Did you ever learn either of these skills? I took shorthand in school but never really became proficient at it. I learned Morse code at a very early age since many in my family were amateur radio operators and one was also a former high-speed military teletype operator. I could once copy and send 25 words per minute. Both disciplines are now useless skills. Amateur radio no longer requires morse code to get even an extra class license. My proficiency in morse code came in handy during the 1980s when I was working with a group of geologists doing exploratory work for the government in an underground mine. One young hotshot decided to go up an old abandon stope and cut some lagging on the side of an ore chute, which triggered dumping the entire ore chute which was several tons of mostly quartz. 6 miners and geologists were trapped behind the avalanche that totally closed the drift. The schedule 80 compressed air hardline was still up. It was impossible to make out any words from their shouting. I knew that one gal geologist was working on getting her ham license that required knowing 13 words per minute morse code. So using my rap wrench I banged out CQ CQ Kat on the hardline. She was able to hear it and answered by banging back that all were OK except one guy had a broken leg. Words were abbreviated to speed up communications when using morse code. Our conversation went something like this. Faye > cq cq kat (calling Kat). Kat > r r r es all r ok bt don brk leg (received and all are ok but Don has a broken leg. After that the mucker was brought in and about 3 hours later they all came out with Don on a stretcher and very unhappy with himself for being stupid. Lucky he wasn't killed. Morse code was the predecessor of texting with all its abbreviations. We never used lol, instead used hi hi for ha ha. The i with the h had a distinct sound. When hams switched to voice they didn't say ha ha but rather hi hi.
When winter keeps me indoors I play with my shortwave which I’ll be doing soon. There was still some “beep, beep beeping” on one of the amateur bands last year.
I always admired anyone who could write shorthand, it always fascinated me. I would watch a friend of mine who was in secretarial school complete her shorthand homework and I was impressed by how quickly she could write down a conversation and then translate the writing. It seemed to me like a type of hieroglyphics and quite an impressive skill.
I took a class on shorthand once but never learned to be proficient with it. I do use some of the shortcuts that I learned from it, but that's about it. As for Morse Code, I learned that in Boy Scouts (along with semaphore) but I never actually used it for anything other than the merit badge, so I don't remember either of them.
I had a friend who was a court reporter back in the day. She learned some kind of machine shorthand but also had to be able to take down proceedings in manual shorthand and transcribe them accurately. I imagine court reporters have been replaced by video equipment these days.
Funny you should raise this. I wondered the same thing. You can go online and get text transcripts for proceedings. I have no idea what the source material is done in.
I knew an old telegrapher about 45 years ago and what he told me differed from what I was taught earlier in life. Morse code to a telegrapher isn’t all about listening to dots and dashes but the spaces in between the dots and dashes. It took a bit but I finally saw the truth (and humor) in the statement. So far as differentiating between dots and dashes, it’s the dots that are a staccato whereas the dash is a well, thud. (comparatively)
It is in the rhythm Ed just like music. Also for a dot (dit) you do it quickly and for a dash (dah) you hit it slower. Try tapping on a table as you say dah dit dah dit (c) dah dah dit dah (q). CQ is a general call for anyone to answer. A computer reader of a high-speed transmission would translate such a call as cqcqcqcqcq with no spaces but the trained ear with hear cq cq cq cq cq because of the rhythm. During WW2 CW operators became proficient at reading "dry key" because operators would wear headphones and on missions where silence was necessary the light tap of the key was all that was heard. A trained spy could read what was sent by the tap of the key or if they had a visual say from a distance using a scope, they could read the message by watching the sender's hand.
As I told Ed, high-speed code is like music. The best operators listen for rhythms of phrases and can read messages that have no distinguishable spaces between words. Example: nameisfay xmtrisdx100. The skilled receiver recognizes the phrase "name is" and "xmtr is" without thought so all they copy is fay and dx100. Taking notes all I would write down is call sign, name, location, rig used, antenna, and power they were running. Abbreviations like de that means "this is," or v for victory, r for roger, etc. are easy to recognize. fbomes73k7omdek7yl --- translated that is --- fine business old man and best regards K7OM this is K7YL. To the untrained ear, it sounds like it has no spaces and all run together.
Yes, the old stenograph (shorthand) typewriter allowed for faster and more accurate recording. Also used were dictaphones and many times clerks and secretaries used a stenograph typewriter to get dictaphone voice recordings down on paper quickly and later use that script to type the document out on a regular typewriter. These machines were popular with the medical and legal secretaries.
"S.O.S Soap Pad is a trade name for an abrasive cleaning pad, used for household cleaning, and made from steel wool saturated with soap". "In 1917, Irwin Cox of San Francisco, California, an aluminum pot salesman, invented a pre-soaped pad with which to clean pots. As a way of introducing himself to potential new customers, Cox made the soap encrusted steel-wool pads as a calling card. His wife named the soap pads S.O.S or "Save Our Saucepans." Cox soon found out that the S.O.S pads were a hotter product than his pots and pans". "It is commonly believed that an error was made in the name's punctuation. However, this spelling was chosen by design. The acronym, S.O.S., is the famous distress signal and could not be trademarked. By removing the last period, the name was unique and could then be registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office".
SOS ... --- ... dit dit dit dah dah dah dit dit dit was for Save our Ship and started as the international distress code for sinking ships. It was also chosen because of the 3 dots 3 dashes then 3 dots. I doubt that Cox would have ever had success with a simple steel wool pad soaked in soap and allowed to dry had it not been for his wife that named the pads SOS. Putting a few drops of dish soap in a pan and scouring it with a steel wool pad, is and was not any big deal, but the name is what made it sound magical, convenient, and appealing. It didn't make scrubbing the pan any easier. Amazing what unique labeling a product can achieve and the impact of Morse code.
Faye, do you still use CW? Awhile ago the Russian "Hams" mostly talked on home made CW outfits but could transmit and receive at over 50 WPM. I don't know if it is still true.