The White Flyer

 In honour of Halloween here is short tale from Syracuse Post Standard.

Enjoy
KJ

Syracuse Post-Standard, Sun., Sept. 23, 1945

Just Around the Corner

By Bertrande (Bertrande Snell)

Not so many years ago, the village depot was a kind of general meeting place, where citizens in all walks of life were prone to meet informally and often to discuss the pros and cons of this and that, while waiting for the evening train from the city.

There was always a continuous flow of light, or heavy, sarcasm thrown in the general direction of the station agent, who, generally, richly deserved it and always had more or less an adequate answer.

Yes, sir, it was always a jovial and carefree crowd that watched No. 3 come in, each evening. After the train's departure, the agent always hied himself homeward, leaving the premises to the tender care of the night operator. All he had to do was hang around from 7 p.m. until 7 a.m. - or whatever time the usually fat and always blowsy agent considered near enough - sweep the floor, trim the lamps, copy train orders and telegrams off the Morse wires, and, hardest of all, keep awake - at which last task he was seldom successful.

It was, of course, one of these night men who first saw and reported the "White Flyer" - a legend on the old RW&O railroad- which more or less serves the village north of Syracuse to Watertown and points north and east.

This branch of the NYC has from time immemorial, been known as the "Hojack." The origin of this title seems to be lost in the mists of antiquity, which mists will be in some future article, endeavored to pierce - but that will be another story.

To return to the "White Flyer."

In the lonely watches of the night, as the presumably wide awake telegrapher kept his lonely vigil at the key, he would, betimes, hear a sound like the rush of a mighty wind, and peering fearfully through the window, he would see the White Flyer - ghostly engineer at the throttle and fireman with his hand on the bellrope - tearing swiftly through the night.

It was never my good, or ill, fortune to see this phantasmagorum, but I have the (almost)unimpeachable evidence of many old-time Hojackers who did.

There was George Murphy, now retired and dwelling in Phoenix, who counted the coaches on the ghost train, as it swept through Parish. He made the number six, but Frank Hayner at Mallory claimed there were but five that night.

You don't suppose, do you, that they might have stopped at Hastings and switched one?

George Rowe relates that he saw the White Flyer pulling in to Central Square about 3 a.m. one dark, misty night.

He grabbed a red lantern and ran out on the tracks to flag it. George says he caught his foot on the outside rail and fell flat, directly in the path of the on-rushing train, which passed over his prostrate body, doing him not the slightest harm. He admits, however, that he was considerably peeved!

Railroad Telegraphers Handbook 1991

This delightful little book was printed in 1991 and has since gone out of print.
However the Internet Archive has a scanned/PDF copy available for download at the link under the title below.

This review comes courtesy of Jim Haynes at the old Telegraph Lore website.

Enjoy
73
Ciao
KJ

Railroad Telegraphers Handbook
by Tom French, 1991

The Railroad Telegrapher's Handbook is a newly-written (1991) book that tells all about how Morse telegraphy was used on railroads until nearly the present time. (An article in Dots and Dashes reproduces a train order that was received by Morse in 1982, on the Burlington-Northern, and may have been the last train order so transmitted.) Lists of operating rules are given, presumably taken from the rule books of actual railroads, along with sample train order messages. Railroad telegraphy is a lot more complicated than the ordinary Western Union office. Railroad messages are critical to safety; some messages are not complete until they have been repeated back to the sender, delivered to the addressees, read and signed by the addressees, and the signatures transmitted back to the sender. Most require multiple copies. A railroad operator would write with a stylus on thin, translucent paper, using double-sided carbon paper. Semaphore signals and the hooks for delivering messages to the crews of moving trains are described.

Wiring diagrams are given for an operating table connected to several circuits, and for a Morse repeater. There is a map of the New Mexico Division of AT&SF;, showing how various offices are connected to several line circuits. A selector system is described, which allows calling up a particular telegraph office without requiring operators to listen constantly for their office call letters. (Most circuits were "way" operated, meaning that several offices were connected by the same circuit and sounders at all responded to all the traffic on the line.)

