History of the Morse Key Since the first Morse telegraph systems were introduced, an enormous variety of Morse keys or telegraph keys and keyers have been constructed. From Straight keys including the Camelback Morse key, to automatic Morse keyers such as the Vibroplex, their development has seen many new innovations, and enormous changes in style. Even today many people enjoy sending Morse Code using these Morse keys. While some may say that they are simply a switch, this is most certainly not the case. Morse keys have been the subject of over 300 patents in the USA alone, and they have undergone a considerable amount of development. The way in which keys have developed since the very first ones used by Morse himself is a fascinating story. Some styles of key are quite familiar, whilst others have quite unusual attributes and as a result many people find collecting keys a fascinating pastime. Watch this video about the history of the Morse key There is also a text page on the Electronics+radio website http://www.electronics-radio.com/articles/history/morse-code-telegraph/morse-key-development.php
Very interesting and appropriate topic. Thanks... Here is more of interest to Key collectors and telegraphy items: http://www.telegraph-office.com/ Another fine gallery of pictures and general history of keys is here: http://www.radioblvd.com/telegraph_keys.htm A history of telegraphy from the beginning days is here: http://www.history.com/topics/inventions/telegraph Another good historical account: http://www.qsl.net/ws1sm/cw.html What some hams may not know is that Samuel F.B. Morse was a well-known painter before and after getting into telegraphy. Some of his paintings are hanging in the Halls of Congress, in fact. His middle initials (F.B) do not stand for or is the origin for "Fine Business" as I've heard some opine. It represented the middle names Finley Breese, a unique naming of an unusual man. Ref: http://www.history.com/topics/inventions/telegraph
More interesting info and links on the Morse Key are to be found here: http://www.morsemad.com/ Some background on Morse the Man is here and while another Wiki article referencing him that I found must have been written by a ham, this one emphasizes his background in art: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Morse
Further reading revealed that Finley Breese was the name of his mother, per the Wiki link above. Also, here are "Six Things you may not know about Samuel Morse": http://www.history.com/news/six-things-you-may-not-know-about-samuel-morse Another tribute to Morse is here: http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Samuel_Finley_Breese_Morse.aspx More to the topic of this discussion, here is the first telegraph key, The Correspondent: http://www.morsemad.com/vail.htm
At least my comments related to the topic at hand: Morse Keys and, by extension, to radiotelegraphy. My inspiration was the main theme of the forum's topic — and will continue to be so. Therefore: The original key made by Vail is reminiscent of the hacksaw blade keys made by hams later. And then there are the Bulldog paperclip keys/paddles that are also interesting. http://www.amateurradioproducts.com/products.htm More on the Bulldog paddle is here: http://w2lj.blogspot.com/2014/06/new-portable-paddle.html
Here's an inspiring story about Morse code use and provides links for those who want to improve their expertise in the language. http://w2lj.blogspot.com/p/morse-code.html
Thanks KK5R for the great information. We captured keys made from hacksaw blades in Vietnam. The VC made transceivers from old US car radios. Oldsmobiles were their favorites as far as we could ascertain. We captured one complete homebrew transceiver once with a very good design and they too used hacksaw blades for telegraph keys. Later in the conflict, the Chinese gave them very good tactical radios and their keys were like our leg keys and made from brass or steel.
A very interesting and well laid out presentation, thanks. In my study guide for the old commercial element 5 exam (radiotelegraph permit) there actually were questions on how to adjust a key or bug for the best output. There was a real art and history to this. At least some hams are keeping it alive.
A 73 Magazine article by an old-time CW operator noted that the trunion adjustments on straight keys were also very important. Most keys have these settings while others use bearings that restrict the up-down motion to a strict, straight line with no adjustment. The author of that article said that when he started out in telegraphy, he was in an office with several others that were the "grandfather" types of Morse operation and they would keep loosening up his trunion screws until sometimes the operating arm of the key would actually jump out. Then he'd have to go looking for the return spring. He went on to say that the old Glass Wrist syndrome was a direct result of using a "tight" trunion adjustment on the operating arm. For those not in manual telegraphy, Glass Wrist predates by decades the medical term Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. By allowing some side play in the finger knob of the key, for those who tend to maintain a tight grip on the key, the wrist and forearm are allowed some lateral movement and this keeps from irritating some of the vital nerves in the arm that leads to the glass wrist/CTS problem. This is why I seldom keep a tight grip on the key as might a marine telegraphist do when his banana boat is sloshing though a rough sea. Of course, though, I do not normally spend endless hours at the key like some do. Perhaps this is why I sometimes read about glass wrist but have never experienced it. That last link above (http://w2lj.blogspot.com/p/morse-code.html) gives info on adjusting a Bug and even provides a video for it.
I read your qrz.com bio and found it interesting. My first actual experience with CW was in 1956 when I went to the Brazilian Amazon. On a PBY Catalina flight from Manaus to Cruzeiro do Sul in the headwaters of the Amazon River (Jurué River), the radio operator sat sideways right in front of me and he used CW. Remember, this was in 1956. I also noticed that his speed jumped up to about 20WPM when we approached an airport. Normally, his speed was about 15WPM. After a couple of years, the return to Manaus was on a three-deck paddle wheel river boat made in Sweden. Most passenger boats there at the time used steam and were made in England. Paddle wheel boats were common because of so many semi-submerged logs in the water. Steam paddle wheel boats were mostly used for transporting rubber when natural rubber was king. When rubber was replaced mostly by artificial rubber, the boats were converted to passenger service. This boat had an 18 cylinder engine and produced 15,000 HP at 800 RPM. One of the spare pistons was used by the motor crew for a card table. Anyway, I came to know the radio operator very well and spent a lot of time with him. He also had a CW transmitter and the operating position was against the back wall, right behind the captains position in the wheelhouse control room. The radio operator was known for running CW at 30WPM on a straight key. Once we were there and he was sending messages when the captain told him to tell the operator on the other end Hello for him since he had been on some trips with him. The radio operator asked, 'You understood what I was sending in code?" The captain said, "I've been a captain on these river boats for 35 years and in that time I learned code. I'm not just standing here for nothing." Everybody on the bridge laughed.
Sorry, got the wrong special character. The river is very long and goes from the upper Amazon nearly to the the other end of the Amazon River in Peru. The correct spelling is Juruá. One of the big differences in the Juruá and Amazon rivers is the color. The Amazon is so clear that the water seems black. It's because light goes into the water and is not reflected but absorbed by the dark sediment. The Juruá is tan colored because it is faster moving, not being so vast in volume of water, and it brings down the sediment from the mountains at the headwaters. When swimming in the Juruá, you come out wet but when the water dries, the sediment is left as a thin dusty film on the skin. At the mouth of the Juruá where it mixes with the Amazon, there is a great upheaval of water where the water from the faster-moving Juruá comes boiling up into the Amazon. Fantastic aerial photos of this are on the Internet. When the boat goes through it, nothing is felt because the volume of water absorbs it quickly.
