First Canadian Collectors Club presentation March 13 2023

 At the monthly meeting of the first Canadian Collectors Club on March 13, 2023, the Calgary “CG” Chapter of the Morse Telegraph Club gave a presentation titled “MORSE TELEGRAPHY AND WHAT IT MEANS TO CANADIAN COLLECTORS”.

Member Kevin Jepson took centre stage and delivered an entertaining and informative talk on Morse. He was followed by Mary Kuipers-Morris, wife of member Selwyn Morris, who gave an equally informative talk about her Morse-related hobby; researching, collecting and displaying glass and porcelain insulators.

The talks concluded with Kevin revealing our want/wish list of telegraph items, figuring that a group of collecting bloodhounds would be much better equipped to find some of the things we are looking for. It was followed by a lively question and answer session.

Kevin Jepson
I took my telegraph office display and set it up with a bunch of telegraph equipment, a couple of CPR train order hoops, and some CPR paperwork. The display was working as a local circuit and was connected via my laptop to our local KOBserver so it would be actively receiving wire traffic during my presentation on the history of the telegraph. A brief version of my presentation follows.

“From the time that the recently bereaved painter Samuel Finley Breese Morse invented the telegraph, and its iconic Morse code in the 1840s, until it was finally replaced in the late 1960s, the telegraph was history's greatest single advancement in communications. Often labelled as the "Victorian Internet", this very simple and elegant electromagnetic system completely changed the world of business, news, politics, and general communications over long distances. For the first time information and messages could be sent hundreds of miles in seconds instead of weeks or months. The first demonstration line, which ran from Washington to Baltimore, carried its first message on May 24 1844. Sent by Morse himself, it was simply "What hath God wrought", or more accurately, "WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT" since all Morse code messages are uppercase, there being no code for shift. By the time of the American Civil War 20 years later there were more than 30,000 miles of telegraph lines including one, completed in 1861, that crossed the continent to California. Nothing in the history of the world has had such a major impact on communications, including the advent of the Internet in our own time.

"Railroads used the telegraph as a way to control the train traffic on their tracks. Single tracks with trains going both ways are tricky to control. The near instantaneous communication between dispatcher and telegraph operators all along the line was critical to the safe operation of the railroads. In Canada the telegraph was always associated with the railroad. The first telegraph into Western Canada was built in the 1870s, years before the railroad, and followed the original proposed route from Winnipeg to Leduc. When the CPR was finally completed in 1885 it was given a monopoly on the telegraph system that largely paralleled its tracks, spanning the vast reaches of Canada from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

"It is fitting therefore that the last known telegraph message in Canada was sent on the CPR telegraph system in 1973 by a CPR telegraph operator in Nanaimo BC. His message was simply "THIS IS THE LAST TELEGRAPH MESSAGE ON THE CPR SYSTEM”, and then he shut it down.”

Mary Kuipers-Morris
“Insulators emerged in the 1840’s with the invention of the telegraph. The first insulators were used by Samuel Morse on the line from Baltimore to Washington. The early insulators were made of glass and were thread-less. The need for glass insulators increased with invention of the telephone in 1876. They were used as a medium to attach wires to poles but they also prevented current loss during transmission and prevented lightning strikes. Both glass and porcelain were used but glass was less expensive. The height of glass making was from 1875 to 1930 with major glass manufacturing plants in California and Colorado. Most manufacturers also made glass dishes, jars, bottles, etc. The most common insulators were made by Armstrong, Brookfield, Dominion, Hemingray and Pyrex.

"Insulators are described or categorized according to their CD (Consolidated Design) numbers. The numbering system is used by collectors to identify design, style and use. The definitive reference guide is North American Glass Insulators by Donald R. Briel. The book breaks down insulators by design, colour variations, base drip points (sharp, round, smooth), anomalies (incorrect spelling, manufacturing date), etc. Many manufacturers used the same design mold so the CD number remains the same.

"Colours varied with manufacturers using whatever raw materials they had on hand or were readily available. Colour has no significance in the function of the insulators but is highly significant to collectors. While the most common colour is aqua or variations of aqua, clear, green, blue, purple and amber were also used. Collectors are drawn to anything unusual such as colour shading, air bubbles, streaks, special embossing, etc.

"Prices vary widely with the common or readily available insulators costing $2 to $20 with less common ones selling around $100. Price increases with rarity or unusual markings or colours. Per Briel, the most expensive, sought after insulator is a CD 735 Chester N.Y. Green worth $10,000 to $15,000.”