[GreenKeys] Bunnell Pen Register

[Harold Hallikainen]

That's pretty amazing!

Harold

> Yet another use for these things was in the Western Union messenger
> service.  If you look on ebay you will occasionally see an oval device
> with a porcelain base and a blue and white case, and a handle coming
> out near the top.  Until about 1950 these could be found in the offices
> of customers of Western Union customers.  Person in the office would
> turn the handle, which wound a spring and caused the device to generate
> a coded signal.  (which avoided any problem of the devices sending at
> different speeds)  The signal was recorded at the W.U. office on one
> of these recorders.  The messenger or dispatcher would read the code
> from the tape, determine the source of the signal, and send a messenger
> to the customer to see what was wanted.  Seems totally useless when
> you have a telephone and can call the office and say what you want the
> messenger to do, or phone in your telegram instead of having him pick it
> up.  But I saw these things when they were still in use.
>
> As for fire alarms, a magazine of the telephone industry was constantly
> criticizing the system, saying the alarm boxes should be replaced with
> telephones so the person reporting the fire could give details of what
> was going on.
>
>  	---
>
>  	"Ya can argue all ya wanna, but it's dif'rent than it was."
>  	"No it ain't! No it ain't!  But ya gotta know the territory."
>  		Meredith Willson, The Music Man
>


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