3 ms·

A Geek Of 1909

26 points by mikecane 16y ago

timdoug 16y ago
Source: http://books.google.com/books?id=ow7OAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA53&lpg=PA53 http://books.google.com/books?id=ow7OAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA53&#3...
phreeza 16y ago
I wonder if this is the same Lynn Marsh? http://www.google.com/patents?id=3QxXAAAAEBAJ&zoom=4&dq=lynn%20marsh&pg=PA4#v=onepage&q&f=false http://www.google.com/patents?id=3QxXAAAAEBAJ&zoom=4&#38...
harshpotatoes 16y ago
"Lynn has worked a newspaper wire for an eight-hour turn, but he prefers the click of the railroad message to that of the newspaper story." Very cool. I wish I could have found an internship/job like that when I was 11.
cullenking 16y ago
I wonder what he felt like when only a few years later he was obsolete.
eru 16y ago
Andrew Carnegie (the later steel magnate) was also a superb telegrapher at a young age. He was one of the first to telegraph directly by ear, instead of using a ticker, according to a biography.
- klbarry 16y ago
  This is very true. He also read voraciously from the library and was a huge momma's boy.
nkurz 16y ago
Tom Standage's "The Victorian Internet" has a lot of great detail about the culture of the telegraph operator and how it compares to the internet culture today. "Wandering workers who went from job to job were known as 'boomers.' There were no formal job interviews; applicants were simply sat down on a busy wire to see if they could handle it. Since they could find work almost anywhere, many boomers had an itinerant lifestyle; a great number of them suffered from alcoholism or mental health disorders. In a sense, the telegraph community was a meritocracy --- it didn't matter who you were as long as you could send and receive messages quickly --- which was one of the reasons that women and children were readily admitted to the profession." p. 140 "Indeed, despite the strange customs and the often curious lifestyle of many operators, telegraphy was regarded as an attractive profession, offering the hope of rapid social advancement and fueling the expansion of the middle class. Courses, books, and pamphlets teaching Morse to beginners flourished. For the ambitious, it provided an escape route from small towns to the big cities, and for those who liked to move around, it meant guaranteed work wherever they went." p.143 Substitute some current computer language for Morse and you could definitely be talking about the present. http://www.amazon.com/Victorian-Internet-Remarkable-Nineteenth-line/dp/0802716040 http://www.amazon.com/Victorian-Internet-Remarkable-Nineteen...

A Geek Of 1909

26 points by mikecane 16y ago

Source: http://books.google.com/books?id=ow7OAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA53&lpg=PA53 http://books.google.com/books?id=ow7OAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA53&#3...

phreeza 16y ago

I wonder if this is the same Lynn Marsh? http://www.google.com/patents?id=3QxXAAAAEBAJ&zoom=4&dq=lynn%20marsh&pg=PA4#v=onepage&q&f=false http://www.google.com/patents?id=3QxXAAAAEBAJ&zoom=4&#38...

harshpotatoes 16y ago

"Lynn has worked a newspaper wire for an eight-hour turn, but he prefers the click of the railroad message to that of the newspaper story." Very cool. I wish I could have found an internship/job like that when I was 11.

cullenking 16y ago

I wonder what he felt like when only a few years later he was obsolete.

eru 16y ago

Andrew Carnegie (the later steel magnate) was also a superb telegrapher at a young age. He was one of the first to telegraph directly by ear, instead of using a ticker, according to a biography.

klbarry 16y ago
This is very true. He also read voraciously from the library and was a huge momma's boy.

nkurz 16y ago

Tom Standage's "The Victorian Internet" has a lot of great detail about the culture of the telegraph operator and how it compares to the internet culture today. "Wandering workers who went from job to job were known as 'boomers.' There were no formal job interviews; applicants were simply sat down on a busy wire to see if they could handle it. Since they could find work almost anywhere, many boomers had an itinerant lifestyle; a great number of them suffered from alcoholism or mental health disorders. In a sense, the telegraph community was a meritocracy --- it didn't matter who you were as long as you could send and receive messages quickly --- which was one of the reasons that women and children were readily admitted to the profession." p. 140 "Indeed, despite the strange customs and the often curious lifestyle of many operators, telegraphy was regarded as an attractive profession, offering the hope of rapid social advancement and fueling the expansion of the middle class. Courses, books, and pamphlets teaching Morse to beginners flourished. For the ambitious, it provided an escape route from small towns to the big cities, and for those who liked to move around, it meant guaranteed work wherever they went." p.143 Substitute some current computer language for Morse and you could definitely be talking about the present. http://www.amazon.com/Victorian-Internet-Remarkable-Nineteenth-line/dp/0802716040 http://www.amazon.com/Victorian-Internet-Remarkable-Nineteen...