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[1]Crews installed the lines and the simple poles as shown above in the picture. Most of the many telegraph wires, strung on the telegrpah-poles along beside the railroad track, had leads into the said switch-board so that the operator could plug in any of the different circuits carried by the different wires and so connect a circuit such as "the Dispatcher's wire" or the "Western Union wire" with either set of his desk instruments. There was a ground-wire on the switch-board that could be plugged into any circuit and there were proper "spark gaps" for all the circuits so that if there might be a thunder storm anywhere up or down the line for about fifteen miles in either direction, then electric sparks could be seen jumping across the spark-gaps and us kids were warned to keep away from the switch-board so we would not be electrocuted.
Communication, signals were important. The Telegraph poles you can still see today along the rails. [Picture above is from the organ concert at Dresden. Dresden Station. Notice the pole's along the rail lines. [1]The Morse Code was used with its alphabet composed of dots, dashes and spaces in such combinations that the telegraph operator could interpret them as different figures and letters of the alphabet. Each station had its own "call letters" and an expert night operator got so used to the code that he could go to sleep at his desk and when the Ogden Dispatcher clicked his particular call letters he would wake up quick as if somebody were shouting "Wake up Clay". If the operator was away from his desk for some distance or very sound asleep then there was the "night bell" which the Dispatcher could activate by telegraphing out a certain code for that particular bell in a somewhat similar manner as a safe is opened by a code of turns to the right and left of the bolt-dial on the safe door, and that night-bell would begin clanging so shrill that the sleeping operator would pretty nearly jump out of his skin. The accomedations were by no means glorious, but the job was so very important to the railroads.The life of a telegraph operator or agent out at some lonely, hot, dry way-station was very monotonous. Sooner or later all train crews would stop to get orders or take on water or unload freight or get onto the sidetrack to let some other train pass by etc., so among all the train crews and all the way-stations personnel there was most congenial acquaintance and comradeship and eventually every old timer knew every other old timer from one end of the Division to the other end. A Division was as far as a freight crew went before resting and turning back, as for instance, from Ogden to Terrace. Once a week the local, with the "weigh-car" near the front end of the train, would be opened by the front brakeman and he would unload any drop-freight consigned to any railroad employee at that particular station. This was a FREE freight service to all employees all along the line. They could mail or telegraph a grocery order to some grocer in the nearby town who catered to railroad employees, which many would deliver free to the small office along the line. In the real hot weather there was an "ice-car" next to the weigh-car and the brakeman would kick out a 100 pound cake of ice, from the local ice-house, wrapped in a very heavy burlap sack, for each railroad family at that hot desert station as an additional incentive to help keep that family happy amid otherwise monotonous circumstances. Trick or treat, don't think so, the word used for the time the telegraph operator worked was not called hourly.The hours per day worked by each telegrapher was called a "trick" and when there was, for instance, a day operator and a night operator at the station, then each trick would be 12 hours long, but where there was no night operator (at about half the stations along the line) then a trick was usually longer than 12 hours.However, even when a telegraph operator was off duty, if he was within hearing hearing distance, he was on duty bound to answer his station call.Though the wages paid were low but sure and once a month the lonely "pay-car" drawn by a light-engine, with armed guards both on the locomotive and in the armored pay-car, would stop at every way-station and section-house along the main-line and pay off each employee in $20 gold-pieces and silver dollars. For amusement at such lonely stations, two telegraph operators, maybe 75 miles apart, would both plug into the same "spare telegraph wire circuit" and play games by wire such as chess or checkers or certain playing-card games, or maybe just to "chew the rag" or listen in on Western Union and get the latest news even before it came out in the city newspapers.Many have heard the story about Samuel Morse's first telegraph message sent from Washington to Baltimore in 1844, but few have heard the story of what was considered to be his last message. This last message by Morse had a profound effect on all who copied it, and was considered an impressive technical demonstration of how the capabilities of the telegraph evolved in just 27 years.[1] Samuel Moorse [Morse Code]
Samuel Morse at The Academy of Music [ Music and the Telegraph] Pictures Public domin/ information and resources [1]National Park Service Public Domain/Cassius Marcellus Clay father of Wallace A. Clay known as Pappy Clay. Cassius was a Central Pacific and then Southern Pacific Telegrapher. He worked in Promontory 1883-1884, Blue Creek 1885-93, and Kelton 1894-95, Utah. Picture Circa 1903 HEROES OF THE TELEGRAPH By J. MUNRO Author of 'ELECTRICITY AND ITS USES,' PIONEERS OF ELECTRICITY,' 'THE WIRE AND THE WAVE'; AND JOINT AUTHOR OF 'MUNRO AND JAMIESON'S Outside link research http://www.nps.gov/archive/gosp/research/student_index.html |
