Popular Science Monthly 



N, beside it, is the exact reverse, namely, 

 dash-dot. 



Having the six letters of the first two 

 groups fairly well in mind, practice in 

 word-formation should be begun. A num- 

 ber of simple words can be formed from 

 these letters alone, and they should be 

 practiced until there is not the slightest 

 hesitation in spelling out any word using 

 these characters. In learning the Morse 

 symbols the signals may be called by 

 name at first, but it is well to accustom 

 oneself to the corresponding signal sounds 

 almost from the beginning of study. That 

 is, instead of continuing to call M "dash 

 dash" or "two dashes" the student should 

 begin very early in his work to attempt 

 to reproduce the sound of the signal itself. 

 This may be done by whistling or hissing 

 for short or longer times, representing dots 

 and dashes, and so imitating as nearly as 

 may be the actual sound of the wireless or 

 buzzer signals. 



Word Practice 



Practice words, using the first six letters 

 learned, are as follows: 



ATE 



MAIN 



TAME 



EAT 



TIME 



EMIT 



NAME 



AIM 



AMEN 



MAN 



NEAT 



MIEN 



TIE 



MAT 



MAIM 



MEANTIME 



TEAM 



ITEM 



In spelling them in Morse, great care 

 must be taken to give every dot and dash 

 its full value of time, and particularly to 

 space the letters properly. The space or 

 idle interval between every pair of signals 

 within the same letter is equal in length 

 to the time of a single dot. The space 

 between letters is longer, and equal to 

 three dots (the time of a dash). At first 

 it is a good plan to make the space between 

 letters even longer, so that there can be 

 no confusion. Even skilled operators oc- 

 casionally run letters together to form 

 "combinations" which are difficult to read 

 and which often lead to errors in the trans- 

 mission of messages. The space between 

 words should be still greater, and equal 

 to the time of at least five dots. 



The thing to bear in mind constantly 

 is that the operator receiving your message 

 can not transcribe it correctly unless you 

 form your characters correctly, and that 

 you must consequently strive to make 

 perfect signals built up of perfectly formed 

 dots and dashes carefully spaced. Fig. 3 



319 



shows the time-interval layout of the words 

 NAME ITEM, with normal spacing be- 

 tween signals, letter and words; in practice 

 the spaces between signals within a single 

 letter should not be longer than the dots, 



The proper method of connecting the key, 

 buzzer and battery together on a circuit 



but it is often well to exaggerate the spaces 

 between letters and between words, for 

 the sake of clearness. 



Using the Buzzer 



Before taking up the third and fourth 

 groups of letters (Fig. 2), buzzer practice 

 should be commenced. This will require a 

 buzzer, a Morse key and one or two dry- 

 cells. The key should be purchased rather 

 than home-made, and should be of the 

 regulation form with normal-sized key- 

 knob, for the reason that the physical 

 habits of key sending must be based on 

 muscular practice. If one becomes accus- 

 tomed to using an abnormally large or 

 wrongly adjusted key, he will be handi- 

 capped in the later use of the standard 

 instrument. The key, buzzer and battery 

 should be connected together, as shown in 

 Fig. 4, when the buzzer, will sound con- 

 tinuously so long as the key-knob is de- 

 pressed and the circuit closed. The key 

 should be screwed directly to the practice 

 table, well toward the right and rear, so 

 that the operator's elbow can rest on the 

 table surface while he is sending. The 

 distances must be selected so that the 

 key-knob is within easy reach, and yet 

 not so close that operation is cramped. 

 It is important to fasten the key directly 

 to the table top, without any sub-base 

 which tends to lift the knob too high above 

 the surface. A very good plan for the new 

 student to follow is to call at some local 

 telegraph office and see the actual arrange- 

 ment of keys there used. The operators 

 and office managers are usually glad to 

 explain the key arrangements and the best 

 way of holding the knob for sending, 

 though one should of course not ask such 

 favors during the busy hours of the day. 