The book is made all the more enjoyable with reproductions of advertisements that appeared in trade magazines: typewriters, telegraph instruments, Vibroplex keys, swivel chairs, shorthand instruction, and an attachment to enable a bicycle to be ridden on the railroad rail. The Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad was advertising for operators "able to copy Morse at 25 words per minute, and should be in good physical condition." as recently as 1954. Of considerable interest in this day when we hear so much about repetitive motion injuries and carpal tunnel syndrome, there is an advertisement for Telegrapher Liniment, which never fails where directions are followed implicitly. "Operator's Paralysis or Writer's Cramp comes like a thief in the night, and almost before you are aware of it you find it impossible to send any kind of readable Morse." Another advertisement is for the "Operator's Friend" a massage or exercise device which "prevents and cures telegrapher's paralysis and writer's cramp." The front cover reproduces an artist's illustration from the front cover of a 1904 telegrapher's magazine, showing a young man clad in white shirt, high collar, and vest working at his key while a uniformed trainman waits at his elbow for orders. There are two pages of railroad slang and two pages of bibliography.

The Song of the Open Wire

Today I am showcasing a fantastic website:

 The Song of the Open Wire

This website covers the history of wired telecommunications from 1843-2020.
Filled with articles and photos covering telegraphy, telephones, physical systems, personnel, memoirs, and has technical articles, historic photos and more.

This is a site well worth the perusal if you are interested in how these systems were built, maintained, and operated.

Below in its entirety is an article, the first in a series, on the analysis of telegraph lines, just to give you a taste for what this site contains!

Enjoy
73
Ciao
KJ

DC Transmission Line Modelling: Initial Studies on Telegraph Lines

By Tom Hagen

Introduction

This set of articles is intended to be an introduction to transmission lines and transmission line parameters.  I’m hoping that anyone interested in this topic will get a good intuitive feel on why open parallel wire communication systems are built the way they are.  This subject can be very technical if you go into the mathematical constructs.  It took a number of “first rank” physicists several decades in the 19th Century to get to the point of where the behavior of parallel open wire systems could be definitely modeled, characterized, engineered, and reliably operated in the real world.

I’ll add to this section of Doug’s website as time permits, so check back every few months and I hope to add one or two more articles after the first one.

Sections:

DC Transmission Line Modelling:

• Theory of capacitance and resistance
• Underground vs. overhead telegraph lines (early work)
• Undersea telegraph cables
• William Thomson’s (Lord Kelvin) efforts
• Thomson’s square law

Traveling Wave Transmission Line Modelling:

The work of the “Maxwellians”

• Comparison of DC and AC transmission line characteristics
• Distributed parameters of the transmission line
• Characteristic Impedance of the transmission line
• Travelling waves on transmission line
• Group delay problems on transmission line

Practical Examples:

• Distributed inductance to improve telegraph cable speed
• Loading coils on telephone lines

Open Wire Telephone Lines: Application of transmission line characteristics to open wire lines and technology.

Some Basics

The first inklings that long wires behave differently than short ones came about during he early development of the first telegraph systems in the early to middle Nineteenth Century.  It was observed that a wire acts one way when it is mounted overhead on poles and insulators and another when it was laid underground.  Experiments performed in the 1820s showed that a wire laid underground or in water passes electrical signals more slowly than a wire held overhead in air.  Michael Faraday (1791-1867), explained this effect as an effect of the electrical capacitance between the wire and the medium surrounding it.  Electrical capacitors were known to scientists by this time because the first electrical charge storage device, the Leyden Jar, was invented in the middle Eighteenth Century.

Referring to the below figures, an electrical capacitor is formed between the ire and the medium.  An electrical capacitor stores energy in the form of an electrical field between two conductors in close proximity.

A long wire buried in the ground can take on an electrical charge if you connect a voltage source such as a battery to it and a ground rod driven into the ground.  This is similar to giving a balloon a charge of static electricity when you rub it against a cloth.

Under the right conditions, i.e., if the wire is long enough and if the charge leakage to the earth is low enough, you can measure the retained charge that results in a measurable voltage between the wire and the Earth.

Fraser’s Calendar and Telegraphy Notebook 1872

 This is a real gem of a find from the Internet Archive courtesy of Alberta MTC member Marian Gibbard.

Fraser’s Calendar and Telegraphy Notebook from 1872 is fascinating look at the telegraph in British India in the latter half of the 19th C.

