TRAINING TELEGRAPHISTS

Opunake Times, 28 March 1939, Page 1

TRAINING TELEGRAPHISTS

MORSE STILL ESSENTIAL

’ ‘l'li’ljNU IJ> d'JL U U Kj L leiv> .1 was is Luc nay ei lUe ..i.iuuao Lii LelegUipny, U lo Still tor every op.iaun iu lav L'ajb UIUCO lO bli WOJj trained. iU UiO nansnussiou of Morse signals b_> u.ind, Two training scUouis xor mm puiposo arc constantly n.arutaiuco and at least 40 young men aro unucr nation oilher in Christchurch or Aueie-

ia.Kl, Tieioro entering the school tlxey require to have a knowledg oi the .noisy code and to be abiei to transmit at the rate of about 20 words a minute. Under instruction their stye of sending is improved and their peed gradually worked up. They an also instructed in the adjustment ox ..olograph instruments and in the procedure for handling traffic.

The instructors have to give spec.ui attention to the pupils’ handwriting, for it has been round iliul oiiu of the problems is .to uam l.i • .. oung telegraphists to produce goou legible manuscript at a rate or words a minute. The Leicgiapiuo iccruiis are of an excellent mass, roi

me iccorus oi the two schools lasi j car showed that while fid pupu. qualmod only, nine ad to be lancet, iiiu average time taken in training is between throe and four montns. kiOiiie oi the pupils are men traus leiiea to u Multiplex school wnic.

•A-cap-os a section of the busy operat mg room in Wellington. Here. sm rounded by trained operators, Uu,y begru to lit Iheniseives to use in. system of mechanical trausm.osmi from the perforated tape. Too mes sago has to be typed, the .impressions coming out as perforations on a narrow paper tape instead of m Arabic characters, aitheugh at the other end of the circuit plain letters re-appeai for delivery to the recipient or the telegram. As a paeliuimaiy the cadets are trained on ordinary typewriters, but the keyboarus are screened so that they must type by touch, the objective being to do Xhi a at Id words a minute for Id minutes, As codes; are often used in commercial mes sages, particularly ciiibJesj the ‘ touch ’ typing test for live-letter code is 10 words per minute tor 1(1 minutes. Only one error is permitted. Theexperience in the schjools is that touch typewriting up to the Post Office standard of speed and can be Jearnd in 80 to 100 hours of tuition, and many of the pupils who do llhis had never previously used a type writer. Finally, the pupils are transferred to the telegraph pierfora-tor and they are there trained tc read the perforations in the tape* aud how to handle general traffic. Am important

test at tills stage is one s of ability to transmit in an hour, with a very small margin of error, 50 telegrams of the varied typo that they are likely to encounter in their ordinary operating Wort,