Online Chat in the Year 1903

Alien54 writes "Irving Vermilya is one of the legendary geeks from the dawn of the electric age. Beginning in 1903, at the age of 13, he helped set up an extensive private telegraph line in his hometown of Mount Vernon, New York. In order to use the line, individuals had to learn to send the dots-and-dashes of Morse code, and also interpret the clicks of the telegraph receiver. (The receiver clicks were loud enough to be heard throughout a room, so you could constantly monitor the traffic on the line.) By around 1907, this telegraph setup had been extended to 42 locations, forming a kind of party line, where everyone connected could listen in as they wished to the two-way telegraphic conversations. See the original full article here. Sounds vaguely similar to guys running around setting up wifi networks."

Comments

The Victorian Internet

[blamanj]

The telegraph age has many parallels, see the book above for interesting tales including the stock market bubble effect caused by the telegraph.

Re:The conversations went something like this....

[Pete (big-pete)]

To Vermila - Stop
LOL - Stop
WTF? - Stop
OMG - Stop

I don't know, they weren't THAT much different at times, if you read the article:

It was the custom for every one to say "good morning" and then sign off his or her call letters, when we got out of bed, and "good night" before retiring. Some of the operators kept scandalous hours. In fact, some said "GN" after our early risers had said "GM" for the next day. So you see, some of the night hawks were constantly a day behind themselves. New Year's night was always great on this. We would hear some fellow going to bed at 8:00 a.m. next morning, after we had heard our other early risers say "GM" at 5:00 a.m. I always kept my instrument cut in, and thought nothing of hearing my pal, Milo White, say "GN" three o'clock in the morning.

What exciting times they lived in...anyway, now it is time for me to say "GN"...

-- Pete.