PRINTING TELEGRAPHY ...
A NEW ERA BEGINS
Edward E. Kleinschmidt
1967
PREFACE
Having been associated with the printing telegraph for more thansixty years, I have felt the urge to write a résumé of the problems andthe progress made during my time toward today’s wonderful achievementsin the art of telegraphic communications.
It is interesting to note that of all the old-time electric telegraphsystems, it appears that only those using the Morse dot-dash codeinvented in 1837 and the permutation code devised by Gauss andWeber in 1833 (now known everywhere as the Baudot code) havesurvived today.
Samuel Morse’s code, which was modified somewhat in several lettercode compositions to facilitate its use anywhere in the world, has becomean audible, easily learned international language, loved by its userseverywhere. It will no doubt continue to be used for some time to come,as long as we have our railroad telegraph operators, radio amateurs, policeCW systems, certain branches of the Armed Forces, and any otherswho converse in dits and dahs.
The permutation code has taken hold firmly, too. Its use of five pulsestransmitted in varying combinations of on and off, or positive andnegative, conditions has wide application in today’s printed communicationssystems. As in the Morse system, alphabets for the five-unit permutationcode system have been modified as to letter code compositions forinternational correspondence. The permutation code uses the powers oftwo in progressively selecting a letter printing position.
The binary code uses the same selective stops by yes or no designationin a system of counting by the powers of two. It is used where largergroups of yes or no positions are required, as in data processing andcomputer systems.
This writing, then, is a bit of history that will put together the constructivedevelopments that brought about the present era of the worldwide,telegraphically-transmitted printed word.
I wish to acknowledge with great appreciation the informativematerial sent to me by my friends, both here and in foreign lands, whoare associated with the telegraph industry.
For assembling information we have gathered from various sourcesand for the most helpful assistance given me in writing this story, I alsowant to thank my secretary, Mrs. Doris Pompilio.
Edward E. Kleinschmidt
PRINTING TELEGRAPHY ...
A NEW ERA BEGINS
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
It is a major effort today to keep pace with the rapid advances in thefield of printed communications. Hardly a day passes that we do not readof a new development in equipment that is more complex, farther reaching,more rapid in operation....
This electrical, or electronic, transmission and interchange of theprinted word might be said to be an evolvement of the old printing telegraphsystems. Such systems, over the years, while not so rapidly as today,were also improved upon, modified, speeded up, but could be used onlyin the point-to-point transmission of messages.
While the railroads had been using the Morse code system (key andsounder) satisfactorily, they would have preferred a system whereby aprinted record could be obtained. In the industrial world, too, there wasneed for a businessman’s printing te