John Payson wrote:
> One story I read somewhere, but I'd like to find a real and definitive
> source for it, was that the original purpose of the telegraph was in
> fact to produce marks on paper (the paper being moved at a constant
> speed while the solenoid controlled a pen).  Tapping the pen against
>the paper briefly would produce a dot while holding it would produce a
>dash.  The idea, then, was that the recipient of a message, following
its
>receipt, would then proceed to decode the dots and dashes on the paper
into
>letters,  numbers, and other symbols.
>

        I believe Morse's original telegraph did indeed mark moving
paper.  It made noise as it did it.  Experienced telegraphers eventually
could read a message from across the room by hearing the clicks and not
looking at the paper.  Getting rid of the paper mechanism vastly
simplified the telegraph.

Harold



Harold Hallikainen
harold@hallikainen.com
Hallikainen & Friends, Inc.
See the FCC Rules at http://hallikainen.com/FccRules and comments filed
in LPFM proceeding at http://hallikainen.com/lpfm

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