You can check out the Internet Archive copy here:
https://archive.org/details/dli.ministry.02181/mode/2up

The book is a calendar/log book for those working for the Indian Telegraph which was under the control of the Colonial Government much as the Postal Telegraph was in Britain. However, what makes this book particularly interesting is the wealth of information on the state of telegraphy at that time, theory, practice, and practical information on running a telegraph line across such a diverse country as India.

 At 101 pages, a third of which is the log book with a page for each month of 1872 and 1873, there is an amazing amount of information here, weights and measures, calculating distances for mapping, strengths of wire, problems with escapes caused by damp spider webs, electrical theory, regulations, rates, legislation from the government etc.

There is also very practical and useful information ranging from how to load a cap and ball pistol in damp conditions to how to treat "strangles", a dangerous disease of horses Marian tells me.

Also of interest is the Morse Code being referenced. It is the Continental Code not our American/Railway code which, given that this was published in 1872 makes it one of the earlier references to that code that I have seen! Of course by 1872 the globe was crisscrossed with undersea cables most of which used that code .

Worth a perusal.

73
Ciao
Kevin Jepson
Editor

Modern Practice of the Electric Telegraph 1892

 Today your humble editor received a real treasure!

A paper copy of Pope's "Modern Practice of the Electric Telegraph" written in 1892.
This magnificent book is produced in paperback form by the Leopold Classic Library from a scanned copy, made by Google I believe.
I have a PDF of the scanned copy of the 1874 edition from the Internet Archive but nothing compares (at least to me) to being able to peruse such old documents in paper form.

 Inside this book is a fascinating look at the state of electricity and electrical apparatus at the end of the 19th Century. There is practical advise on the design, construction, and use of the telegraph. Also trouble shooting tips for when things don't work!

There are 185 illustrations in this book that help to show not only the principles that Pope is describing, but are also a pleasant snapshot of the state of the technology at the time. 

I have perused the PDF file quite a bit but I have to say that being able to flip back and forth and wander around the book in it's physical form really helps me to cement my understanding and gives me a great appreciation for the technicians and craftsmen who created these globe spanning systems even when their understanding of the fundamental science was primitive in the extreme.

 

There were several editions of this book. The Internet archive has at least three that I have found one from 1866, 1874 and one from 1899.

All the PDF copies are in good shape with the scanned illustrations being very clear.

The paper copy I have was produced from the best scanned copy that was available and has the same detailed and clear illustrations.

Of interest to those of us struggling to lear the code and improve our sending and copying is a short section at the very end of the book with "Hints for Learners". Definitely worth a gander.

I found this page, the last page of the text, to be particularly apropos to me and the Heritage Park's gang of happy amateurs.
I have included a photo of the page.

Enjoy
73

From the Chief Dispatcher Fall 2023

 MTC Calgary Fall 2023 Update

The Calgary “CG” Chapter of the Morse Telegraph Club has had a very busy summer!

Since May we have been slinging lightning and interpreting a day in the life of an agent operator twice a week, on Tuesday’s and Saturday’s, at Calgary’s Heritage Park. The park is fortunate to have four former Canadian Pacific Railway stations on the property, three of which are connected to the parks telegraph network. MTC Calgary has regularly occupied two of them, Laggan and Midnapore, practicing and perfecting our American Morse code skills and hooping up train orders to passing trains. We have also sent the names of countless guests up and down the wire and have put them in writing in telegrams. We have also shared stories about the local operator and his or her station as the centre of many towns across the prairies in days gone by.

Soon we will kick our efforts up a notch when Heritage Park’s annual Railway Days extravaganza happens once again. This year the event goes on Saturday, Sep 9 and Sunday, Sep 10 so mark your calendars! Not only will MTC Calgary be in Laggan and Midnapore stations, we will add Shepard station into the mix. MTC Calgary will also host a separate information booth which we will be sharing with members of the Victorian Society of Alberta. New this year will be a connection from this booth to the rest of the parks telegraph line, giving us a four station network. Once again members of Edmontons “MO” Chapter, all former railway telegraphers, will be joining us. It’s always a joy to stand back and watch the pros work the wires. 

 MTC Calgary also participated in two open houses at Champion Park this summer. The park is jointly owned by the Town of Okotoks and Foothills County. It has the former Canadian Pacific Railway station from Champion, Alberta (thus the name) on the property, along with a number of pieces of former CPR rolling stock. Chapter members staffed the station, slinging lightning and telling stories, as they do at Heritage Park. Two additional open houses are scheduled in September. The open houses provided a “proof of concept” opportunity for the Alberta Line Project. Using MorseKOB and the internet, Champion park was connected to the telegraph network at Heritage Park, and live Morse wire traffic was successfully exchanged between the stations at both places. It was a first for MTC Calgary and an exciting step for the larger line project.

