Candygram!
Posted on 02/01/2006 10:28:21 AM PST by Mr. Brightside
Dotty old message beats out teen texting
Thnk ur gr8 @ txt msgng? You may think you're saving time cutting out all those pesky vowels when sending text messages to your buddies, but Gordon Hill, a 93-year-old Morse code specialist, just might prove you wrong.
In a competition staged by an Australian museum, Hill, a telegraph operator since 1927, was pitted against 13-year-old Brittany Devlin in a battle of the messengers. Hill was armed with nearly a lifetime of experience using Morse code; Devlin, with two years of text messaging experience and a slew of slang popular with chronic texters. A sentence was chosen at random from a teen magazine, and both contestants had to transmit the message as quickly as possible.
The results might have some reconsidering the value of doing things the old way. Hill transmitted the complete message in 90 seconds, while Devlin used texting shorthand and finished sending her abbreviated message a full 18 seconds later. Hill then handedly defeated three other young foes armed with their mobile phones.
And what was the all-important message that was sent? "Hey, girlfriend, you can text all your best pals to tell them where you are going and what you are wearing." That's enough to make anyone wish they could go back to pre-texting days.
bump
Candygram!
D'oh!
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..-. .- ..- .-.. -
"When you control the mail,
you control information."
Bush's fault?
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Bummer Stop
:-) Stop
Morse Code Translators
http://morsecode.scphillips.com/jtranslator.html
or
http://www.omnicron.com/~ford/java/NMorse.html
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Western Union man,
bad news in his hand,
knocking at my door,
selling me the score.
Fifteen cents a word to read,
a telegram I didn't need,
says she doesn't care no more,
think I'll throw it on the floor.
Got your cable just today,
killed my groove I've got to say.
Western Union, ditdadadada ditdadadada ditdadadada
Now you've gone away and
how it's sad to say you're gone.
I remember what they said,
now I'm going out of my head.
Telegram just had to say
you learned your lesson all the way
Telegram just had to say
you learned your lesson all the way
Western Union, ditdadadada ditdadadada ditdadadada
I'll be on my way 'cause
there's another girl for me.
I'll be sure of her
and things will be as they were.
Western Union, Western Union...
Your name is Montgomery Burns and I claim my $5!
I remember when my parents received a telegram from the War Department in 1955 or 56 notifying them of the death of their (Active duty Air Force, non-combat) son.
I (much) later worked as a lineman for Western Union taking down copper wire for smelting when copper was at a high premium...we'd fill boxcars with coiled bare copper wire weighing 100 to 150 LBS per roll.
Didn't know the guy. I did work with Eddy Webb, though.
The only time I've needed to send telegrams were in the days of the Cold War. My grandparents lived in Czechoslovakia, and were not permitted to have a telephone. When the (intercepted and pre-read) snail mail was too slow for my purposes, I'd send a telegram. It wasn't private, but neither was the mail, and it reliably got there quickly. My only fear was that I'd scare my poor grandparents to death before they could read the telegram and see that it wasn't dire news.
Wow, never saw this coming. Western Union certain didn't telegraph their intentions.
Wonder if they feel re-morse?
But many small historic moments pass us by, usually they are drowned out by the self same television coverage of things that will later prove to be of no more historical interest to anyone other then those immediately affected by the event.
End of eras fall into that category. When did elevator operators become replaced by the automatic elevator, or typewriters by the word processor. Or to go further back in time, to when horse and buggy replaced by the automobile, or trains by airplanes? There is no firm date, as the change was slow and subtle until it was just done.
Few even give a thought to the change, they just continue on with their life. Last month was the end of an era that almost past completely from noticed.
"Effective January 27, 2006, Western Union will discontinue all Telegram and Commercial Messaging services. We regret any inconvenience this may cause you, and we thank you for your loyal patronage. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact a customer service representative."
Now I have never sent, nor received a telegram, but, perhaps because of movies, telegrams have been a part of my life. I think if I had known ahead of time, I would have sent someone a telegram, just so I could say I had. But now the opportunity has passed.
Will the telegraph be missed? No, technology has long passed it by, and perhaps except for legal reasons, should not have stayed around as long as it did.
Like the rotary phone, the phone exchanges with names (I can still remember our phone in National City was GRANGE or “GR”), the three TV networks, black and white TV, life before computers, it is just another sign that the times change and we are getting older.
sw
May 24, 1844 = Shavuos, the giving of the Law at Sinai.
Exodus 19:16 And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.
Proverbs 9:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.
Samuel = "His name is El"; "Heard of El"
Historic Message, 24 May 1844
This paper tape recording of the historic message transmitted by Samuel F. B. Morse reads when decoded, "What hath God wrought?" It was sent by him from the Supreme Court room in the Capitol to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore. Morse's early system produced a paper copy with raised dots and dashes, which were translated later by an operator. Across the top of this historic achievement Morse has given credit to Annie Ellsworth, the young daughter of a good friend, for suggesting to him what message to send. She obtained it from the Bible, Numbers 23:23.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/atthtml/morse2.html
12.4. But you, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase:
Telegraph, lit. distance writing. It is finished; no more decoding ping.
A reporter, who was researching an article on the movie star needed some missing info, telegrammed Cary Grant: HOW OLD CARY GRANT? .
Grant responded: OLD CARY GRANT FINE STOP HOW YOU?
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