3 ms·

Didn't telegraphs use paper tape in the beginning? If so, then the only way to signal line/paragraph breaks would be symbolically. Of course, a typewriter wou

Didn't telegraphs use paper tape in the beginning? If so, then the only way to signal line/paragraph breaks would be symbolically. Of course, a typewriter wouldn't have needed that, but as TFA shows, it came in handy in some cases anyways.

reaperducer 7y ago
Didn't telegraphs use paper tape in the beginning? Not just in the beginning. Almost until the end. The paper tape with the actual messages was cut into strips and pasted onto a telegram form before being put into an envelope and delivered.
- cryptonector 7y ago
  All the more reason, then, to have a line-/paragraph-breaking glyph!
  - reaperducer 7y ago
    No, that's not how it worked. The messages weren't arranged in paragraphs. They were snipped to fit inside the pre-printed box on the telegraph form. And even very rich people didn't send multi-paragraph telegrams. You paid by the letter. Most telegrams were two sentences or less. Sometimes two words or fewer.
    - YeGoblynQueenne 7y ago
      Hence the word "telegraphic": 1. Of, relating to, or transmitted by telegraph. 2. Brief or concise: a telegraphic style of writing. (My underlining)
    - cryptonector 7y ago
      Mark Twain famously sent a one-character telegram to his agent: ? And the agent famously responded: ! The real question was "how's the new book doing?".
      - yesenadam 7y ago
        I always heard it was Victor Hugo and Les Miserables–indeed it's mentioned ("apocryphal tale") on Hugo's wikipedia page...with a link to this page saying it most probably never happened. Also I came across it as an Oscar Wilde story online just now. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/06/14/exclamation/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/06/14/exclamation/
        cryptonector 7y ago
        Fascinating. Three different apocryphal versions of the same story. EDIT: Searching, I only find the versions about Wilde and Hugo, so it may be just that I misremembered it.

reaperducer 7y ago

Didn't telegraphs use paper tape in the beginning? Not just in the beginning. Almost until the end. The paper tape with the actual messages was cut into strips and pasted onto a telegram form before being put into an envelope and delivered.

cryptonector 7y ago
All the more reason, then, to have a line-/paragraph-breaking glyph!
- reaperducer 7y ago
  No, that's not how it worked. The messages weren't arranged in paragraphs. They were snipped to fit inside the pre-printed box on the telegraph form. And even very rich people didn't send multi-paragraph telegrams. You paid by the letter. Most telegrams were two sentences or less. Sometimes two words or fewer.
  - YeGoblynQueenne 7y ago
    Hence the word "telegraphic": 1. Of, relating to, or transmitted by telegraph. 2. Brief or concise: a telegraphic style of writing. (My underlining)
  - cryptonector 7y ago
    Mark Twain famously sent a one-character telegram to his agent: ? And the agent famously responded: ! The real question was "how's the new book doing?".
    - yesenadam 7y ago
      I always heard it was Victor Hugo and Les Miserables–indeed it's mentioned ("apocryphal tale") on Hugo's wikipedia page...with a link to this page saying it most probably never happened. Also I came across it as an Oscar Wilde story online just now. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/06/14/exclamation/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/06/14/exclamation/
      - cryptonector 7y ago
        Fascinating. Three different apocryphal versions of the same story. EDIT: Searching, I only find the versions about Wilde and Hugo, so it may be just that I misremembered it.