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Domestic News
August 27, 1887
The Dickinson Press
Dickinson, Stark County, North Dakota
What is this article about?
Account of telegraph operator's process in receiving and transcribing news wire reports for an afternoon newspaper using typewriter and codes, as described in the Pittsburg Dispatch.
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Full Text
"Copy" from the Telegraph Operator.
His day operator at once commences to take the report from the Morse sounder on a type writer. He is a fast operator, and he takes on an average seventy-five words a minute. He could take more if it were possible to send it faster. A voluminous code is used to facilitate the sending. Thus "t" stands for "the," "Wshn" for "Washington." "fm" for "from," "mfrs" for "manufacturers," etc. These words are filled out on the type writer while they are coming in abbreviated form over the wire.
A batch of "copy," neatly type written, is soon ready, and a boy dashes down stairs with it to the telegraph editor of the afternoon paper, who cuts it up, puts suitable "heads" to the different items, and sends them to the printers. Only the news comes over the wire, and the operator sits impassively, with unchanging countenance, taking murders, riots, weddings, bank failures, jubilee items, conspiracies, desperate battles and ministerial conventions in one long, clicking monotone, without anything to distinguish one item from another except the date and a new line. The sorting afterward is the work of the telegraph editor.-Pittsburg Dispatch.
His day operator at once commences to take the report from the Morse sounder on a type writer. He is a fast operator, and he takes on an average seventy-five words a minute. He could take more if it were possible to send it faster. A voluminous code is used to facilitate the sending. Thus "t" stands for "the," "Wshn" for "Washington." "fm" for "from," "mfrs" for "manufacturers," etc. These words are filled out on the type writer while they are coming in abbreviated form over the wire.
A batch of "copy," neatly type written, is soon ready, and a boy dashes down stairs with it to the telegraph editor of the afternoon paper, who cuts it up, puts suitable "heads" to the different items, and sends them to the printers. Only the news comes over the wire, and the operator sits impassively, with unchanging countenance, taking murders, riots, weddings, bank failures, jubilee items, conspiracies, desperate battles and ministerial conventions in one long, clicking monotone, without anything to distinguish one item from another except the date and a new line. The sorting afterward is the work of the telegraph editor.-Pittsburg Dispatch.
What sub-type of article is it?
Journalism
Telegraph Operations
What keywords are associated?
Telegraph Operator
Morse Sounder
Typewriter Copy
News Abbreviations
Telegraph Editor
Where did it happen?
Pittsburg
Domestic News Details
Primary Location
Pittsburg
Event Details
Description of a telegraph operator taking news reports on a typewriter at seventy-five words a minute using abbreviations like 't' for 'the' and 'Wshn' for 'Washington'. The copy is delivered to the telegraph editor who prepares it for printing. The operator receives various news items in a monotone without distinction except date and new line.