I really enjoyed this brief article in the August 12, 1882 Scientific American, entitled “Requisites for a Good Operator.” In it, a hotshot telegraph operator writes Sci-Am to ask if he might possibly be one of the best operators around, on account of his transmission speed (42 words per minute!). The magazine’s in-house telegraph expert replies with a succinct dismissal of the notion that speed makes the man, and rounds out a description of a good operator that makes me want to take up the telegraph, such is the wisdom and character of the figure it describes. All this with a little sarcasm at the end as well (“You’re playing around and timing yourself on your lunch break, right? Don’t electrocute yourself, genius”). Click the image for a larger version, or a full transcription of the text is after the jump.
