Another fascinating story from Wavescan - thank you Ray Robinson and jeff White.
Jeff: These days, it’s quite a simple matter to tune in to the many daily bulletins of news, on your car radio as you are commuting to work, on TV in the morning as you are getting ready for work, or in the evening when you are relaxing at the end of the day. But a century and a quarter ago, if you wanted to acquaint yourself with an update on the latest news events around the world, you would either need to wait for tomorrow’s newspaper, or know how to operate a clumsy wireless receiver, and be proficient in Morse Code. This week, Ray Robinson has the story of how Morse Code was used by various newspapers in the early 1900’s both to receive and to transmit news bulletins.
Ray: Thanks, Jeff. First, did you know there have been several versions of Morse Code over the years? It was in April 1837 that the famous Samuel Morse announced his system of dots and dashes which was a preliminary version of the Morse Code. Five years later, that original code was amended, and then Morse and his assistant Vail transmitted the first message over a long-distance telegraph line stretching from Baltimore, Maryland to Washington, DC. This famous message was sent on May 24, 1844 and a Biblical passage was chosen by the daughter of a political patron. It read: “What hath God wrought?”
Somewhat simultaneously, other inventors in the United States and Europe were experimenting with their own forms of telegraphy and their own systems of dots and dashes for sending messages. One was Edward Davy in England in 1839, and another was Alexander Bain, also in England some seven years later.
The enterprising Bain actually installed his own competitive telegraph lines in the United States, connecting New York to Boston and Buffalo. His messages were sent with dots and dashes, not in Morse Code, but in Bain Code. However, it soon became apparent that the Morse system was superior and Bain dropped out of the picture.
Over in Germany, a man by the name of Steinheil introduced a few variations into Morse Code in 1851, and the German version became known as the Prussian Code. An international telegraph conference in Berlin in the same year, 1851, made a few additional changes to the system of dots and dashes, and this was then accepted as the International Code.
The only alternative system of dots and dashes for sending messages that ever came into wide usage was implemented by the U.S. Navy during World War I. This new system was used only by the Navy, and it enabled a certain amount of security for the sending of coded messages.
Over the years, all other versions of dots and dashes fell into disuse, including the early Vail-Morse version, and these days only the International Code is used throughout the world, although it is familiarly known simply as Morse Code.
In languages such as, for example, German, Russian or Japanese, additional codes are used for letters that are not found in the English alphabet. The Japanese form is called Wabun code, which uses the same codes for numbers, but has 48 other codes for the basic Japanese Kana characters.
Well, soon after the invention and development of wireless in the early days of Marconi, the transmission of news and information across the Atlantic began to feature prominently in the commercial business world. Two leading newspapers in New York City established their own receiving and transmitting stations for the purpose of receiving and disseminating news in the now standard International Morse Code by wireless.
In 1910, the New York Herald established a wireless station in the United States Barge Office at the Battery in New York City under their own informal callsign OHX.
The antenna wires were strung across a busy street between two multi-storey commercial buildings.
This new wireless station received news dispatches, mainly from the British Isles and continental Europe, though also from other parts of the world as well. In addition, station OHX transmitted wireless news for the benefit of newspapers elsewhere in the United States, and in other overseas countries.
As an advertising venture and a service to their land-based readers, on January 16, 1912, the New York Herald sent a bulletin of news in Morse Code to the German passenger liner SS Berlin as it was crossing the Atlantic. A printing press on board was then used to print the information as a wireless newspaper for the benefit of passengers.
During the era before World War 1, the news items from the New York Herald wireless station were also transmitted from the maritime communication station CC on Cape Cod, Massachusetts and also from the new wireless station at Hillside in San Francisco, California. In this way, they were able to achieve near global coverage for the dissemination of their news and information.
The New York Herald wireless station was first launched on the longwave channel of 640 metres (470 kHz). The informal callsign OHX was dropped in favor of a regularized callsign WHB in 1913, in accordance with new international regulations governing the wireless spectrum.
Not to be outdone, another newspaper in New York City, the New York Times, also established its own wireless station, under the amateur callsign 2UO. At one stage,
this station was also on the air with a regular bulletin of news in Morse Code for the benefit of an international audience. However, they found themselves in difficulty due to the fact that they were using an amateur wireless station for a commercial purpose.
Soon after the end of World War 1, in 1919, a commercial company in England began the regular transmission of news bulletins in Morse Code for the benefit of news organizations throughout the world. These news bulletins were received in the United States, as well as in distant outposts of the British Empire: India, Australia and New Zealand, and various countries in southern Africa.
The daily news bulletins from the British Official Wireless Press were presented in Morse Code from a new longwave station located at Leafield, in Oxfordshire, England. These news bulletins from transmitter GBL (for Leafield) with 300 kW on longwave were observed by station VLB at Awarua, at the southern tip of the South Island of New Zealand.
Because of the ability of CW transmissions to cut through atmospherics, interference and sometimes propagation challenges, and because Morse Code transmissions remained intelligible even when voice transmissions were not, the British Official Wireless Press transmissions continued in Morse Code for several decades. In 1926, the daily news service from London was transferred from Leafield to the large Post Office wireless station at Rugby in Warwickshire, England. The high powered 350 kW transmitter, now with the call sign GBR (for Rugby) was tuned to the VLF channel of 18,200 metres, just 16 kHz. Over a period of time, the spark transmitters at Rugby were replaced by glass tube valve transmitters. During World War II, the news bulletins were subject to censorship, but they were transmitted on several different channels in the 60 metre band, (around 4.8 MHz), under such callsigns as GBU2, GDU2 and GDW2.
The London Press Service was on the air on VLF and then shortwave for a lengthy period of time, 42 years, and it came to an unceremonial end in 1961.
In 1925, for the benefit of ships at sea, the AWA network in Australia began the broadcast of a daily bulletin of news in Morse Code from three of its coastal stations, VIS Sydney, VID Darwin and VIP Perth. One report (in 1925) tells of how the ship RMS Niagara received these news bulletins every day while on a voyage across the Pacific from San Francisco to Australia.
How fortunate we now are, to be able to watch newscasts with perfect clarity, in full color video, from the other side of the world, whether on land or on cruise ships at sea, thanks to satellite and Internet technology. It’s just a pity the news itself hasn’t improved in the same way as the technology that carries it.
Back to you, Jeff.
(NWS 851/Ray Robison)
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