Alan Mays' photos with the keyword: telegraphs

"The Order of Railroad Telegraphers, issued to B. H. Harding. Good until December 31st, 1915, unless revoked. H. B. Perham, president. L. W. Quick. grand secretary and treasurer."

A membership card for the Order of Railroad Telegraphers (ORT). As Wikipedia explains, "telegraphers would be stationed in individual depots along the railroad line in order to receive train orders from a centrally located dispatcher and report back on train movements; telegraphed train orders would be written out on paper and 'handed up' to the crews of passing trains." See also a 1915 version of the ORT membership card. The Order of Railroad Telegraphers Issued to L. W. Ricker. Good until June 30th 1900 unless revoked. W. V. Powell, president. H. B. Perham, secretary and treasurer. The Order of Railroad Telegraphers, Grand Division.

"Western Union Telegraph Company, 1906, complimentary, frank no. 234D. R. C. Clowry, president. [International Bank] Note Co., New York."

"Love's Cable. Handed in at Cupid's Court. No code book is needed for these cables, true love deciphers them. St. Valentine. Bow and Arrow Avenue, Feb. 14. To my valentine, I cable to say, I am yours today, my heart is true, my love to you. If the accuracy of this message be doubted, it will gladly be confirmed on payment of twenty kisses." This folded Valentine's Day greeting was a parody of a "cablegram" (often shortened to "cable"), which was a message transmitted over the submarine communications cables that were laid across the Atlantic Ocean and elsewhere as early as the 1850s. So why would you need to use a code book to send a cablegram? Author Frank C. McClelland described how these worked in the following excerpt from his book, Office Training and Standards (Chicago: A. W. Shaw, 1919), p. 49: How to use a code book. Firms with foreign connections or correspondents also find use for a cable-code book which helps greatly to cut down the expense of cable messages by shortening the number of words required to convey the message. A code book is simply a directory of code words arranged alphabetically, each word being the code for a certain phrase. For example, the word "Dardejante" may stand for "Draft has been presented for payment." and the word "Daricus" may stand for "Draft is correct; please pay." Nearly every kind of message is given in a code book. Suppose we desired to send a cablegram to London reading "Merritt Brothers draft has been presented for payment for two hundred dollars Shall we pay for your account?" If we did not use a code book the cablegram would contain 18 words in addition to the name, address, and signature, which might bring the number of words up to 27. At 31 cents a word, the cablegram would cost $8.37. By using code words we would get this result: "(name) (address) Merritt Brothers Dardejante Morderesti Genageld (signature)," making only eight words, which would cost only $2.48, a saving of $5.89.

"This message was transmitted by the facsimile system developed by Western Union, the first telegraph service of its kind in America." A small label presumably used on facsimiles transmitted via Western Union's system.

Printed on the back of this sample cigar box label: "Geo. S. Harris & Sons, Philadelphia, New York, and Chicago. No. 4505. Prof. Morse, trade mark. $6.00 per 1000. 70 cts. per 100. Also furnished blank." For two additional cigar box labels printed by the same lithographic firm, see First Rate and Prime .