What is this? An Automated telegraph machine?

Looks cool whatever it is. 

Perhaps part of a ticker tape machine?  But what about that rusty looking passenger car in the background with the rubber band holding down the roof?

@Überstationmeister posted:

"Omnigraph" Morse code practice machine- intended to help "train the ear" to understand and transcribe Morse characters.

Uberstationmaster appears to be correct.  A Google search of Omnigraph will reveal images of similar and very close designs.

Rusty

Think how handy that would have been for the old telegraph operators, they could have had canned messages.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Think how handy that would have been for the old telegraph operators, they could have had canned messages.

I can see it now -- an automated telegraph message that when translated reads "Hello, we have been trying to contact you about your locomotive's extended warranty..."

Andy

Early Spam call machine - wow...

Jim

I like the tiny governor mechanism.  It looks like there are three different message disks stored on the spindle.

Very clever machine for learning Morse code.  Google or do YouTube search for videos of these operating, especially how you could cleverly step between different disk levels.

There are two "problems" though. First the dits and dahs are perfectly timed as far as duration and spacing (A dah is three times as long as a dit, and the pause has the same length as the dit. The letters of a word are separated by a space of duration equal to three dots, and the words are separated by a space equal to seven dots.  Got that?? ).  Thus when the novice telegrapher gets into the real world, s/he has to adjust to the senders "fist", as any old time telegrapher could tell you.  Senders rate and rhythm were distinct as your voice and often station operators could tell who was sending before the sign off initials arrived.

Second there are/were different codes developed  (American, International, Continental) and also to deal with different country unique alphabets (think Russian and Greek), so receiver had to know which country was sending to correctly translate the dit/dahs.  There was also code developed for sending over underwater cables where the cable inductance and capacitances could distort the dits/dahs/pauses.

I am sure Omnigraph probably had various discs cut for the different codes available.

Yeah, I know Rich, more than you wanted to know, right?

That is a really cool machine, thanks for sharing Rich.

@Andy Hummell posted:

I can see it now -- an automated telegraph message that when translated reads "Hello, we have been trying to contact you about your locomotive's extended warranty..."

Andy

We have a winner!

I'd bet my Grandad used one of those machines when he and his brother attended Telegraphy school. Upon graduation they both went to work for the Pennsy. Great Uncle Earl took this pic of my Grandad at Ensley Tower on the Lowgrade a few miles West of Driftwood, Pa in abt 1910:

Telegraph Sounder on the stalk, Repeater at rear on the desk top just behind the Telegraph Key. Fresh flowers just to the right.

It looks like an Junior Enigma machine.

Thank you for posting this, Rich.  Thank you everyone for the insight into what this machine is.

I recall when I was in electronics school the first two years out of high school, we had several instructors who were retired military instructors.  Part of the preparation was to earn an FCC radiotelephone license.  My first and last job still required the license when I was hired.  We needed to know the electronics theory (both vacuum tube and transistor) to work on radio transmitters.  We would go to the Civil Service Testing area in the Pittsburgh Federal Building to take the tests.  The FCC test proctors would come down from Buffalo for one week every three months.  So this huge room with desks was always jam packed with candidates.  You were allowed two pencils and a slide rule.

One of our instructors told us about taking the test for Morse Code, which I never had any interest in.  He said in whichever branch of the military he was in, there would be a large room filled with desks for guys taking the test.  At least part of the test was to listen to code and copy it on a paper.  Everyone was quiet, listening and writing.  Then someone's pencil point would break off, and you would hear the guy let out an epitaph.  He was done; and would have to go back and take the test again later.  I suppose they had so many chances before they would be moved to some other duty.  We could take our test as many times as we wanted as long as we waited the prescribed amount of time between tests.  It took me several tries.  I hated studying electronics theory.  Oh the memories from almost 50 years ago!

You guys are amazing. I learned something new today.

Here's one in operation...

@Rich Melvin posted:

You guys are amazing. I learned something new today.

Here's one in operation...

 

Sounds like a DOT Matrix printer.  LOL!

@MartyE posted:

Sounds like a DOT Matrix printer.  LOL!

Yes it does.  Are we getting old??  

Very interesting thread!  I have seen similar mechanisms removed from old aviation/maritime non-directional beacon (NDB) sites.  These NDB’s still exist and transmit in international Morse, but it’s all solid state electronics now. 

At Knotts' Berry Farm, the sound of a telegraph comes from the depot, repeating "Eat Chicken Dinners."  Although it's surely computerized these days, I wonder of it was powered by an Omnigraph in earlier days.

@Number 90 posted:

At Knotts' Berry Farm, the sound of a telegraph comes from the depot, repeating "Eat Chicken Dinners."  Although it's surely computerized these days, I wonder of it was powered by an Omnigraph in earlier days.

That type of comment made me desire a pile of buttered biscuits with boysenberry jelly.