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Santee

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Dinah, get outa the kitchen and get back to work!
 
https://youtu.be/iu21vLvbTYs
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Howdy Santee, love the telegraph vid!

Might mention that with modern Morse Code, it's a series of tones -- a long tone for a dash (or dah), short tone for a dot (dit) ...

In period, in the Old West, it was a series of clicks.

One click for a dot, two clicks close together for a dash.

There's a ham radio term -- "lid" -- for a suboptimal operator, and this dates back to the Old West telegraph.

You'll remember the oval Prince Albert tobacco tins... if an empty tin is lodged behind the telegraph sounder, it acts as an amplifier; add sand to the can, to an optimal level (this changes the pitch) and helps the increasingly hard of hearing operator continue to earn a wage.

The tin's lid was left thrown back -- from this, the term "lid" ... it became a term of contempt, indicating a less than optimal telegraph operator, kind of like calling a kid with glasses "Four Eyes."

As Paul Harvey used to say, "For what it's worth."

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Linn, thanks for the additional info! Awesome.

Climb outa that saddle and get you some grub!
 

 

Edited by Santee
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