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Herr von Gootman doth ye vex Old People late into the night, depriving them of their needed rest ! But here goes on two answers for him:
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1. Question: <span style="font-size: 14pt;">If the device [ the Vibroplex key ] could do multiple taps on its own, that implies that the telegrapher would have to count the taps and stop the vibration if necessary. Is that correct?</span>
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Answer: Yes. 1 Dot = E. 2 Dots = I. 3 Dots = S. 4 Dots = H. 5 Dots = P. 6 Dots = the numeral 6.
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The sender just pays attention and gets it right. If the sender makes a mistake, he sends "DN" and starts the word over again. The receiver pays close attention, too. But anyone who reads code, be it railroad Morse in clicks coming off a telegraph sounder, or beep-beep on the radio, will tell you he does not hear distinct Dots and Dashes, he hears complete words. Even big words like government or president or percent. Hearing complete words is what separates the real Operators from the Boy Scouts !
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I am kinda rusty and will confess that sometimes I get one too many Dots in a character, like sending 6 Dots for the letter P, but if I think the receiver will figure it out, I just keep going. If he stumbles over what I have sent, he opens his key and sends "BK" (meaning "break") and gives me the last word he got, and I start again from there. It is an embarassment to get broken too many times, so you just pay attention and "send good stuff." Spacing between characters is the most important thing in sending. No need to go fast if the fellow at the other end cannot understand it.
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2. Question: The article also mentioned that with a resonator, the operator could listen to one line at once. How did that work? Was each sounder in a box, and the operator would open the lid to the one he wanted to listen to?
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Answer: The "calling sounders" were screwed to the desk or to a shelf. There was one sounder for each wire passing thru your station or office. (I think "MH" office at the Roanoke Station had 14 or 15 sounders on the shelf over the desk.) When you heard someone calling your station, you shoved a plug into the jack box hole for that wire, and that action transferred the circuit from the desk sounder up to the resonator (a three sided wooden box) which could be pulled right over to your ear. Sometimes the resonator was on a swing arm, and sometimes it was just on a little wooden pipestand which could be slid across the desk to near your ear. Getting the resonator next to your ear enables you to hear that one wire over the clatter of the other sounders, over the noise of passing engines, babies crying in the waiting room, drunks fighting out on the platform, etc. Another trick with resonators is to shove a Prince Albert tobacco can down behind the sounder in the resonator. This acts quite effectively as a "mechanical amplifier." I keep a "PA Can" in all my resonators, and you will see that in many old photos.
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For my own operation, I only have two telegraph circuits coming into my house, and both are represented by a resonator on a little pipestand on the desk. If I need to pay attention to something on one of the circuits, I just shove a pencil into the operating lever of the other sounder, which silences it. HA! But we are not working with Train Orders, Western Union messages and suchlike important things... we are just playing telegraph. And yes, I have a green eyeshade hung beside the desk. The eyeshade, black cloth sleeve protectors and my cap with a brass Telegrapher's badge are parts of my uniform when I go out to participate in telegraph demonstrations. Attachment.
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-- abram burnett
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Saving the World - One Turnip at a Time
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