedrich Clemens Gerke revised the original Morse code into a binary arrangement of dots and dashes. Sort of reminds me of VHS and Betamax.

Radio circa 1900

I have tried often to convey the context in which any radio story occurs. A year is just a number, so I usually use events or inventions to contextualize events. It's difficult. Just stating that something happened before there were cellphones, remote controls, the internet, satellites, or rotary telephones is not enough. Before there was FM radio is an idea that's utterly lost on the current generation. The idea that AM radio used to sound halfway decent is equally foreign. But I found something recently that says much.

Above is a scan of the one page of "electrical" goods section from the 1900 edition of the Sears & Roebuck Catalog.  The following pages do have film equipment, camera, and Graphone brand talking machines. But those were all mechanical devices, powered by humans turning cranks or winding springs. Above is the entirety of the "electrical" devices section.I list it all below:

TELEGRAPH INSTRUMENTS
19650 - Learners Telegraph Outfit (sounder, key base, wire & battery)  - $2.50
19652 - Learners  Instrument (above without battery) - $2.00
19654 - Learners  Instrument (above wound for 20 Ohms) - $2.25
19656 - Private Line Instrument (Western Union style telegraph key) - $3.25
19658 - Private Line Instrument (above wound for 20 Ohms) - $3.25
19665 - Steel Level Key Standard Western Union (w/legs & trunnions)  - $1.50
19667 - Steel Level Key Standard Western Union (without legs)  - $1.95
19685 - Aluminum Sounder (4 Ohm) - $2.25
19686 - Aluminum Sounder (20 Ohm) - $2.65

BATTERIES
19746 - Gravity Battery (5 lb) - 50¢
19746 - Gravity Battery (7 lb) - 60¢
19750 - Battery Jar (5x7)  - 25¢
19752 - Battery Jar (6x8)  - 30¢
19754 - Zinc (for 5x7 battery) - 20¢
19756 - Zinc (for 6x8 battery) - 40¢
19758 - Copper (for above) - 12¢
19759 - Blue Vitriol (per lb) - 8¢
19790 - Our Special Battery (open circuit) - 30¢
19792 - The Le Ciede Battery (open circuit) - 35¢
19794 - The Le Clanche Porous Cell Battery - 40¢
19796 - Extra Zinc (for above batteries) 5¢
19797 - Sal Ammoniac (per lb) 15¢
19865 - Mesco Dry Battery - 25¢

ELECTRIC BELLS
19899 - Iron Box Bell (w/ 3"  gong) - 35¢
19899½ - Iron Box Bell (w/ 4"  gong) - 45¢

BUZZER
19905 - Buzzer  - 45¢


ELECTRIC DOOR BELL OUTFITS
19908 - Door Bell Outfit (bell, wire & push button) - 75¢
19910 - Door Bell Outfit (above with battery) - 95¢
19912 - Door Bell Outfit (above with 2 batteries) - 1.65¢

Notice there are no stereos, radios, record players, speakers, antennas, walkmans,  discmans, LPs, 45s, 78s, feel-to-reels, telephones, cell, phones, TV, AM, FM, 8-tracks, ADAT, internet, RCS, remote control, radar, or even flashlights. This was from an era when electricity was from a battery, and usually a wet battery full of acid that you had to maintain very carefully. This is where we were about a century ago. How is that for context?

NYSPTC to NYMVPTC

This is the story of the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company, heretofore known as NYMVPTC, which is ungainly even for an acronym. Our tale starts with a smaller acronym, and Mr. Hiram Sibley in Rochester, NY.  He was elected Sheriff and through that office met Judge Samuel L. Selden. Wait, let's back up a little. I think we need some back story here.  More here.

In 1844 Morse has just run his test line from Baltimore to DC.  Ezra Cornell was involved because he'd invented a trench digger and they both thought telegraph wires could be run under ground. They were 20 years too early for plastic insulation so that went pretty poorly. The first commercial telegraph line was run from Washington, DC, to New York City in 1846 by the Magnetic Telegraph Company

 In 1849, Sibley joined with Selden and to start the  New York State Printing Telegraph Company (NYSPTC) armed with Selden's Morse patents. There were competing systems, so if Selden had a license from Alexander Bain this could be a very different tale. Regardless, telegraph companies didn't have exclusive licenses, or they were poorly executed. NYMVPTC  was competing with telegraph companies in New York, Albany, and Buffalo. Selden and Sibley handled this by buying up several of them and consolidated them into The New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company (NYMVPTC.) This was good for business so they went on to purchase all the companies west of Buffalo.  This didn't just increase their market share, it also eliminated competing telegraph standards.