This year has also seen the addition of three new members to the ranks of MTC Calgary, an encouraging sign for sure. To all those reading this who are not yet members of the Morse Telegraph Club, I encourage you to consider joining. Learning Morse code and sharing the science, art and history with folks is a lot of fun!

So, what does the fall and the New Year hold for us?

MTC Calgary will continue to be at Heritage Park demonstrating Morse telegraphy until Oct 7. While the park closes to the public that weekend, chapter members will meet on occasion to continue practicing until it gets too cold to do that. After that practice will continue online using MorseKOB and Zoom.

Having proven that the Alberta Line Project concept is viable, a formal rollout plan will be developed for 2024. If it goes well, every museum in southern Alberta that now has telegraph equipment sitting quietly collecting dust and rust, will be alive with the sounds of Morse code emitting from the sounder. I can see many road trips in our future!

I expect we will continue to occupy the stations at Heritage Park and may expand our efforts to more than 2 days per week. Feedback on the Champion Park open houses has been positive and hopefully the park will offer more public events throughout the year. MTC Calgary will be there too.

That’s all I have for now.

73

Ken Ashmead, President

MTC Calgary “CG” Chapter

After Action Report: First Active AlbertaMTCwire Link

Saturday August 12, 2023 marks an historic day for Landline Telegraphy in Alberta!

As part of the AlbertaMTC Line project a demonstration of the first long distance link between two museums with telegraph displays was inaugurated at 11:00 AM MDT with the simple message:

"WHAT AN HISTORIC DAY"

First Message!

The message was sent 35 km (22 mi) between the station in Champion Park South of Calgary and the landline telegraph network at Heritage Park in Calgary that links the Midnapore and Laggan stations. 

The Champion Park Telegraphers
Marilyn Maguire, Mia Salomakhin
Kevin Jepson

 The link culminates a summer of active landline experimentation and practice by members of the Calgary chapter (CG) of the Morse Telegraph club and the Heritage Park Morse Telegraph Club that started with our display at Supertrain back in April of this year.

The link utilized two of Chip Morgan's interfaces connected to small laptops hidden beneath the desks in the stations at Midnapore and Champion. The laptops running MorseKOB connected across the Internet to Wire 11 (the traditional chat wire) on our local KOBserver.

The inevitable hiccups were minor, and once set up, the link worked fairly well.

Using the link over the course of the day we encountered three kinds of issues. While not show stoppers, they were interesting to work through, and were related to issues with the connection at Heritage Park, equipment adjustments, and procedures.

The main connection issue was that the Heritage Park guest WiFi system blocks the port used by MorseKOB! I (Kevin) ended up using my old flip phone as a hot spot which worked fine until the battery died later in the afternoon.

The main equipment issue was also at Heritage Park and that was the adjustments of the sounder in Midnapore and the relay at Laggan. The current strength and signal speed on the line when using the KOB interface is different than what we normally have so that made some characters indistinct.

The procedure issues were interesting given the complexity of having THREE stations on the line. Key closer etiquette is a big one, call and response procedures are more important when it is not obvious where traffic is going to or coming from, and trying to handle three sets of guests around us in the stations at the same time can be tricky too!

The Champion Park Station

None of these issues are insurmountable and we are working on formalizing procedures and developing standard hardware setups to bring more permanent connectivity to the Railway and Historic Museums in Alberta and Western Canada.

A Historic first step indeed.

 Thanks to the members of the Calgary (CG) Chapter of the MTC and the Heritage Park MTC for their support and skills and to Heritage Park and Champion Park for letting us use their historic equipment to make this link!

 

The whole MTC crew at Champion
L to R
Ken Ashmead, Marilyn Maguire, Mia Salomakhin,
Kevin Jepson, Selwyn Morris

73
Ciao
Kevin Jepson
Instigator, "Wire-Chief", and acting Dispatcher for the AlbertaMTCwire Project.

Why the hoop for the engineer is so long!

 Imagine hooping to the engineer as one of these roared by in the dark!

One of these engines in action.