Weekly Ponderings: People brought character and culture to Peace River Part 23

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“The Telex works by electronic impulses transmitted by wire, radio and various other means to assure fast service. There can be no ‘cutting in’ or delaying a call because another machine is busy. Messages can be taken or sent any time of the day to installations around the world or the next town.

Ralph Fullerton, superintendent of communications for the NAR “noted that because of the great demand for this type of communication, there were many difficulties in getting the machines for the local firms and that the machines in use here are of German make”.

By the end of December 1962, “there were 3,887 orders for Telex systems in Canada, with 3,736 being filled and 151 on order. This type of communication is ideal for a firm, which has to make fast contact with branch offices or with supply houses and factories”.

Interest in this aspect of communication was spurred by an article in the November 20, 20ll, Edmonton Journal, which reported the presentation of George Campbell and 84-year-old Jim Munsey, members of the International Morse Telegraph Club to a Strathcona County audience. The 85-year-old Campbell in his presentation predicted: “When we die, Morse will die forever.”

Munsey is quoted in the Edmonton Journal: “Telegraphy isn’t that far removed from the phone texting younger people do so regularly now … But, we never had lol …we just said ‘hi’. When you said H-I (in Morse Code), that meant you were laughing.

Campbell and Munsey along with members of the International Morse Telegraph Club have seen the communication evolution – telegraph, telephone, radio, television, facsimile (FAX), photocopier, silicon chip, and the computer and all of its ramifications and oh, yes – the cellphone. Campbell told CTV’s Glenn Kubish: “I don’t use a cellphone because e-mail lets me do everything I need to do.”