But there were still rival systems in the West. There were at least a dozen separate companies using at least 2 different non-Morse systems. NYMVPTC ultimately purchased and converted them too. In 1854 Sibley bought the Morse licenses for the whole Midwest for $50,000 from Jeptha H. Wade, who became a board member. His properties includes lines to Michigan, Chicago St. Louis, and Nashville. He also bought the St. Louis and Salt lake City telegraph company from John J. Speed.  Sibley manage to do all of this without the knowledge of his competitor Ezra Cornell. Cornell owned the Erie and Michigan Telegraph Company (EMTC).  His lines stretched out to Detroit, Indiana and Illinois.  More here and here.

Eventually Ezra Cornell was brought into the fold. NYMVPTC bought EMTC from Cornell in 1855. In 1856, the company name was changed to the "Western Union Telegraph Company." Ezra Cornell went on to found Cornell University in 1865—currently the home of 93.5 WVBR.  All's well that ends well.

Morse runs amok!

Our modern world is beset by patent trolls.  But a century ago the hot commodity was electricity and radio, not software design so that's where the patent trolls were rife. I could be even handed and argue that where there is money to be made you will always have a mix of legitimate and illegitimate claims to intellectual property.  But today you can truly patent anything: things that are alive, things that don't exist, even things that are already patented. Our modern patent system courts the absurd, which is why I was surprised to recently read of the greatest troll of all: Samuel Morse.

Samuel Morse tried to patent what amounted to the entire electromagnetic spectrum. I fear that were that attempted today, he might have succeeded. I first became aware of this historical footnote thanks to David Ewing Duncan writing for The Atlantic [LINK]. The case of Henry O’Rielly, versus Samuel F.B. Morse, was also known as The Telegraph Patent Case. This 1853 decision has had huge consequences. Immediately it created the legal concept that abstract ideas are not patent-eligible. This has limited patent trolls ever since. Here's how it went down.

Samuel F.B. Morse is best known as the inventor of the telegraph and of course... Morse code. He sent the first telegraph message on May 24, 1844. It was "What hath God wrought?". Morse was not the first person to try to convey data via wire. This was decades before Tesla invented AC current. So they were struggling to convey DC voltage which has the well known problem of loss to resistance. (see Ohm's Law (R = V / I ) Morse's solution was the repeater or relay. While the signal to noise ratio is still tractable, he used an amplifier and a filter to bump up the amplitude. His system needed one about every 20 mile, but it worked. However, that was just one facet of his patent. I'll quote the deeply dubious section 8 which was later struck down:

"Eighth. I do not propose to limit myself to the specific machinery or parts of machinery described in the foregoing specification and claims; the essence of my invention being the use of the motive power of the electric or galvanic current, which I call electro-magnetism, however developed for marking or printing intelligible characters, signs, or letters, at any distances, being a new application of that power of which I claim to be the first inventor or discoverer."

When Morse invented the telegraph he offered to sell it to the U.S. government for $100,000... the modern equivalent of about a quarter million dollars. His working model was a 40-mile experimental line that ran from D.C. to Baltimore; built with a $30,000 federal grant. [More here] They rebuffed him, so Morse went looking for what we now call VC money.  Morse hired former postmaster general, Amos Kendall, as his agent to help do that. O’Rielly was the former editor of the Rochester Editor Newspaper and he happened to be friends with Amos Kendall. [note O’Rielly is sometimes spelled O’Reilly]

In June of 1846, Kendall signed a contract with O'Reilly and other patent licensees. O'Reilly clearly imagined a huge telegraph system crossing and interconnecting the country. They started with 15k of funding and began licensing local telegraph companies immediately. I'll quote that too just to be thorough.

 “...for the construction of a line of Morse’s Electra-Magnetic Telegraph to connect the great seaboard line at Philadelphia, or at such other convenient point on said line as may approach nearer Harrisburg, in Pennsylvania, and from thence through Harrisburg and other intermediate towns to Pittsburg, and thence through Wheeling and Cincinnati, and such other towns and cities as the said O'Reilly and his associates may elect, to St. Louis and to the principal towns on the lakes.” 

That licensing may have produced cash flow but it by 1851, it also produced 50 more telegraph companies operating in the United States some also creating competing technology and patents. O'Reilly though the had the right to manage that system, but Kendall had intended that it be only the right to build and that conflict was coming. By 1846 the Philadelphia to Pittsburgh line was complete. By 1847 he lit Boston was connected to New York and the Pittsburgh line was extended to Cincinnati and Louisville. But he was having money problems, so he issued stock in companies that technically he did not own. Kendall was pissed off and supported/encouraged the other telegraph companies in building competing telegraph lines. they filed injunctions against O'Reilly but failed. O'Reilly got over confident after the victory and expanded his network beyond even the original CP. That was a bridge too far. More here.

