Operator who uses a telegraph key to send and receive the Morse code
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A telegraphist (British English), telegrapher (American English), or telegraph operator is an operator who uses a telegraph key to send and receive the Morse code in order to communicate by land lines or radio.
History
During the First World War the Royal Navy enlisted many volunteers as radio telegraphists. Telegraphists were indispensable at sea in the early days of wireless telegraphy, and many young men were called to sea as professional radiotelegraph operators who were always accorded high-paying officer status at sea. Subsequent to the Titanic disaster and the Radio Act of 1912, the International Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) conventions established the 500kHz maritime distress frequency monitoring and mandated that all passenger-carrying ships carry licensed radio telegraph operators.
Notable telegraphists
- Harold Bride
- Harold Cottam
- Louisa Margaret Dunkley
- Thomas Eckert
- Thomas Edison
- John H. Emerick
- Mathilde Fibiger
- Ambrose E. Gonzales
- Oliver Heaviside
- Emma Hunter
- Joseph Nathan Kane
- Juscelino Kubitschek
- Hiram Percy Maxim
- Mary Macaulay
- Seeb Chunder Nandy
- Jack Phillips
- Franklin Leonard Pope
- John Willard Raught
- Leah Rosenfeld
- David Sarnoff
- Ola Delight Smith
- Wilhelmina Magdalene Stuart
- Ella Cheever Thayer
- Ella Stewart Udall
- Alfred Vail
See also
- Amateur radio
- Casa del Telegrafista (House of the Telegrapher), a museum in Colombia
- Commercial Cable Company
- List of obsolete occupations
- Morse code
- Prosigns for Morse code
- Telegraph key
- Operator fist
- Transatlantic telegraph cable
References
- International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, 1948, London, 10th June, 1948 (PDF), London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, January 1953, p. 169, archived from the original (PDF) on 12 April 2015, retrieved 26 January 2018