MACHINE AGE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 209, 17 June 1935, Page 7

MACHINE AGE.

TYPEWRITER REPLACES MORSE KEY* TRAINING TELEGRAPHISTS. (Special to the "Guardian.") WELLINGTON, June 15. "Touch" typewriting is one of the accomplishments of the modern tele-graph-operator, who has to be able to use a tvgewriter keyboard without looking at it. In telegraphic communication, as in so many other things in modem life, this is the machine age, and comparatively few telegrams today are transmitted by hand through the medium of Morse signals. In om section-of the operating room r in the General Post Office, Wellington, can be seen just now a group of young people undergoing training in modern telegraph practice. They see the actual 'process going on in front of them, for this is one of the busiest instrument rooms in New Zealand. Already they have learnt Morse operating, but they find that the most essential requirement to-day is to be able to operate a typewriter keyboard without looking at it, and so for a tew hours a day they sit at a typewriter, the keyboard of which is screened from their eyes, while they type words whicn are reproduced not in the ordinary way, but appear on a tape in the form of perforations. This perforated tape when put into a telegraph transmitter sends impulses along the wires which reproduce at the other end the similar Arabic characters. The requirement in touch typing is the capacity to type 45 words per minute with a certain small margin allowed for errors. The difficult code-let-ter combinations must be accurately typed at the rate of 20 words per min- " ute before the candidate can be con-sidered-competent. These tests must be passed by all trainees before they are allowed to operate on commercial traffic. Higher speeds come with practice, but accuracy is the first essential. . The standard keyboard is used at these typewriters, but the touch required is entirely different from that It ordinary typing, as it is necessary to make a firm electrical contact which enabled a tiny punch to perforate the paper tape. Experience shows that it requires 250 to 300 typing hours to become proficient in touch typing on telegraph keyboard perforators.