In 1848 Morse sued him for infringement of the telegraph patent #1647. [Patent text here] O'Reilly appealed and counter sued trying to invalidate the patent. He argued in favor of prior works by some European tinkerers. Essentially they held that the first seven "inventions" of the patent specifications stand but the  eighth is too broad. Morse legally disclaimed part 8 and kept the rest. O'Reilly may have started with a genuine understanding but it graduated to malefaction; he ran amok in other words. Sparing the future from the ramifications of Morse owning all RF... that was coincidental.  O’Rielly continued to start and stall companies and never succeeded. He got a job at a customs house in New York but was laid off in 1877 at the age of 72. He died in 1886. More here.

Telegraph Key

I found this on a window sill in an old barn. I can't even guess how long it's been there.  It's obviously missing a couple parts. It is a "straight-key" type telegraph key.  It consists of a simple bar with a knob on top and a contact underneath. When you toggle the knob down, it compresses the spring connecting a circuit allowing electricity to flow. When you release the spring expands lifting the lever back up interrupting the circuit.It probably looked something like this when it was new.

This is the key you see in all the movies. They never use it right though. You'll see actors often tapping it with one or two fingertips. The correct technique is to grasp the knob with the thumb and two fingers to reduce the motion of the fingers. The wrist and forearm should direct the motion. John Shannon (K3WWP) hasa great article on that here.

It's very similar to the J-37 Key and the J-38 Key. I brushed off some of the dust and found a few markings. There is a "US" in pink ink (possibly faded red) with an anchor between indicating it's a naval design. To the right of the paddle and in white is the text "CJB 26021." The CJB means it was manufactured by the J. H. Bunnell Company in New York. 26021 is a model number that dates it to after 1918. These markings match the company name directly below the adjusting screw. It is a standard legless pattern key that first appears in catalogs around 1880. The lever is steel and (not brass) and the knob is plastic. It might actually be kind of rare.

Dr. Mahlon Loomis

All of radio history could have been different. But predictably, Congress didnt' want to give $50,000 to a dentist with strange ideas.

Dr. Mahlon Loomis tried to convince Congress to fund the design and testing of a wireless system to telegraph signals through the air directly between the United States and Switzerland. Congress refused the requested $50,000 in funding, and there are those today who still claim this kept Loomis from developing a radio system two decades before Marconi. In 1865 the good doctor may have been the first person to communicate wirelessly. Between 1866 and 1873 he transmitted a distance of 18 miles between the tops of Cohocton Mountain and Beorse Deer Mountain in Virginia. The embarassment of his public weirdness drove his wife to leave him.

Loomis was granted U.S. patent number 129,971 on July 30, 1872 for an His Aerial Telegraph. "A new and Improved Mode of Telegraphing and of Generating Light, Heat, and Motive Power". At the time, Loomis claimed his system could be used to melt icebergs, make the seasons milder, eliminate malaria, and provide an inexhaustible source of energy. His drawings indicate he was on the right track but his claims tell us he was a carny at heart. He remarked more than once "I know that I am regarded as a crank, perhaps a fool by some, and as to the latter, possibly I am, for I could have discarded this thing entirely and turned my attention to making money."

In 1868 Mahlon Loomis demonstrated to a group of Congressmen and scientists a wireless experiment. He made two kites the bottom of which were covered with thin copper gauze, and the kite string was copper wire. He set a kite sent aloft to alter the of current in another kite connected to a galvenometer located 29 km away (18 miles) from the first kite. This discovery triggered the development of wireless telegraphy for long distance communications. Senator Samuel Pomeroy of Kansas and Representative John Bingham of Ohio were present at this demonstration.

Now in this public experiment he broadcast nothing. His theory was flawed. He beleive that the atmosphere had electrically conducting layers. These of course do not exist. But it is possible that his equipment was so poorly designed or manufactured (or both) that they operated differently than he intended. In his later experiments he erected steel masts on top of wooden towers and replicated the experiment successfully.

Near Bears Den mountain in Terra Alta Cemetery there is a sign commemorating his work. It reads: "From nearby Bear's Den Mountain to the Catoctin Ridge, a distance of fourteen miles, Dr. Mahlon Loomis, Dentist, sent the first aerial wireless signals, 1866-73, using kites flown by copper wires. Loomis received a patent in 1872 and his company was chartered by Congress in 1873. But lack of capital frustrated his experiments. He died in 1866. Virginia Conservation Commission 1848."